Comprehensive Audit of an EV Charging Management System

Fortum, a primary driver of electric vehicle charging in India, recently transitioned its platform management to GLIDA. As the business prepared for rapid national growth, it became essential to evaluate the technical scalability and security of their existing infrastructure. Metergam conducted a thorough audit of the platform subsystems built by various internal and external teams to ensure the system could reliably support future expansion.

Challenge

Uncertainty of Platform Capabilities: The existing platform’s capabilities and feature set were never inventoried or formally compared to the feature set of other popular EV charging platforms. Thus, there was a level of uncertainty on whether the platform was missing certain key functionalities and capabilities usually found in CSMS solutions.
Technical Scalability: With expected growth, it was imperative to validate that the platform could scale effectively without compromising performance.
Complex IT Landscape: The platform comprised multiple subsystems developed in various languages and frameworks, adding layers of complexity to maintenance and scalability.
Inconsistent Development Approaches: The involvement of both in-house and external teams over time resulted in varied development practices, further complicating the platform’s integration and performance.

Solution

GLIDA partnered with Metergram to conduct a comprehensive review and audit of their CSMS platform. The project was structured in iterative phases to methodically address the identified challenges:

Discovery Phase

Objective: Initiate the project, plan the activities, and establish communication channels with key stakeholders.

Capabilities Assessment

Objective: Evaluate the platform’s current capabilities and features through demos and stakeholder interviews.

Architecture Review

Objective: Assess the solution and platform architecture, focusing on scalability and maintainability.

Code and Infrastructure Review

Objective: Deep dive into the software architecture, codebase, and infrastructure to validate their robustness.

Further Analysis

Objective: Conduct targeted reviews based on identified concerns.

Steps undertaken during this audit:

Inventory of CSMS features and capabilities – summarizes the capabilities and features of the Glida CSMS, offering a detailed perspective on the system’s functionalities through comprehensive analyses, including code reviews and evaluations

OCPP feature profile verification – outlines OCPP feature profiles and messages supported by the CSMS with testing conducted using Metergram’s virtual charger simulator

CSMS dashboard (charts and reporting) validation – compares the data visually represented in the dashboard and charts to the data source (database), as well as all the layers of applications the logic flows through before it reaches the UI (backend logic, frontend logic), ensuring correct results are returned and all the filters through all the layer are applied correctly

Code analysis of all applications – Offers a thorough examination of code practices such as error handling, logging, HTTP calls, and database access, among others. The analysis is intended to identify areas for improvement and provide recommendations to enhance code quality, maintainability, and overall system performance.

Web Socket management – Offers a detailed analysis of how the real-time communication between the chargers and the CSMS is implemented in the OCPP server, with emphasis on documenting all the flows with architecture diagrams as well as scalability considerations and potential for growth and future scalability

OCPI roaming implementation analysis – details the OCPI modules, interfaces, and endpoints, evaluating their performance and identifying issues. The evaluation was conducted using Postman requests and collections in the UAT environment and application logs to verify request accuracy and response validity.

System architecture analysis and considerations – offers a detailed overview of the current and proposed system architecture, their components, and describes their roles and interactions in different application flows. It includes diagrams for both the current and proposed systems, highlighting the changes and benefits of the new architecture. The proposed system aims to improve efficiency, reduce complexity, and enhance scalability.

Scalability and performance considerations – focuses on WebSocket management, emphasizing the need for horizontal scaling to distribute WebSocket connections across multiple servers. Potential issues like high network latency and resource intensity are addressed

Outcome

Through the detailed audit conducted by Metergram, GLIDA gained a clear understanding of their platform’s current state and the necessary steps to optimize it for future growth. The audit provided:

Validation of Capabilities: The platform’s existing features were mapped against business requirements, ensuring they aligned with GLIDA’s growth strategy.
Scalability Assurance: Recommendations were made to enhance the platform’s scalability, ensuring it could handle increased loads as the business expanded.
System architecture review and proposed changes: All system components were outlined and described in detail in both text and in architecture diagrams. Changes to the overall system architecture were proposed.
Knowledge Transfer and Documentation: Metergram provided thorough documentation and knowledge sharing, empowering GLIDA’s internal team to maintain and further develop the platform effectively.

As a result, GLIDA is now better positioned to support their ambitious growth targets with a technically sound and scalable CSMS platform.

Key Benefits

Improved Decision-Making: GLIDA now has the insights required to make informed decisions regarding platform development and investments.
Cost-Efficiency: By leveraging their internal resources where possible and focusing on critical areas, the audit was conducted cost-effectively.
Strategic Alignment: The findings and recommendations from the audit ensured that GLIDA’s CSMS platform is aligned with their long-term business objectives.

This case study highlights the importance of a thorough and structured review when dealing with complex, scalable software platforms in rapidly growing industries. Metergram’s expertise in software architecture and platform scalability was instrumental in delivering a successful outcome for GLIDA.