Merritt Digital Preservation Repository Migrates Microservices to AWS ECS and Fargate

The California Digital Library (CDL) has provided an update on the ongoing modernization of its Merritt Digital Preservation Repository, detailing the successful migration of several core microservices to Amazon Web Services (AWS) container orchestration platforms. This strategic shift involves leveraging Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and AWS Fargate to manage and run Merritt's various components, marking a significant step towards a more robust and scalable infrastructure. Throughout June 2026, the Merritt team focused on containerizing and orchestrating two key services: Replication and LDAP. Both services are now fully operational within the AWS ECS and Fargate environment, demonstrating the feasibility and benefits of this architectural transformation. This initial phase has laid the groundwork for tackling more intricate parts of the repository's ecosystem. The migration effort is now progressing to the next stage, which includes the containerization of the Ingest, Storage, and ZooKeeper services. These services represent a more complex challenge due to their critical roles in data handling and system coordination. The team anticipates deploying these newly containerized services to the Stage ECS environment during the week of July 6, 2026, followed by extensive testing to ensure stability and functionality. This move to ECS and Fargate is part of a broader initiative to capitalize on the advantages of cloud-native technologies, such as enhanced scalability, reduced operational overhead, and improved resilience. By adopting these AWS services, the Merritt Digital Preservation Repository aims to better support its mission of long-term digital preservation and access for the University of California libraries. The project highlights a real-world application of containerization and serverless computing in a critical academic and research infrastructure.