In order to better assist organisations operating in local government with large numbers of projects, each requiring funding and prioritisation to align capital needs to city objectives, an innovative advisory services company partnered with BBD to migrate their system into the AWS cloud.
Objectives
- Migrate system to an AWS cloud environment
- Better facilitate expansion into new markets and geographies
- Increase efficacy of the existing software
- Improve technical reliability
- Increase system scalability
- Increase system security by leveraging off AWS’ existing security products
Benefits
- Simple web service interface allows the client to obtain and configure capacity with minimal friction, while providing complete control of computing resources
- Increased ability to secure and resize compute capacity with Amazon’s proven computing environment
- Allows faster distribution of static and dynamic web content to users
- Improved end user confidence in security of the application and data therein
- Operational excellence: BBD carries out the day-to-day management of AWS environments, allowing the client to focus on core business objectives
Overview of the solution
When a diverse advisory consulting service provider specialising in capital investment planning, financial appraisals, data analytics and data visualisation needed to assess and optimise their current system and push their service capabilities using the cloud, they turned to BBD.
Since becoming a strategic vendor following an initial IT health assessment, BBD has helped stabilise and build reliability into their tool, while migrating to the cloud using AWS EC2.
Services leveraged in the client’s environment include the following:
1.) Compute
- EC2: Powers the client’s analytics and financial modelling applications with scalable compute capacity
- Lambda: Automates data processing and alerting without the need for dedicated servers
- Lightsail: Supports cost-effective staging and testing environments
2.) Storage
- S3: Central repository for large datasets used in analytics and reporting
- Secrets Manager: Protects sensitive credentials like API keys and database access
- DynamoDB: Provides low-latency database services for real-time application needs
3.) Networking & Content Delivery
- VPC: Ensures secure and isolated network configurations for applications
- CloudFront: Accelerates dashboard and data delivery to global users
- Route 53: Provides seamless, reliable domain routing for applications
4.) Monitoring & Observability
- CloudWatch: Tracks performance metrics to pre-emptively address issues
- Budgets: Helps monitor and control cloud spending
5.) Security, Identity & Compliance
- WAF: Protects applications from web-based threats
- Security Hub: Centralises compliance and security monitoring
- KMS: Secures data through encryption, meeting regulatory standards
- Config: Tracks resource changes to ensure compliance
- GuardDuty: Identifies and alerts on security threats
6.) Messaging & Queuing
- SQS: Manages data pipelines efficiently
- SNS: Delivers real-time alerts to the team
7.) Management & Governance
- CloudTrail: Tracks user actions for compliance and audits
- Systems Manager: Automates routine operational tasks for efficiency
During the migration and post-migration phases, BBD provided and continues to provide comprehensive operational support through its managed services. This included proactive monitoring, incident resolution, and effective maintenance of the client’s infrastructure. By leveraging tools like Amazon CloudWatch and Grafana for real-time monitoring, alongside a robust ITSM platform for ticketing and incident tracking, BBD ensured the environment’s continued stability, security, and performance, enabling the client to focus on delivering enhanced services to their end users.
Approach
BBD’s highly skilled managed cloud services team (MServ) performed an analysis of the client’s data centre hosted system infrastructure configuration and in the process identified areas of over and under utilisation. Based on the outcome of this analysis, BBD then configured and optimised the required system environments in AWS. Following approval of pricing implication of the newly-configured AWS environments, the BBD team proceeded to migrate first the UAT system environment into AWS as a pilot to be used for testing over a period of four weeks. With a successful pilot achieved, the client’s live environment was then also migrated into the AWS cloud. Within two weeks of this migration, the data centre-based system environment was decommissioned.
As part of BBD’s ongoing managed services offering, we integrated the client’s AWS environment with a comprehensive IT Service Management (ITSM) toolchain, including Amazon CloudWatch, Grafana, and Jira, to enable streamlined operational support. This integration facilitated real-time monitoring of system performance, incident tracking, and automated alerting for potential issues. Our team ensured continuous infrastructure optimisation by analysing performance metrics and resource usage patterns to proactively address bottlenecks, improve system efficiency, and identify cost-saving opportunities.
BBD took on the responsibility for the maintenance of the following:
- Base – Standard infrastructure components
- EC2 Instances
- S3 – Monitoring, creating and managing the buckets
- Identity Center (SSO):
- WAF:
- Terraform (IaC):
- Cost-Optimisation:
Monthly Service Level Agreement (SLA) meetings are conducted to align resources with the client’s evolving business needs, ensuring the environment remains scalable, secure, and cost-efficient. By providing a combination of proactive maintenance, performance tuning, and issue resolution, BBD consistently ensures that the client’s AWS environment operates seamlessly, empowering them to focus on scaling their services and achieving their strategic goals.
Impact of BBD’s partnership
When asked about the success of BBD’s migration of their tool, the client stated that “By choosing BBD and AWS, we have been able to upscale our system so we can equip clients in the public sector to make the right choices when it comes to choosing and implementing infrastructure projects. Partnering with a company that has global reach, a range of experts and capacity to respond to rapid scaling demands is reassuring, and future-proofs our growth strategy”.
BBD’s managed services have been instrumental in maintaining the stability and efficiency of the client’s AWS environment post-migration. This proactive approach has reduced downtime, enhanced system availability, and ensured optimal resource utilisation.
Through ongoing support and continuous improvements, BBD has empowered the client to focus on their core mission, while benefitting from a cloud infrastructure that adapts to their growing needs. This partnership has not only secured operational resilience but has also delivered tangible cost savings and a stronger foundation for future scalability.
