Peruvian Sanitation Provider, EPS Grau, Migrates IT Infrastructure to AWS with Itera Process

EPS Grau, a Peruvian municipal sanitation provider, teamed up with Itera Process, an AWS Public Sector Partner, to migrate its IT infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The migration resulted in a 99.95 percent availability level. EPS Grau chose to move its systems to AWS to ensure scalability, availability, and speed, since its on-site network was aging and costly to maintain. By utilizing Amazon EC2 and Amazon EBS, EPS Grau met its security requirements, gained resizable compute capacity, and reduced costs.

EPS Grau is a Peruvian municipal company that provides drinking water distribution services in the Piura region of Peru. Its aging on-premise IT infrastructure posed challenges in terms of performance and reliability, along with high maintenance costs. The company aimed to have a comprehensive platform that offered scalability, agility, flexibility, and cost reduction. After evaluating different options, EPS Grau chose AWS as it fulfilled all their requirements.

"We wanted a system that would work for the entire company, and AWS guaranteed us scalability without investing in a data center that couldn’t guarantee speed or availability,” says Arturo Sandoval, head of IT at EPS Grau. “Migrating to AWS provided us flexibility without the need for expensive fixed assets that would quickly become outdated”, Sandoval says. Additionally, EPS Grau sought improved speed, availability, and remote access to their systems while reducing costs. By migrating to AWS, they eliminated the need for expensive on-premise data centers, qualified personnel, and uninterrupted electricity supply.

EPS Grau initially started its transition to the cloud with another provider but didn't achieve the desired results. Eventually, they selected AWS Partner Itera Process, an expert in AWS architecture and migration, through a bidding exercise. Itera Process conducted an assessment of EPS Grau's applications using the AWS Well-Architected Partner Program, which helps organizations establish good architectural practices, reduce risks, and adapt to changes.

“Working with Itera Process and migrating to AWS improved our response time, safety, and increased availability of our system services,” stated Sandoval. After successfully moving all operations to AWS, the new system has an availability level of 99.95 percent, with no reported failures since the migration.

Additionally, EPS Grau found AWS to be a cost-effective alternative to purchasing servers and managing their own data center. The pay-as-you-go model allowed them to manage operating expenses more efficiently.

The maintenance cost of EPS Grau's local structure, which comprises the operations of 29 agencies and the local headquarters, amounts to $12,000 USD. Migrating to AWS has helped EPS Grau manage its operating expenses more efficiently.

EPS Grau's Commercial Management System, SISGECO, responsible for billing and collection, operates on AWS infrastructure. It utilizes Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for secure and resizable compute capacity and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) to scale high-performance workloads. "Migrating to AWS freed up 90 percent of engineers’ time at EPS Grau since they no longer have to maintain local servers. We are able to elevate our performance and focus on strategic growth and innovation”, states Vanesa Salcedo, country manager at Itera Process.

EPS Grau plans to leverage AWS for business intelligence related to water consumption. “We aim to analyze consumer trends, payment methods, and provide better service based on water consumption measurement,” says Sandoval. The company intends to acquire electromagnetic meters to understand customer consumption trends and identify potential fraud to reduce water bill costs.