Addressing Email Access Challenges with Cloud Solutions

One of our initial large-scale migration projects involved an established website application that we had previously developed for a client. The application was a complex e-commerce website that was built before the establishment of our Cloud Team. However, throughout the system’s life-cycle, we encountered multiple incidents of downtime with our Internet Service Provider (ISP), which our client deemed unacceptable. Recognizing the need for a robust solution, we embarked on migrating the system to the Cloud.

The migration posed a challenge in terms of refactoring the system’s architecture and infrastructure to align with the AWS Well-Architected Framework. This involved revisiting the project from scratch and implementing various updates and improvements, all of which were intended to enhance the system’s stability and reliability going forward. Although this process took some time, we successfully prepared the system for migration within a few months. Initially, the Cloud Team deployed the application using AWS Elastic Beanstalk, a service that streamlines the deployment process, allowing the team to focus on code deployment rather than server and infrastructure management. However, this approach provided limited control, making it difficult to create a highly available and scalable infrastructure that met the client’s needs.

Furthermore, the client requested to transfer the deployed infrastructure from our environment to their own account, necessitating the recreation of the previously revamped infrastructure. To achieve greater control, the team decided not to use AWS Elastic Beanstalk this time and opted to build the infrastructure from scratch. This approach enabled the team to expand the initial infrastructure by incorporating a testing environment and eliminated the rollbacks caused by Elastic Beanstalk. Additionally, the team increased the number of Amazon EC2 instances deployed in conjunction with an Auto Scaling Group.

Although this extended the originally agreed-upon deadline with the client, it provided a valuable learning experience for the team and an opportunity to refine our best practices. We sincerely appreciate our client’s patience throughout this process, which has resulted in a more stable system that fulfills their requirements.

Moreover, this process has emphasized the importance of planning and implementing all future software development projects in line with the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Adhering to this framework not only ensures best practices regarding security, reliability, and scalability but also simplifies future migrations, minimizing the need for extensive and risky infrastructure modifications.