Transitioning to Amazon Web Services
How Amaris Consulting supports the Foundation for High Horology in transitioning to Amazon Cloud Services
Our client
The Fondation for High Horology (FHH), is based in Geneva. Its mission is to safeguard and promote the practice of fine watchmaking globally, and it utilizes several websites and events to achieve this.
It is currently organizing one of the biggest watch events in the world, Watches and Wonders in Geneva, and provides training and certifications to horologists across the world.
Context
Modern consumers expect super-fast access to online services anywhere in the world.
To maintain a satisfied global customer base and ensure security protection, cloud hosting is a key part of business infrastructure.
Initiating a transition
FHH needed to undertake a program of IT modernization if it was to continue satisfying its clients. Their on-premises web hosting infrastructure was aging, with an older design, so migrating to cloud hosting was necessary.
The client required a more flexible and agile hosting solution, which would smooth the day-to-day management of their operations. This migration was also time-sensitive, as FHH’s former hosting company was ceasing to operate and shutting down all its servers. As part of this migration, FHH needed guidance on the best cloud structure and service options, as well as TCO (total cost of ownership) estimates.
Challenges
The most significant challenge came from the time frame within which the project had to be completed; the unexpected closure of FHH’s previous hosting company meant this large-scale migration had to be done in less than three months. Upgrading legacy applications and obsolete technology stacks onto the new servers while avoiding any data corruption was a focus throughout.
Our engineers also had to work within the parameters established by FHH in terms of using specific technologies, which led to the isolation of every application on its own server. This meant having over 60 virtual servers, which could have led to snowballing costs without proper management.
Solution
Our engineers were able to design a fully secured, scalable and reliable cloud infrastructure to fulfil the needs of more than 30 different platforms, mobile applications and websites.
During this project we relied heavily on our engineers’ AWS, docker and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) expertise. The solution adheres to the IaC philosophy by using Terraform, Packer and Ansible. The resulting infrastructure is fully declarative, immutable, idempotent and reproducible thanks to our CI/CD pipelines linking GitLab with Terraform Atlantis.
This approach allows us to provision full staging/development environments identical to the production in a matter of minutes. It also allows FHH to easily scale its infrastructure during their many events and then reduce it after the load has diminished. The code transforms FHH’s infrastructure into a commodity that can be migrated or reproduced at will to insure, for example, a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).
This approach allows us to provision full staging/development environments identical to the production in a matter of minutes. It also allows FHH to easily scale its infrastructure during their many events and then reduce it after the load has diminished. The code transforms FHH’s infrastructure into a commodity that can be migrated or reproduced at will to insure, for example, a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).
Results
In less than three months, FHH’s infrastructure is now fully managed and under control, and all requests for changes can be handled in a matter of minutes. With virtually no downtime and zero data loss, Amaris Consulting also helped to integrate a full CI/CD platform for all the agencies working with FHH to make deliveries smoother and more reliable.
The client can now better address their global database thanks to AWS’ reach and distributed locations all over the world. FHH’s entire IT infrastructure is also backed-up and monitored 24/7 thanks to our teams in Austria, Asia and South America.
FHH gained significant flexibility and agility thanks to this environment, ensuring that new inputs are always identical with no human error or oversight.
Key Results
30 different platforms, mobile applications and websites
Legacy apps upgrade
No downtime and zero data loss
Flexibility & Agility boost
