Leading Investment Management Software Firm Slashes Infrastructure Costs, Maximizes Application Availability ATTENTION. ALWAYS.
THE CUSTOMER Our customer develops specialized software solutions for global investment managers that manage in excess of a trillion dollars. They offer leading financial accounting and performance analysis products in addition to intelligent research solutions for superior investments research and analysis. THE CHALLENGE With a growing customer base and an increasing number of investment managers accessing their core application suite online, the customer realized that they required a robust and highly available infrastructure with high self-service and security capabilities for hosting it. Initially their infrastructure setup was associated with Rackspace. However, they were burdened with operational and security challenges that impacted their business performance. The primary requirement was to enable agility and flexibility while reducing the operational effort involved in deploying businesscritical applications in order to respond to market demands more quickly.
THE SOLUTION Aspire took a comprehensive approach to address all the gaps and curtail additional infrastructure costs while providing a platform for improved application availability and more efficient management. Aspire took a comprehensive approach to address all the gaps and curtail additional infrastructure costs while providing a platform for improved application availability and more efficient management. Our scope of engagement included the following initiatives: Moved the IT Infrastructure setup from Rackspace to Amazon Web Services. Ensured high availability of applications and provided efficient management of Database ETL (Extract-Transform- Load) processes. Implemented TAC (Total Application Control) firewall/vpn for connecting multiple gateways through individual login credentials for stakeholders. Implemented database clustering to provide scalability and availability at a low cost. Ensured compliance with PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) to address not only near-term compliance objectives but also the security of sensitive assets in the long term. Met the standards of HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) privacy, security and breach notification rules. Also conducted a vulnerability assessment of their overall security situation in order to provide an in-depth picture of the risks associated with their network data and resources. Evaluated their AWS environment based on compliance with CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark. Once the level of security risk was established, we provided recommendations on tightening their security controls to address specific flaws. Server: Microsoft Operating Systems 2012 Database: MS SQL 2012 Clustering: Failover Firewall/VPN: Total Application Control (TAC)
High Level Architecture Diagram RDP User's IR User's Normal User's Availability Zone A VPC Subnet Web App Server Availability Zone B Web App Server VPC Subnet Security Group Security Group Cluster Data Store VPN Internet S3 Bucket Load Balancer SMB Cluster BUSINESS BENEFITS Provided a secure, robust and highly available infrastructure that allowed their clients uninterrupted access to their solutions and services. Enabled faster product release. Provided zero downtime with server support.
Consolidation of applications and their hosting slashed operational costs by 30%. 40% Migration to Amazon cloud enhanced their server efficiencies by 40%. Smooth and hassle-free operations resulted in faster support response time. Mean time for resolution is 40 60% faster since implementing AWS. 40 60% FUTURE IMPACT With increased scalability and flexibility of IT infrastructure, the customer is now more closely aligned to its business goals and better positioned to accommodate future projects and growth. Faster go-to-market and reduced costs will enable them to achieve a clear marketplace differentiation in the long run.