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Case Study · Federal Government / Healthcare · 21+ years

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Deliver enterprise performance engineering inside the VA's highly secured environment — navigating ATO security reviews and strict PHI/PII data-handling requirements across systems like Bed Management, Veterans Legacy Memorial, VIRP, and VAPE.

21 yrsof continuous performance engineering

The challenges

  • Operational hurdles — using performance tooling in government environments like the VA comes with technical limitations and approval processes uncommon in the private sector.
  • Constant security review — any upgrade or change typically triggers a new security review that can extend for several months before approval.
  • Health-data sensitivity — VA OIT mandates strict data-handling constraints for any PHI or PII used during and after a test cycle.

How we address them

The VA network is tightly controlled, highly secured, and governed by strict policies that affect how servers are configured, tools are installed, and test traffic is generated. Our team worked closely with operations and security to create a standardized image for any virtual machines created for installing the performance testing tools.

Through close collaboration with the test center, our team evaluates the security and compliance of testing tools within the Authority to Operate (ATO) process, ensuring any risks are addressed through immediate remediation or a formal mitigation plan.

In alignment with VA OIT mandates, our team partnered with project leads to ensure all test data was fully de-identified before performance testing began, and the test center enforced stringent access controls and full-disk encryption across all VMs used for data storage and test execution.

Applications supported

  • Bed Management Solution (BMS) — a real-time, web-based application used across VA medical facilities to track and manage patient bed assignments, status, and availability.
  • Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) — a digital memorial platform that honors and preserves the memory of Veterans and service members.
  • Veterans Integrated Registries Platform (VIRP) — a VA enterprise platform to collect, manage, and analyze Veteran health registry data.
  • Veterans Authorizations and Preferences Enhancements (VAPE) — manages and modernizes how Veteran authorizations, consent, and communication preferences are captured and enforced.

Expertise & technologies

Over 20 years of performance engineering experience, combined with extensive knowledge of navigating the VA's security compliance frameworks. Application technologies include Web, Client/Server, RESTful APIs, Java EE / Spring services, and HL7.

Solutions used

  • OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Enterprise)
  • OpenText SiteScope
  • OpenText Network Virtualization (NV)
  • Cisco AppDynamics
  • Microsoft SQL Server