The kronos workforce central cloud archive product: Parquet on object storage, tiered hot/warm/cold, SQL-queryable, hash-signed manifests, web UI for non-SQL users. AWS / Azure / GCP / OCI deployment. Built for Dec 2025 and Mar 2027 EOL deadlines.
Not a custom data lake build. A productised cloud archive engineered for the specific data shape, retention rules and audit demands of WFM data — deployed across dozens of WFC retirements.
Building a Kronos WFC archive as a one-off custom data lake project sounds straightforward until you actually try it. Authentication paths (REST API tokens + read-only SQL logins against TKCS), rate limits, historical TKCS table archaeology, schema evolution across WFC versions, hash signing for audit integrity, FLSA / FMLA / state-wage retention policies per jurisdiction, hot/warm/cold tiering, query layer wiring, web UI for non-SQL users, pre-built templates for the actual request types — each is a multi-month engineering project on its own.
Syntra ETL's kronos workforce central cloud archive is the productised version. The hard engineering is already done: pre-built WFC extractors (REST + direct SQL), governed Parquet schema with fiscal-year × pay-group partitioning, hash-signed manifest framework, AWS/Azure/GCP/OCI storage backends, Athena/Trino/BigQuery query layer integrations, pre-built templates for FLSA pull, accrual snapshot, FMLA detail, union grievance, state class action. Deployment is configuration, not custom development.
The result is a 6–9 week deployment instead of a 9–15 month custom data lake project. The result is also a hardened production component that survives audits — every retired WFC tenant we have moved into the cloud archive has been through at least one DOL Wage & Hour or state wage audit successfully, with signed evidence packs handed directly to investigators.
A layered architecture engineered for durability, audit-grade evidence, and 80–95% lower TCO than live WFC.
Columnar Parquet on S3/Azure Blob/GCS/OCI. Partitioned by fiscal year + pay group. Hot/warm/cold tiering per data domain per age. WORM via object lock + versioning for SEC 17a-4(f) compliance.
Athena / Synapse Serverless / BigQuery External / OCI Autonomous over Parquet. Partition pushdown for sub-30-second single-employee multi-year queries. Bulk-pull parallelism for class action evidence demands.
Every row hash-signed at extraction, every batch covered by signed JSON manifest. Manifest captures source-system, scope, counts, hashes, runtime, watermark — immutable evidence chain.
Self-service interface for HR/payroll/legal. Pre-built templates for FLSA pull, accrual snapshot, FMLA detail, union grievance. One-click signed evidence pack download.
Per-domain per-jurisdiction retention policies. Automatic tier-out and deletion at expiry. Every retention action audit-logged for SOX who-deleted-what evidence.
SSO integration, role-based access control, read-access logging with user-id + timestamp + query-id + record scope. SOX who-queried-what evidence captured.
From cloud-account provisioning to retired WFC tenant in 6–9 weeks. Reverse-engineered from the customer's specific EOL date.
Cloud account + IAM + object storage bucket(s) + query engine workspace provisioned. Network connectivity from extraction workers to WFC tenant + object storage validated. SSO + RBAC configured.
Read-only WFC REST API token, read-only SQL login against TKCS (read replica where available). Rate-limit and connection-pool budgets agreed with Kronos ops team.
Multi-year punches, signed timecards, closed FMLA cases, terminated employee detail, expired accrual balances extracted. Parquet output partitioned by fiscal year + pay group, hash-signed manifests per run.
Athena / Synapse / BigQuery / OCI tables configured. Glue / Purview / Data Catalog metadata published. Query templates deployed. Performance tuned with partition pushdown verification.
Self-service web UI deployed with SSO. Pre-built templates deployed (FLSA pull, accrual snapshot, FMLA detail, union grievance, state class action, ex-employee verification). UAT with HR/payroll/audit.
Per-domain per-jurisdiction retention policies configured. Tier-out automation tested. Cutover from WFC live tenant to cloud archive completed. WFC subscription cancellation initiated for Dec 2025 / Mar 2027 EOL.
Productised, not custom. Hardened across dozens of WFC retirements. Cloud-agnostic at the storage layer.
Pre-built extractors, governed Parquet schema, hash-signed manifest framework, pre-built query templates. Configuration deployment, not 9-month custom data lake project.
AWS / Azure / GCP / OCI all supported. Customer picks the cloud aligned with existing commitments and Fusion deployment. Same Parquet output, same query layer.
Hot/warm/cold tiering on object storage versus per-EE per-month WFC tenant licensing. TCO case typically pays for implementation within first year post WFC EOL.
Hash-signed Parquet, WORM via object lock, read-access logs, retention policy engine. Passes SOX, DOL Wage & Hour, state wage law, FMLA, IRS, union audit.
Project plans reverse-engineered from Dec 2025 / Mar 2027 EOL dates. 4–6 week buffer built in for cutover edge cases. No risk of EOL passing with archive not live.
Same archive extends to capture Fusion Time & Labor as it ages. Unified WFM history across Kronos and Fusion eras. Survives the next platform change after Fusion.
A kronos workforce central cloud archive is a production-grade cloud-native repository for retired WFC data — punches, signed timecards, accrual balances, FMLA cases, terminated employee history, pay rule configuration — engineered for long-term retention, low-cost storage and fast query response. Architecturally it is Parquet on object storage (S3/Azure Blob/GCS) with tiered hot/warm/cold storage classes, a SQL query layer (Athena/Trino/BigQuery external), hash-signed manifests, and a web UI for non-SQL users. Syntra ETL's cloud archive is the productised version: deployed across dozens of WFC retirements, hardened against the specific data shape and audit requirements of WFM data.
On-prem archives carry the cost they were built to avoid: physical infrastructure, OS patching, DBA support, backup management, and dwindling skills for the underlying WFC database (Oracle / SQL Server / DB2 depending on era). Cloud archive on object storage costs 80–95% less than equivalent on-prem licensed storage, scales horizontally without infrastructure planning, tier-outs cold data to glacier-class storage automatically, and exposes a SQL query layer that scales independently of storage. For a retired WFC system that just needs to answer occasional FLSA pulls and FMLA queries, the cloud archive model is dramatically more cost-effective and durable.
All three majors: AWS (S3 + Athena + Glue Catalog), Azure (ADLS Gen2 + Synapse Serverless + Purview), Google Cloud (GCS + BigQuery External Tables + Data Catalog). Customer choice is typically driven by existing cloud commitments — companies running Oracle Fusion on OCI commonly add OCI Object Storage as the archive backend; companies on AWS often co-locate the WFC archive with the rest of their data lake. The Syntra ETL deployment pattern is cloud-agnostic at the storage layer with cloud-specific query-layer wiring. Same Parquet output, same query templates, same web UI.
Tiering is policy-driven per data domain and per age. Current-year retired data and high-access domains (FMLA cases, accrual snapshots for current FY) sit in hot tier (S3 Standard / ADLS Hot / GCS Standard) for sub-second access. Recent historical (1-3 years) sits in warm tier (S3 IA / ADLS Cool / GCS Nearline) with single-digit-second access. Old historical (3+ years, mostly retention-only) sits in cold tier (S3 Glacier Instant / ADLS Archive / GCS Coldline) with single-minute access. Cost reduction from hot-to-cold is typically 70–90%. Tier transitions happen automatically per policy with full audit logging.
Yes — and this is the entire reason for productising it. The archive supports WORM (write-once-read-many) via object storage object lock + versioning, which satisfies SEC 17a-4(f), SOX immutability requirements, and state wage law evidence integrity standards. Retention policies per data domain per jurisdiction (FLSA 3-year, California 4-year, New York 6-year, FMLA 3-year, IRS 4-year, union contracts 5+ year) drive automatic tier-outs and deletion at expiry. Every retention action is audit-logged. Every archive read is logged. The full chain meets SOX, DOL Wage & Hour, IRS payroll examination and union grievance evidence requirements.
A typical kronos workforce central cloud archive go-live runs 6–9 weeks: 1 week for cloud account / IAM / object storage provisioning; 1 week for WFC credential setup (REST API + read-only SQL); 2-3 weeks for full-history extraction (multi-year, multi-TB); 1 week for query layer (Athena/Trino/BigQuery external tables) + Glue/Synapse/Data Catalog metadata; 1 week for web UI deployment + pre-built templates; 1 week for retention policy configuration + UAT. For customers facing the December 2025 Kronos Private Cloud EOL, we reverse-engineer from the EOL date and start 4-6 months out.
Three cost lines: object storage (typically $0.005–$0.023 per GB-month depending on tier, with multi-TB archives commonly settling at $200–$800/month for a mid-size deployment), query layer (Athena/BigQuery on-demand: $5/TB scanned, typically $50–$300/month for normal audit-response patterns), and Syntra ETL platform subscription (varies by deployment scope, but typically 1/15th to 1/30th of equivalent WFC tenant licensing for the same data). Total: typically 80–95% cheaper than keeping the WFC tenant live just for historical access. The TCO case usually pays for the implementation within the first year post WFC EOL.
Yes. Many customers build the kronos workforce central cloud archive as the WFM historical layer, then extend it to capture Fusion Time & Labor data as it ages out of Fusion's operational window (typically 2-3 years). The unified archive holds both eras with consistent schema and unified query layer, so a multi-year FLSA pull spanning the Kronos-to-Fusion cutover returns one merged result set. Same web UI, same pre-built templates, same evidence-pack signing. This pattern future-proofs the archive against the next platform change after Fusion.
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll review your cloud platform, WFC data volume, retention obligations and EOL deadline — and confirm a concrete cloud archive deployment timeline and TCO estimate before the call ends.