About the customer
CloudLabs is a digital marketing agency that offers a range of services to help businesses reach their goals and exceed their targets. They specialize in mobile advertising, voucher systems, digital marketing, and marketing automation. With their extensive experience, expertise, and commitment to using the best tools in the industry, CloudLabs has helped businesses of all sizes succeed in the digital landscape.
Customer challenge
The customer required a quick, cost-effective way of launching new static websites and infrastructure to handle high traffic, ensure security, and operate efficiently. The critical areas of focus were:
-
Scalability for Peak Demand: The customer required infrastructure that could scale to accommodate sudden spikes in traffic, ensuring the website remains operational during peak hours. This scalability was crucial for providing a positive user experience and serving a growing user base.
-
Security and Flexibility: The customer needed a secure, flexible architecture that could adapt to changing business needs and user demands. The architecture required to provide granular control over application logic for independent scaling and simplified updates and deployments.
-
Efficient Infrastructure Management: The customer sought an efficient way to manage infrastructure across multiple environments. They needed automation to reduce errors and delays in deployments and to improve agility and scalability.
Proposed Solution
To address these challenges, we proposed a comprehensive solution leveraging various AWS services.
We suggested using CloudFront and Amazon S3 for high-performance content delivery. This would reduce latency and improve website performance by serving static content from geographically distributed edge locations and storing static website assets and user-uploaded files in S3 buckets.
We recommended implementing Amazon API Gateway and Lambda for a microservices architecture. This would allow API Gateway to route traffic to corresponding Lambda microservices, ensuring scalability and independent deployment of individual functionalities.
For secure resource management and access, we proposed using Bastion hosts and Amazon Aurora. Bastion hosts would provide secure access to private resources in VPCs, while Amazon Aurora MySQL would store data securely and reliably.
To enhance security and communication, we suggested using AWS Certificate Manager and Amazon SES. ACM would issue TLS certificates to secure website connections, and SES would send bulk emails efficiently and reliably for various purposes.
We also recommended employing infrastructure as code (IaC) with AWS CloudFormation. This would automate infrastructure provisioning and updates, enabling rapid development and deployments.
AWS Services Used
Content Delivery
-
CloudFront: Serves website visitors content from global edge locations, ensuring fast and reliable access worldwide.
-
S3 Buckets: Store static content and user-uploaded files, offering durability and scalability.
Application Logic
-
API Gateway: Routes incoming API requests to the appropriate Lambda functions based on the URL.
-
Lambda: Serverless functions that handle application logic, offering automatic scaling and pay-per-use billing.
Data Management
-
Aurora MySQL: Relational database service for secure and reliable storage and retrieval of application data.
-
Bastion Hosts: Used to securely access the MySQL database for administrative purposes.
Security
-
ACM (AWS Certificate Manager): Manages and auto-renews SSL/TLS certificates to ensure secure communication.
-
IAM (Identity and Access Management): Enforces granular access control based on user roles and permissions.
Communication
-
SES (Simple Email Service): Sends bulk emails for notifications and marketing campaigns.
-
SNS (Simple Notification Service): Publishes real-time alerts and notifications to relevant users and teams.
Infrastructure Management
-
CodePipeline: Supports CI/CD processes and automates changes to infrastructure and application code.
-
CloudFormation: Enables Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automating provisioning and deployment.
-
Service Catalog: Provides developers with pre-approved templates for infrastructure, streamlining development and reducing errors.
Monitoring and Logging
-
CloudWatch Logs: Stores and analyzes logs from Lambda functions and API Gateway for troubleshooting and performance monitoring.
Developer Access
-
Bastion Hosts: Developers use these for secure access to private resources in private subnets.
Outcomes
-
Performance: Leveraging CloudFront and S3 significantly reduced latency and improved website load times. The API Gateway and Lambda-based microservices architecture ensured stable performance during peak traffic.
-
Security: Integration of ACM and SES provided secure communication and data protection. Bastion hosts ensured secure access to resources, while Amazon Aurora offered high availability and encryption.
-
Management and Automation: CloudFormation templates enabled rapid and consistent infrastructure provisioning. IaC practices streamlined deployments. CloudWatch and SNS offered real-time monitoring and notifications.
-
Productivity and Collaboration: Developers benefited from Service Catalog’s self-service capabilities, reducing bottlenecks and accelerating development.
-
Growth: With optimized infrastructure and strong DevOps practices, the customer could rapidly respond to market changes and user demands. The system’s scalability enabled business expansion and increased user trust through enhanced security.
The focus will be on leveraging these improvements to drive business growth. This includes expanding the user base, entering new markets, and continuously adapting to user needs and demands. Regular monitoring and updates will ensure the infrastructure remains robust and efficient. The goal is to maintain the competitive edge that the new infrastructure has provided.
Metrics for Success
-
Performance:
Targeting a reduction in website load time to 2 seconds (from the industry average of 5 seconds) and an uptime of over 99.95%. -
Security:
Aiming to significantly reduce security incidents, fostering user trust and ensuring compliance. -
Efficiency:
Goals include reducing infrastructure deployment time by 50%, achieving a 90% adoption rate of self-service tools, and increasing developer productivity by 80%. -
Growth:
The solution aims to drive a 25% increase in website traffic and a 20% boost in customer satisfaction.
These metrics are numbers and indicators of the transformation we aim to achieve through the DevOps solution. They paint a picture of infrastructure that can host static websites at scale that is fast, secure, and efficient. It is also a powerful tool for attracting users, driving growth, and ensuring long-term success in the digital age.
