New AWS infrastructure for FMAdata
For First Movers Advantage, a US-based real estate data broker, makandra took on the task of rebuilding a stable, secure, and scalable AWS infrastructure.
Including:
- Introduction of Infrastructure as Code
- Migration of legacy infrastructure
- Cost reduction with AWS
- Setup with high availability according to current best practices
First Movers Advantage is a US data broker specializing in real estate data. Among other things, the company records when people change their place of residence and makes this information available to business customers, such as moving companies.
makandra took on the task of rebuilding a stable, secure, and scalable infrastructure for them, undertaking this completely as Infrastructure as Code for the first time. This included migrating the existing Rails applications, upgrading the database cluster, optimizing AWS costs, and introducing a highly available setup in line with current best practices.
Industry
Real estate and data marketing
Technology
AWS, OpenTofu with Terragrunt, Puppet, Datadog
Services
DevOps as a service
Key challenges
- Modernization of Infrastructure
The existing AWS infrastructure was originally set up with great care and a solid foundation. Over time, however, opportunities emerged to modernize the operating systems and software and align it with the latest technologies and best practices. - Evolving Towards a Dedicated Operations Structure
Previously, infrastructure responsibilities were handled directly by developers. With the introduction of a dedicated DevOps focus, the goal is now to establish a more structured approach to maintenance and ongoing optimization. - Moving from Manual to Automated Management
Infrastructure changes were managed manually in the past. The next step in the evolution is to implement consistent, automated processes to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and easier long-term maintenance. - Smooth Migration to a Modern Environment
The migration required maintaining live operations while transitioning to new servers and software versions. This presented an exciting challenge that was met with careful planning and execution, ensuring a seamless migration without downtime. - International Collaboration
Teams across three countries, spanning up to eight time zones, worked together effectively throughout the project. The smooth coordination and communication across borders contributed significantly to the project's success.
I'm thrilled with the new infrastructure makandra created for our web applications. I especially appreciate the smooth migration process with no downtime. There was always a backup plan, which allowed us to safely migrate our large and complex infrastructure.
Our solution for FMAdata
- All deployments are now configured for high availability.
- Better performance thanks to optimized AWS instance types, newer versions, and optimized configuration.
- More flexible setup for developers: Ruby/Node version can be changed dynamically for each deployment.
- Uniform basic setup for all servers and deployments.
- Regular security updates and maintenance.
- Advanced monitoring and intervention in case of problems.
- Automated, daily checks of the AWS infrastructure (current security best practices and unwanted manual changes).
- Infrastructure as Code & Configuration Management.
- Changes to existing deployments can be implemented quickly and securely (e.g., scaling up/down, adding new servers).
- New servers and deployments can be provisioned quickly and reproducibly.
Technical implementation
- First, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the AWS account, existing IaC code, applications, and customer requirements. This assessment resulted in the prioritization of the next steps.
- We rebuilt the AWS setup and defined the infrastructure entirely as IaC with OpenTofu/Terragrunt; the server configurations were implemented with Puppet. Existing resources were imported into the new setup where appropriate, otherwise they were rebuilt from scratch. Where possible, additional AWS services were used, including EFS, ElastiCache, AWS Backup, and ACM.
- This was followed by the migration: all applications were moved to new servers without downtime, as was the database cluster - despite its size of several terabytes. Necessary version updates were carried out in parallel. Finally, we optimized the AWS account in terms of costs.
The makandra team was highly responsive, actively listening to our needs and adapting accordingly. I greatly appreciate the automations built for us, which make my job quicker and easier. I highly recommend makandra.
How to
Optimize cloud costs
This article shows how cloud costs arise, where they can get out of hand, and when it makes sense to reevaluate your own cloud strategy or even your provider.
Project scope
Our services for FMAdata
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