How we achieved 99.99% uptime and 100% data protection with AWS migration

Millennium Communications, an award-winning digital agency providing turnkey web experiences and digital solutions for SMB and Enterprise-level clients, excels in managing multiple clients and designing, developing, and hosting numerous brand and mission critical websites across various on-premises and data center-located servers. As their client needs grew, they faced challenges in scaling their infrastructure to meet increasing demands.

To address these issues, they turned to Amazon and zeb – an advanced AWS partner for expert guidance. Amazon’s team introduce zeb to help facilitate the migration of Millennium’s hosting centers to AWS, ensuring seamless performance, enhanced security, and improved operational efficiency.

Primary objectives

1. Consolidate multiple on-premises servers into a more efficient and scalable AWS infrastructure.
2. Enhance security for web applications and databases.
3. Maintain high availability and performance of client-facing applications.

Landing Zone Architecture

Timeline

The entire migration was completed within a 5-week timeline, after which operations were successfully transitioned to the customer.

KPIs and Outcomes

Operational KPIs:

• Uptime: Achieved 99.99% uptime post-migration.
• Performance: Achieved 100% compliance with data protection standards using AWS Secrets Manager and KMS.

Security KPIs:

• Incident Reduction: Decreased security incidents due to enhanced firewall protection and secure subnets.
• Data Protection: Improved website loading times.

Tech Stack

• Compute: Amazon EC2
• Storage: Amazon EFS
• Database: Amazon Aurora MySQL, Amazon RDS Proxy
• Security: AWS WAF, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS KMS
• Networking: Elastic Load Balancing (NLB, ALB), AWS Transit Gateway

Here’s how we addressed the key challenges across various aspects of the migration:

Operational Enhancements

1. Consolidation and Hosting

Challenge: Millennium Communications faced inefficiencies with multiple clients’ websites spread across various on-premises servers in multiple data centers.

Solution: Our experts consolidated these disparate hosting environments by migrating the websites to AWS EC2 instances. This approach optimized resource usage by enabling each EC2 instance to handle multiple small-sized applications.

Implementation:

• Created EC2 instances based on their clients.
• Utilized Amazon EFS for shared storage across instances.
• Deployed an Application Load Balancer (ALB) to distribute traffic efficiently.

2. Load Balancing

Challenge: Managing traffic efficiently for multiple client websites was complex, particularly with maintaining static IPs required for DNS purposes.

Solution: To resolve this issue, zeb specialists deployed an Application Load Balancer (ALB) to handle internal traffic and a Network Load Balancer (NLB) to preserve the static IPs initially provided to clients, ensuring seamless traffic management.

Implementation:

• Deployed ALB for internal traffic management.
• Configured NLB with the required Elastic IPs for DNS purposes.

3. Elastic IP and DNS Management

Challenge: The client needed to maintain specific Elastic IPs for DNS, which complicated traffic management and IP allocation.

Solution: Our team of experts configured a Network Load Balancer with the required Elastic IPs and integrated it with an Application Load Balancer (ALB), ensuring efficient traffic management while preserving essential DNS settings.

Implementation:

• Set up NLB with specific Elastic IPs.
• Integrated NLB with ALB for optimal traffic distribution.

4. Site-to-Site Connectivity:

Challenge: Establishing secure connections between AWS and various Millennium Communications locations presented challenges in maintaining network security and performance.

Solution: With expertise in network design, we implemented AWS Transit Gateway to create a hub-and-spoke network topology, ensuring secure and efficient site-to-site communication.

Implementation:

• Deployed AWS Transit Gateway for secure connectivity.
• Configured the network topology to ensure efficient communication.

Security Enhancements

1. Private Subnets and IP Management

Challenge: Ensuring secure hosting environments and protecting database access from potential internet threats was a significant concern.

Solution: WWe deployed instances in private subnets with private IP addresses to minimize internet exposure and implemented AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) to safeguard against malicious traffic.

Implementation:

• Configured VPC with private and public subnets.
• Set up NAT Gateways to allow instances in private subnets to access the internet securely.
• Deployed AWS WAF to monitor and block harmful web traffic.

2. Database Security

Challenge: Maintaining secure connectivity and management for databases was crucial, given the sensitivity of the data involved.

Solution: We implemented Amazon RDS with RDS Proxy to ensure secure and efficient database connections, enhancing both performance and protection.

Implementation:

• Migrated databases to Amazon Aurora MySQL for enhanced performance and scalability.
• Configured RDS Proxy to manage database connections and improve security.
• Used AWS Secrets Manager and AWS KMS to manage database credentials and encryption keys.

Migrating Millennium Communications infrastructure from on-premises to AWS resulted in significant operational and security improvements. By leveraging AWS’s robust services, zeb successfully consolidated resources, enhanced performance, and ensured the security of client data and applications.

Millennium Team Quotes