Today we’d like to share the story of how the DevOps team at Flux7 worked with a Fortune enterprise customer to help them automate their AWS VPC creation, which reduced several days of manual, repetitive tasks into a simple user interface, concluding with a single click. Saving this firm days of manpower has meant that these resources can now be used for more strategic, business-impacting activities. Read on as we share a business view into this AWS case study.
At Flux7 we work with a wide variety of customers and regardless of their level of IT maturity we are passionate about helping them apply DevOps processes in their pursuit of continuous improvement. In doing so, we naturally find ourselves moving from simple application driven problems to layers deeper in the technology stack where DevOps automation can play a significant role in growing efficiency and productivity. Today we’d like to share the story of how we deployed AWS Step Functions to help drive DevOps automation in pursuit of continuous improvement for a Flux7 customer.
We recently worked with a Fortune 500 manufacturer of heavy equipment that is focused on quality, productivity, and effectively connecting its customers with data-driven insights via technology. As an international, publicly traded organization, it is also careful about managing security, risk and compliance. So, when this manufacturer asked if we could set up an audit and notification system, we were happy to roll up our sleeves and begin work. (You can read here the full case study of this Fortune 100 customer.)
We have been working closely with a customer who is undergoing a business transformation. As a multimedia equipment manufacturer, the organization has a loyal following of its high quality devices. However, like many companies facing the convergence of markets and new customer demands, the company has embarked on a metamorphosis. Traditionally very focused on hardware, their software was largely ignored even though it offered customers real value. Part of the company’s transformation was a move to treat their software like a full-fledged offering, rather than a free supplement. An upcoming product release marked the first (and biggest steps), in cementing this change in company direction.
Those migrating to the cloud are often confused by performance on AWS. With so many metrics, they’re not sure which ones pertain to their application needs. The biggest questions seem to center on network performance characterized as “low,” “medium,” and “high,” which is why we’ve focused on network performance for this series on AWS performance benchmarking. To measure network performance we chose the industry-standard benchmark Iperf and used i2.8xlarge instances.
As we at Flux7 Labs AWS partners work on deployments for our customers, many ask questions about basic AWS security issues, including those addressed by using Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). So in this post we provide a guide for setting up and using VPCs in order to help guide your AWS setup. This AWS VPC tutorial is based on our experience from using VPN in AWS deployments both for Flux7 Labs’ internal systems and for our customers’ systems. VyScale, our cost- and performance-management solution, is an excellent tool for setting up systems inside of VPCs.