nClouds AWS Case Study
Avolio
Scaling for Global Events:
How nClouds Elevated Avolio/Swapcard’s AWS Infrastructure and Compliance
“We were able to really take advantage of [nClouds’] broad knowledge of AWS to do only what we needed to, instead of throwing everything at the application to see what worked best.”
— Bryan Philips —
Director of Registration Product, Swapcard
Benefits Summary
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90+% Research Time Saved
10+ Hours of AWS Infrastructure Management Saved per Month
Elimination of Unnecessary Spending
Efficient Infrastructure Support
About Avolio
Avolio, now part of Swapcard, is an integral component of an in-person and virtual events platform that consolidates all aspects of successful event management into a single solution. Swapcard acquired Avolio in 2021.
Industry
Location
Global
featured services
Challenge
Preparing for Massive Growth and Global Compliance
Avolio, a small company of 10 people, was on the verge of being acquired by Swapcard, which would expand its size to over 200 people with international reach. This impending growth presented several critical AWS infrastructure challenges:
Facilitate resource growth: The existing infrastructure needed to scale dramatically to accommodate the larger company and its expanded operations.
Add a European data center and ensure GDPR compliance: International expansion necessitated a new data center presence in Europe, along with strict adherence to GDPR regulations.
Set up autoscaling: Manual scaling was no longer sustainable; automated scaling was required to efficiently manage fluctuating event-driven loads.
Ensure SOC compliance at the European data center: Beyond GDPR, SOC compliance was crucial for security and trust.
Optimize AWS usage to reduce unnecessary costs: With anticipated growth, cost efficiency became paramount to avoid runaway cloud spending.
Avolio realized that its initial, simpler infrastructure, built for a smaller scale, no longer aligned with best practices for a growing cloud environment.
Bryan Philips, Director of Registration Product for Swapcard, explained, “We started with a really simple infrastructure that we’d gone from hosting our own servers to the Cloud on our own. There were things that we were doing that no longer made sense in a Cloud environment.”
Avolio embarked on a search for an AWS partner who could help them understand and implement AWS architecture best practices and provide ongoing managed solutions to ensure future scalability. This search led them to nClouds.
Strategy and Solution
Comprehensive AWS Architecture and Managed DevOps by nClouds
nClouds provided the deep AWS expertise and ongoing support Avolio needed to prepare for and manage its expansion.
nClouds tackled the challenges by:
Architecting for Growth:
nClouds helped Avolio understand and implement AWS architecture best practices, moving beyond their simple initial setup to a more robust and scalable design.
Implementing Autoscaling:
Automated scaling solutions were put in place to efficiently manage resource fluctuations.
Ensuring Global Compliance:
nClouds facilitated the addition of a European data center and ensured both GDPR and SOC compliance, crucial for international operations.
Optimizing AWS Costs:
Through careful analysis and implementation of cost-saving strategies, nClouds helped Avolio optimize their AWS usage.
Providing Ongoing Managed Solutions:
Post-merger, nClouds expanded the AWS infrastructure and ensured continued GDPR compliance, providing comprehensive managed services to the combined entity.
Results + Benefits
Unprecedented Efficiency, Significant Time Savings, and Optimized Costs
The partnership between nClouds and Avolio (now Swapcard) yielded impressive results:
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Over 90% Research Time Saved:
Avolio cut the time spent researching solutions by over 90%, from hours to a few conversations with their nClouds solutions architect, who now performs the research.
Over 10 Hours of AWS Infrastructure Management Saved per Month:
Working with nClouds saves Avolio (now part of Swapcard) more than 10 hours of AWS infrastructure management each month, freeing up internal resources.
Elimination of Unnecessary Spending:
While overall AWS costs have increased with expansion, nClouds’ cost optimizations have allowed Avolio/Swapcard to eliminate unnecessary spending and cut out unused resources, ensuring efficient growth.
Seamless Merger and Expansion:
Having nClouds manage the AWS infrastructure simplified the merger with Swapcard, as Avolio didn’t have to worry about backend infrastructure. nClouds then helped expand the infrastructure to support the larger company and ensure GDPR compliance post-merger.
Efficient Infrastructure Support:
As the company continues to grow, nClouds helps it support more infrastructure more efficiently, without any cost increases to its managed cloud solution.
Bryan Philips succinctly summarized the value:
“We were able to really take advantage of [nClouds’] broad knowledge of AWS to do only what we needed to, instead of throwing everything at the application to see what worked best.” He added, “When you are able to have a partner like [nClouds] at a similar price as a single internal resource would cost, it’s an easy decision.”
Empowering Event Innovation with a World-Class Cloud Foundation
Avolio/Swapcard’s journey with nClouds exemplifies how a strategic partnership can transform IT infrastructure from a challenge into a powerful enabler of growth. By shoring up AWS best practices, ensuring global compliance, and providing continuous managed support and cost optimization, nClouds has empowered Avolio/Swapcard to scale efficiently and innovate rapidly in the dynamic event management industry. This collaboration ensures that Swapcard can continue to deliver seamless in-person and virtual event experiences, backed by a resilient, cost-effective, and expertly managed AWS cloud environment.
