Haifeng stood in front of the massive wall of servers, calmly explaining:
"The key is resilience.
If one layer of our system fails, five backup layers immediately kick in—seamlessly and invisibly to users."
"Next, we'll build more large-scale data centers in other provinces, creating a distributed cloud architecture to further ensure data security and service stability."
Director Cui nodded eagerly, his eyes filled with admiration.
"President Lu, this has been a revelation.
If you hadn't invited us personally, I never would've believed Daxia had such cutting-edge cloud infrastructure."
Haifeng gave a modest smile.
"Daxia has no shortage of talent.
It's only natural that our technology keeps evolving."
💬 Public Cloud? Private Cloud?
As they left the server room, Director Cui turned to Haifeng.
"President Lu, we've been considering building our own data center for the railway system.
Do you think that's the right direction?"
Haifeng shook his head.
"Not really."
"You only experience peak load during the Spring Festival travel season.
You'd barely use 10% of that capacity for the rest of the year."
"Maintaining 100,000+ idle servers—plus electricity, networking, staffing—would burn a hole in your budget."
Deputy Director Liu chimed in.
"Then… how much would it cost to use your technology?"
Haifeng chuckled lightly.
"Director Cui, I'm not here to sell you anything.
I just wanted to test real-world traffic load on our cloud system."
"But since you asked…"
Cui raised a hand.
"No pressure. But let's talk business anyway."
"Truthfully, we've always wanted to keep up with the times. We just lacked the technical foundation."
Liu added, "Our long-term goal is to expand 12307 into more than just an online ticketing portal.
We want it to integrate phone booking, in-person ticketing, rail cargo logistics, and serve as the core of China's national transportation data system."
Their tech lead stepped forward.
"We're already struggling with this."
"Query traffic during peak season hits 30 billion daily requests.
90% of those are ticket availability checks."
"Worse, there's a massive imbalance between high and low traffic periods.
Traditional load balancing can't adapt fast enough, and scaling hardware costs a fortune."
Haifeng nodded, thoughtful.
"How are you handling it now?"
"We control incoming requests through a few entry points to prevent overload.
But it severely impacts the user experience. Pages freeze, payments fail, and we get flooded with complaints."
Deputy Director Liu sighed.
"We've got some tech, but nothing solid.
Honestly… your system's been running flawlessly since we switched."
Haifeng smiled.
"That's because we're using a modular design.
The remaining ticket inquiry system—your most significant load—should be decoupled and deployed separately."
"Here's my suggestion:
Use a combination of private cloud + public cloud = hybrid cloud."
☁️ The Hybrid Cloud Model
"Private cloud is your internal system.
We'll help you develop and install it in your server rooms.
Your engineers manage it—we'll provide training and technical support."
"For everyday traffic, you use the private cloud."
"But during national holidays, when traffic surges…"
"You extend the ticket query module to our public cloud with one click."
"That's the hybrid cloud: private for stability, public for scalability."
"And we'll supply an enterprise-level distributed database—no need to overpay Oracle or SAP."
Cui Sheng's eyes lit up.
"That's brilliant. We maintain control and data security—but avoid overbuilding."
"And the public cloud usage cost?"
Haifeng waved a hand.
"For now? Free.
I want people to go home without hassle."
Cui stepped forward and clasped Haifeng's hand.
"Then, on behalf of the people—I thank you."
"I'll return immediately and call an internal meeting.
Our initial budget is ¥500 million (≈ $69 million in 2025). If more is needed, we'll add it."
"From this day forward—the online ticketing business belongs to China Star."
Haifeng bowed slightly.
"Thank you for the trust, Director Cui.
We won't let you down."
"No need to see me off," Cui smiled.
"I insist," Haifeng replied, walking him to the car.
They exchanged cards. Handshakes were firm.
And with that…
China Star officially entered the public sector cloud ecosystem.