Built California's COVID-19 Vaccine Record Portal in 14 Days. Kept it Online for 39 Million Residents

When California needed a statewide digital service at pandemic pace, the deadline wasn't negotiable. We built the foundation, hardened it for citizen scale, and operated it through the peak.

Government Cloud Infrastructure DevSecOps 39M+ Users

THE CHALLENGE

Build a Statewide Vaccine Portal in 14 Days, Scale it for 39 Million Residents, and Never Let It Go Down

California needed a digital vaccine record service that worked on day one of a national rollout no soft launch, no beta period. The portal had to handle tens of millions of concurrent users, integrate with existing state health systems, meet HIPAA-level privacy requirements, and be accessible to every Californian regardless of device or connectivity.

"Failure wasn't a deployment issue. It was a public health issue."

OUR APPROACH

Five Phases. Fourteen Days. Zero Compromises

Triage architecture

Within 48 hours, we mapped the integration surface and identified the three highest-risk dependencies. No design phase — just the architecture that would survive contact with reality.

Build in parallel

Three teams ran simultaneously: front-end portal, identity integration, and infrastructure provisioning. Each shipped to staging within 5 days.

Harden for scale

Load-tested at 10× projected concurrent users. Found three bottlenecks, fixed them before launch. Auto-scaling configured for 50M+ residents.

Launch and stabilize

Live on day 14. Watched the dashboards for 72 hours straight. Pushed three hotfixes during the first peak traffic window.

Operate at scale

Transitioned to managed operations within 30 days of launch. Have operated the portal continuously for every Californian since.

RESULTS · MEASURABLE OUTCOMES

Built for Citizen Scale. Operated Through the Peak

14 days

Concept to production

No soft launch. No beta period.

39M+

Residents served

Every Californian with a vaccine record

99.97%

Uptime since launch

Including pandemic peak traffic

Critical security incidents

HIPAA-aligned from day one

ADDED VALUE & IMPACT

Added Value & Impact

The CA Notify application epitomizes the confluence of technology and public health. Tek Yantra’s involvement amplifies the narrative of tech enterprises playing a critical role in global health challenges. Through partnerships like these, the digital realm continues to be a beacon of hope and innovation in tumultuous times
Tek Yantra’s commitment to efficiency and precision meant that the entire project, from planning to execution, was completed within the stipulated timeline. The end result was a robust application, a gratified client, and a safer community.

Privacy and Anonymity:Addressing the often paramount concerns around data security, CA Notify guarantees user privacy. Once opted-in, the system generates random device IDs, which refresh every 10-20 minutes, ensuring users can’t be identified or located.
Efficient Notification Process: Without requiring the app to be open, phones exchange these randomized keys. Should there be a match with a positive case, the user receives a notification alongside instructions from the public health authority on subsequent steps.
Scalability:The efficacy of CA Notify rises with its user base. The more people use it, the broader its impact on public health.

CONCLUSION

Conclusion

Tek Yantra didn't approach this like a vendor. They approached it like Californians who needed the system to work. When the dashboards spiked at launch, their team was on the call with ours within five minutes.

Michael Cave

Chief Product Officer

CA Office of Digital Innovation