AWS Case Study: JoomlArt

Prior to implementing Amazon Web Services (AWS) technology, JA was using SoftLayer dedicated servers. They still use these servers for their main site, and as a Joomla! demo site server for support and forum systems. However, says JoomlArt CEO Hung Dinh Viet, “Based on promising results with some of our services using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud [Amazon EC2], we are moving more of our demo site servers to Amazon EC2 in the coming months.”

JA chose AWS to keep pace with traffic and expansion plans. Hung says, “We needed a powerful but stable alternative to traditional hosting. Amazon’s services fit all our current requirements, and scalability on demand serves our future requirements.” The company uses the following AWS services:

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon CloudFront for their main site
• Amazon EC2 for:
   - User site demos
   - A T3 framework demo for Joomla! 1.5 and 1.6
   - Drupal theme demo sites

Hung says, “We are working on business models based on these services. Based on our success and experience with AWS, we have developed a JA Amazon S3 / CloudFront component for Joomla!, which enables easy integration of Amazon S3 and CloudFront support for Joomla! CMS and enables Joomla! users to easily adapt AWS for their sites. A built-in Amazon S3 and local file browser makes the workflow easy and simple.”

JA has seen other good outcomes as a result of using AWS. Hung says, “Server downtime is less than ever. Now all our images and files are from the Cloud, so traffic load no longer takes the dedicated server down.” In addition, says Hung, “We are saving more than $1,000 per month on hosting. But the important part is that we are no longer losing money to server downtimes. Each hour of server downtime means the loss of thousands of dollars. Now the system admin can focus on adding capacity rather than fixing things.”

Use of AWS has enhanced JA’s business practices by enabling them to offer a “play before you pay” service; users can now clone the demo sites and test products before deciding to purchase them. Users can also generate a clone site and view the settings, so they no longer need to wait for a forum response regarding help or settings.

The JA team learned some important lessons throughout the development process:

1. The Cloud service based on Amazon EC2 is a very flexible system that fits their complex strategy to deploy large-scale service for hundreds of thousands of users.
2. They can use Amazon services for research purposes, to make their services better in a live environment.
3. Amazon EC2 can be used in a Linux environment for automated script tasks to launch Amazon EC2 instances quickly.
4. By combining multiple Amazon services, they can manage services requiring large scale implementation.

Overall, says Hung, JA appreciates AWS’ proven stability and architecture, multiple solutions for catering to various requirements and scalability, and the trust associated with AWS’ brand name.

To learn more, visit http://www.joomlart.com .