Grand Central is a collection of API endpoints, services, and databases that enables keeping records of who’s unlocked the doors and used our equipment.

In mid 2020 Ace Makerspace moved Grand Central from DigtalOcean to Microsoft Azure. ACE Grand Central now runs on the Microsoft Azure platform which provides hosting and databases services for staging and production instances. Azure is provides vendor managed services, so ACE doesn’t have to worry about provisioning server hardware and operating systems. Azure also provides the ability to integrate with common development tools and processes. AMT has a Microsoft Azure Sponsorship subscription. The pricing is apparently 100% off standard published Pay-As-You-Go rates.

We use Grand Central to do the following:

• Manage the Asset Database including feeding data to wiki pages
• Log fob activity on doors
• Manage Laser Billing
• Manage Booking Record and Sessions
• Mange Laser filters for the custom Access point
• Manage Laser Access logs

Access to Grand Central

The team of staff and volunteers who manage and access ACE Grand Central is limited and managed by the team of officers at ACE. Members and volunteers looking for how to access Grand Central can find it on specific how-to articles including login information to the Django Dashboard for common services and more