AWS Case Study: TeamEXtension

TeamEXtension initially used backup disks and network backups to store data. However, after realizing that greater protection from data center mishaps was imperative, the company started looking at alternative solutions. A major criterion of the new solution was finding a cost-effective method of obtaining a large amount of off-site disk space, data redundancy, and fast transfers without having to manage servers.

After exploring different options, TeamEXtension decided that Amazon Web Services (AWS) presented the best solution while maintaining cost-effectiveness and computing efficiency. Requirements for the backup server were very specific. The server had to be located separately from the hosting facility. It had to be fast, redundant, cost-effective, and secure. Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) met all of these requirements.

Security was an especially critical concern. Because the database stores credit card information and the hosting facility is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, the company needed an off-site backup system that was also PCI compliant. Every credit card number is encrypted in both the database and the database backup file, which is itself encrypted; the Amazon S3 security features and best practices help customers ensure that the information remains secure.

Of the many features associated with the AWS solution, cost-effectiveness was a major benefit. Bienvenido David, CEO, explains that the cost of using Amazon S3 is one sixth of the cost of maintaining a dedicated off-site backup server. “The features AWS provides have traditionally been very expensive to achieve and very time consuming to setup and maintain. We transfer a lot of data and take up a lot of disk space. To get the needed disk space and data reliability elsewhere, it would have cost a lot more. With AWS, we also don’t have to maintain anything, which is a big plus.”

The easy transition to adapt Amazon S3 to the company’s needs was another advantage of the AWS solution. TeamEXtension used the Amazon S3 Library for REST in Java and found it easy to automate Amazon S3 to meet their specific needs. It took more time to design a backup system to work with the company’s hardened PCI network configuration, but the company is pleased with the results.

The backup project is so successful that TeamEXtension is exploring other AWS products and expects to use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for load balanced servers and scalability in the near future. The company also plans to use Amazon SimpleDB for logging and tracking different parts of its application.

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