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For over two decades, Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) has been a leader in modernizing the scientific operations model of ground-based observatories, including queued service observing and remote operations. Now, as CFHT approaches 45 years in operation, we are reconstructing, from the ground up, our entire queued service observing infrastructure backbone, and reimagining the user experience. This will result in a unified web application that encompasses the complete QSO process, from proposal creation to data access - a system known as Kealahou; a word from Ōlelo Hawaiʻi, the indigenous language of the Hawaiian Islands, meaning “the new way”. Kealahou utilizes the modern web framework Angular for the user-facing web application, which is paired with a Java-based application layer and associated API. The databases are built upon the open-source MariaDB which, along with the application servers, are all run in ‘dockerized’ virtual machines. Software releases to these systems utilize a full Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. This pipeline is currently being transitioned to a fully self-hosted environment that takes advantage of custom containers for each development stage. This ensures consistency across the application. Additionally, Kealahou runs in parallel with CFHT’s legacy QSO applications and databases. This parallelization allows for continual incremental improvements, in the CI/ CD model, while supporting ongoing CFHT science operations. Lastly, through the use of custom database bridges, Kealahou has full access and control of both its internal database and the legacy application databases, effectively merging the user and program repositories. The power of these intermediary configurations allow CFHT to conduct a vast redevelopment with far less resources than otherwise would be required, maintaining CFHT’s leading place among ground-based observatories.
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