One shared, secure cluster
Client stacks share CPU and memory on Amazon EKS, kept apart with Calico and Flannel network policies.
Case studyValue-Ad
From weeks to 15 minutes.
How Value-Ad, a lead intelligence platform in Singapore, cut each stack deployment from weeks to 15 minutes on AWS, run by one person instead of five or six.
- Industry
- FinTech, lead intelligence
- We built
- A shared Kubernetes platform
- Runs on
- Amazon EKS
15 min
Per stack deployment
Down from weeks
80%
Lower cost per deployment
On-Demand to Spot
6 months
Return on investment
Payback
The challenge
Every deployment took weeks.
Value-Ad’s platform combined Angular, Java, ETL jobs and a BI tool, each run by a different team with no consistent way to put the pieces together. With no CI/CD, versions were updated by hand, and each deployment took days to weeks and five or six people. A rebuild with another consultant hadn’t fixed it.
A solution that provided us a clear forecast and helped us rapidly attain our ROI.
Kevin Daly
CEO, Value-Ad
What we built
One shared Kubernetes platform on AWS.
Each deployment used to sit on its own group of four or five EC2 instances, set up by hand. Assembly replaced them with one Kubernetes cluster on Amazon EKS, managed in Rancher.
What we delivered
Template deployments
One template with standard inputs, so anyone from a developer to support can launch a stack in a few clicks.
Spot Instances
Moving from On-Demand to EC2 Spot Instances cut the base cost of each deployment by 80%.
Three environments, multi-AZ
Each client app runs in at least three environments across Availability Zones.
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Toolchain
Built with partners
Rancher manages the cluster, Spot optimises the instances, CircleCI and GitHub deliver each change, and Papertrail collects the logs.
- Rancher
- Spot
- CircleCI
- Papertrail
Powered by AWS
One cluster, many client stacks.
- Deployed from a template. CircleCI runs one deployment template with standard inputs, such as client name and environment.
- Shared, not exposed. Client stacks share one Amazon EKS cluster, isolated with network policies.
- Cheaper to run. The cluster runs on EC2 Spot Instances instead of On-Demand.
- Data where it belongs. Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL, Amazon EFS for shared files and Amazon S3 for objects.
- In view. Amazon CloudWatch and Papertrail collect metrics and logs.
High-level architecture
Value-Ad on AWS
Key results
Faster, cheaper and compliant.
Speed
15 minutes
Per stack, one person
Deployments that took weeks and five or six people now take 15 minutes and one.
Cost
80%
Lower cost per deployment
Shared resources and Spot Instances replaced idle, fully priced EC2 stacks.
Compliance
Aligned
With clients’ requirements
Each client stack stays isolated, in line with what Value-Ad’s clients require.
Our certified expertise
AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner and Well-Architected Partner Program. All 12 current AWS Certifications are held by our team.