Executive Summary
In today's rapidly evolving financial technology landscape, infrastructure scalability and reliability are paramount. This case study explores how Ancrew Global successfully assisted a fast-growing technology solutions provider in the financial industry with their migration from Azure to AWS, achieving significant cost savings and improved availability while maintaining security standards crucial for financial institutions.
About the Client
Our client is a fast-growing technology solutions provider specializing in the financial industry. The organization has rapidly gained prominence in the market due to its innovative approach and passion for utilizing cutting-edge technology. They serve an impressive array of partnerships with multiple organizations, including:
- Banks
- Stock exchanges
- Stockbrokers
- Other financial institutions
The Challenge
The customer had their CKYC solution product deployed on the Azure environment. However, due to increasing demand from new customers to serve them from the AWS environment for a native experience, the customer's technical team decided to deploy a new environment on AWS.
The key challenges included:
- Finding alternatives to their application hosted in Microsoft Azure app service
- Migrating from Azure SQL server database to AWS equivalent
- Achieving optimized cost while maintaining high availability
- Building resilient infrastructure
- Rehosting their business website inside AWS for cost efficiency
- Integrating existing user base in Azure Active Directory with AWS SSO for seamless authentication
The Solution
Ancrew Global designed and implemented a comprehensive AWS infrastructure solution that addressed all the client's requirements:
Amazon EC2 Implementation for Microsoft Windows Server
Business Website Hosting:
- Deployed t3a.medium EC2 instances with 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, and 100 GB storage
- Installed Microsoft IIS and .NET dependencies to host dynamic .NET 5.0 application
- Configured auto scaling and load balancing environment to achieve 99.95% availability
Application Environment:
- Utilized AWS Elastic Beanstalk as an alternative to Azure App Services
- Deployed Windows instance of m6a.large with 2 vCPUs, 8 GB of RAM and 100 GB of storage
- Configured autoscaling and load balancing environment with .NET Core dependencies
- Enabled smooth on-boarding of client's .NET dependent application
Database Solution
- Established Amazon RDS for SQL Server of t3.xlarge size with 4 vCPUs and 16 GB of RAM
- Served as alternative to SQL Server on Azure
- Deployed across Multiple Availability Zones to ensure exceptional availability
Security and Authentication
- Integrated existing Microsoft Active Directory (AD) with AWS SSO
- Provided end-users with seamless SSO experience
- Enhanced both security and user satisfaction
Backup and Monitoring
- Configured automatic backup for Amazon RDS and Amazon EC2 instances
- Reduced RTO & RPO in case of any disaster
- Introduces Amazon CloudWatch for proactive monitoring of application performance and resource utilization
- Configured alarms and notifications for swift responses to anomalies or incidents
Architecture Overview
The implemented AWS architecture featured:
- .NET application deployed using AWS Elastic Beanstalk for scalable and managed environment
- Amazon RDS for SQL Server in Multi-AZ configuration ensuring high availability and data redundancy
- Bastion host deployment for enhanced security and controlled access to private instances
- AWS Single Sign-On (SSO) integrated with Azure AD for seamless and secure authentication
Results and Benefits
The migration delivered exceptional results across multiple dimensions:
Cost Optimization
- Business Website: Achieved cost reduction of up to 15% ($163.14 MRR)
- Application Environment: Realized significant cost savings of up to 18.86% ($60.54 MRR)
Availability and Performance
- Accomplished 99.95% availability for both business website and application environment
- Successfully deployed Amazon RDS for SQL Server with high availability through multi-AZ deployment
Security and User Experience
- Seamless integration of existing Microsoft Active Directory (AD) with AWS SSO
- Enhanced security with smooth Single Sign-On experience for end-users
Monitoring and Maintenance
- Established proactive monitoring through Amazon CloudWatch
- Enabled timely identification and resolution of potential issues or anomalies
Conclusion
This successful migration demonstrates how financial technology companies can leverage AWS infrastructure to achieve better cost efficiency, enhanced availability, and improved security. By working with Ancrew Gloabl's expertise, the client successfully overcame their infrastructure challenges and benefited from enhanced scalability and agility in the AWS environment.
The project showcases the importance of choosing the right cloud partner who understands both the technical requirements and regulatory considerations specific to the financial industry. Through careful planning and implementation, organizations can achieve significant operational improvements while maintaining the security and compliance standards essential for financial services.