Building a Scalable and Resilient SaaS Solution on AWS

eWards is dedicated to assisting business owners in understanding and engaging their customers more effectively, thereby increasing revenue and improving customer metrics. Their SaaS platform addresses the common challenge faced by growing businesses: the lack of bandwidth and infrastructure to focus on customer journey management.

They offer a simple yet powerful solution that automates the customer journey mapping process and actively engages customers to boost revenue. Their customizable reporting module, advanced automated customer engagement system, and One View CRM are designed to save our clients time and effort, allowing them to concentrate on strategic decisions rather than operational tasks.

eWards stands out with its flexible and feature-rich engagement tools, providing innovative ways for businesses to connect with their customers. We believe that the competitive advantage derived from superior customer experience will differentiate the successful companies of tomorrow.

eWards is a SaaS-based solution designed to empower business owners with the tools and insights they need to understand their customers, engage with them across multiple channels, and enhance monetization by improving customer metrics. With extensive experience working alongside over 1,000 businesses, we recognize that many growing enterprises lack the bandwidth or infrastructure to fully focus on their customer journey. To address these challenges, eWards offers a comprehensive solution that not only maps out the customer journey but also actively engages customers to maximize revenue.

Their platform is built with the business owner in mind, enabling clients to make informed, strategic decisions without getting bogged down by operational details. eWards features a customizable reporting module, an advanced automated customer engagement system, and a One View CRM, all designed to streamline and enhance customer interactions. With one of the most flexible and feature-rich engagement tools in the industry, we provide our clients with innovative ways to connect with their customers.

Scalability Issues

• Inability to handle a growing user base and increasing data volumes led to degraded performance and potential service outages. This negatively affected user satisfaction and resulted in lost opportunities during peak usage times.

Reliability and Availability

• Frequent service interruptions eroded customer trust and satisfaction, leading to revenue loss and potential customer churn to competitors. Dependence on a single server created a critical single point of failure, increasing the risk of complete service outages.

Security and Compliance

• Protecting customer data and ensuring compliance with industry regulations were essential to maintaining customer trust and avoiding legal and financial repercussions. This required stringent security measures to prevent unauthorized access and breaches.

Integration Complexity

• Difficulty in integrating new systems with existing legacy systems led to inefficiencies and potential data inconsistencies. Ensuring smooth communication and data consistency between disparate systems was crucial for operational efficiency.

Deployment and Updates

• Manual deployment processes were time-consuming and error-prone, causing unnecessary downtime and hindering the ability to deliver timely updates and new features. Automated deployment solutions were needed to reduce errors and streamline the update process without service interruptions.

• Adopt AWS Auto Scaling: Configured Auto Scaling Groups to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances based on current traffic and load. Define scaling policies for dynamic adjustments. For example, set up policies to add instances when CPU utilization exceeds 70% and remove instances when it drops below 30%.
• Utilize Load Balancers: Used AWS Elastic Load Balancers (ELB) to distribute incoming application traffic across multiple EC2 instances. Deploy an Application Load Balancer (ALB) to manage HTTP/HTTPS traffic and a Network Load Balancer (NLB) for TCP traffic.
• Implement AWS CloudFront: Used Amazon CloudFront as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to cache static and dynamic content at edge locations globally. Configure CloudFront distributions to cache frequently accessed data and deliver content with low latency.
• Implement Backup and Recovery Plans: Set up automated backup solutions and disaster recovery processes to protect data and applications. Use AWS Backup for scheduled backups, AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery for replication, and AWS CloudFormation templates for automated infrastructure recovery.
• Security and Compliance Solutions: Managed access to AWS resources securely using IAM roles, policies, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Created and assign IAM roles with the principle of least privilege, enforce MFA for sensitive operations, and regularly review access permissions.

• Ensure Compliance with AWS Config and AWS CloudTrail: Monitored and audit compliance with industry regulations and best practices. Used AWS Config to track resource configuration changes and AWS CloudTrail to log and monitor API activity.

• Implement API Gateway: Managed and published APIs for smooth integration with existing systems and applications. Deploy Amazon API Gateway to create, deploy, and manage RESTful APIs and WebSocket APIs, with features for request throttling, caching, and authorization.
• Adopt AWS CodePipeline and AWS CodeDeploy:  Implemented automated deployment pipelines and deployment solutions to streamline updates. Used AWS CodePipeline to automate the build, test, and deployment phases, and AWS CodeDeploy to deploy applications to EC2 instances and Lambda functions.
• Use Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Defined and managed infrastructure and deployment configurations as code for consistency and repeatability. Used AWS CloudFormation to create, update, and manage infrastructure resources through code.

AWS EC2, API Gateway, S3, CloudFormation, CloudWatch, RDS , CloudTrail, EC2 Lifecycle Management, VPC Endpoint, CloudWatch Logs, AWS Config, Security Hub, AWS SNS, Code Pipeline, Code Deploy, Code Build, Step function, Code Commit

• Implemented IAM role-based access control to ensure users have access only to the necessary AWS resources, enhancing security and compliance.
• For any administrative tasks, remote users must connect to a VPN client to access the serverless resources. This ensures secure, encrypted connections. Additionally, access to the AWS Management Console and other administrative interfaces is restricted through IAM policies and MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication).
• The Amazon RDS instance is placed within private subnets and is not directly accessible from the internet. Database ports are accessible only from the serverless application functions through appropriate Security Group configurations. Applied further restrictions to database access using AWS Network Access Control Lists (NACLs) and Security Groups to ensure that only permitted serverless functions can interact with the database.
• This isolates the workloads from direct internet access, enhancing security. The serverless application is exposed through an API Gateway configured with custom domain names and SSL/TLS certificates issued via AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to ensure secure HTTPS communication.

• Efficient Resource Management: Auto Scaling ensures resources dynamically adjust to match real-time demand, reducing latency and enhancing performance.
• Cost Optimization: Only paying for the resources used during peak times and scaling down during off-peak times helps manage costs effectively.
• Improved User Experience: Load Balancers and CloudFront accelerate content delivery, reducing response times and providing a better user experience.
• Increased Data Protection: Automated backup and disaster recovery solutions ensure data integrity and reduce recovery time in case of failures.

• Stronger Access Control: IAM roles and policies ensure secure access management, reducing unauthorized actions and enhancing overall security.
• Compliance Assurance: AWS Config and CloudTrail provide visibility and tracking for regulatory compliance and auditing.

• Scalable API Management: API Gateway streamlines API management, enabling smooth integration and communication between systems.

• Automated Deployment: AWS CodePipeline and CodeDeploy reduce manual intervention, minimize errors, and accelerate the deployment of new features and updates.
• Consistent Infrastructure: IaC tools like CloudFormation ensure consistent environments and configurations, supporting version control and rollback for infrastructure changes.