nClouds AWS Case Study
Efabless
Accelerating Innovation: How nClouds Modernized Efabless’s IC Design Platform on AWS
“I could not be happier with nClouds. They worked hard to build a solid infrastructure on AWS that’s working as planned—we couldn’t have accomplished this without them.”
Greg Shaurette
SVP Information Technology, Efabless
Benefits Summary
Enhanced
Security
Optimized
Costs
About Efabless
Efabless, founded in April 2014, is the world’s first fabless electronics company to combine crowdsourcing with open community innovation. It has applied that concept to all aspects of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit (IC) and intellectual property (IP) development and commercialization. Efabless serves as a marketplace for innovators by connecting a global community of skilled chip designers with a global community of customers. Its mission is to simplify the process of smart product creation and make it available to everyone.
Challenge
Modernizing for Growth and Efficiency
After receiving angel funding, Efabless sought to modernize its Open Galaxy IC design platform to support anticipated business growth. The existing platform, which included a static content and marketplace application on AWS Elastic Beanstalk and an IC design platform running EDA software on Amazon EC2 Linux machines, was challenging to manage and scale. Compute-heavy tasks, such as simulation, were adversely affecting current design sessions by running directly on the machines. Efabless aimed to improve performance efficiency and scalability, enhance security, and optimize costs.
Strategy and Solution
AWS recommended nClouds, an AWS Well-Architected Partner and Premier Consulting Partner, to Efabless. nClouds conducted an AWS Well-Architected Review of Efabless’ production account, identifying opportunities for infrastructure improvement across security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and operational excellence. Efabless partnered with nClouds to address these findings.
01
DevOps Consulting Services
Providing expert guidance and implementation of DevOps practices.
02
Containers
Modernizing the application by containerizing it.
03
AWS Well-Architected Review
Ensuring that the infrastructure adheres to AWS best practices.
04
Cost Optimization
Implementing strategies to reduce cloud spending.
05
Application/Infrastructure Modernization
Architecting and implementing a modern, cloud-native infrastructure on AWS.
06
Security Management
Enhancing the overall security posture.
Results + Benefits
Enhanced Performance, Security, and Cost Efficiency
The collaboration between nClouds and Efabless resulted in a modernized IC design platform with numerous benefits:
Improved Performance Efficiency and Scalability
Efabless boosted performance and scalability using CloudWatch/Datadog monitoring, AWS Global Accelerator, and a multi-AZ VPC architecture. ECS and Auto Scaling ensure high performance, while CodeCommit enables secure, collaborative development
Enhanced
Security
nClouds enhanced security by replacing HAProxy with Kong, using OpenVPN and MFA to secure EC2 access, and applying IAM roles for dynamic credentials. AWS Systems Manager handled patching, EventBridge automated security responses, and NAT gateway protected private subnets.
Optimized
Costs
IAM policies limited unnecessary resource creation, while AWS Systems Manager and CloudWatch enabled inventory tracking and rightsizing. AWS Auto Scaling, Lambda, and SQS boosted cost efficiency by removing unused resources and scaling automatically with usage.
Building a Robust Future
with nClouds and AWS
The successful modernization of Efabless’s IC design platform showcases the profound impact of a strategic partnership with nClouds. By leveraging nClouds’ deep AWS and DevOps expertise, Efabless transformed its infrastructure, achieving significant improvements in performance, security, and cost efficiency.
This collaboration not only addressed their immediate needs for scalability and modernization but also established a robust and resilient cloud environment that will support Efabless’s continued innovation and growth in the dynamic semiconductor industry.
