Onix and AWS Help Workforce Software Providers Achieve Flexibility and Scalability in the Cloud

eResourcePlanner, a staff resource management software provider, was looking for a way to upgrade its capabilities and replace a technology vendor that was no longer meeting its needs. The customer wanted to transition from its existing on-prem environment to a more capable, scalable, and flexible cloud service. Its research into market offerings revealed that AWS was most closely aligned with its business needs, so the company was interested in finding a partner that could assist not only with the migration, but also by providing ongoing support for its new environment. Onix helped them migrate to an AWS environment created under the Onix AWS customer Control Tower tenant.

eResourcePlanner had been part of a multi-tenant SaaS environment through an on-prem colocation arrangement. Its colocation provider was also managing its infrastructure. As the enterprise needs expanded and matured, the organization determined its existing environment wasn’t delivering the optimal level of functionality, and that the services it was receiving was no longer adequate for its needs. The company sought to transform its operations and increase its business agility. It was clear they needed access to greater capabilities to support its business objectives. eResourcePlanner determined it would be best served by migrating its environment to the AWS Cloud.

eResourcePlanner had already documented its current environment and created a preliminary strategy to right-size its server footprint in the cloud. Its environment consisted of application servers running on Windows Server, and database servers running MySQL. After partnering with eResourcePlanner to evaluate their current capabilities and comfort level with cloud services, Onix recreated their environment using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, upgrading them to a newer version of Windows Server.

eResourcePlanner also had a unique challenge; its app ran code that its customers created, so the company needed a solution that allowed its customerss to upload a file securely and have it running within a reasonably short timeframe. To enable their customers to upload files securely, Onix set up Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) for eResourcePlanner, connecting it to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket. That S3 bucket was then monitored by a AWS Lambda function that automatically moved the latest file upload onto a Windows instance, which in some cases was part of AWS Elastic Beanstalk. The SFTP setup, Lambda function, and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) instances worked well for both eResourcePlanner and its customers.

High level architecture diagram designed to show eResourcePlanner's SaaS environment workloads in AWS.

eResourcePlanner knew up front that there was a clear need to move to a public cloud. After multiple discussions with Onix, the customer realized AWS was the most optimal choice for scalability and breadth of services offered, and of the most importance to them and their future workload and use case considerations. In addition, the need to enable secure file uploads with short turnarounds for production availability made an AWS environment an excellent fit. Lastly, the chosen AWS services such as AWS Lambda, Amazon RDS, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Amazon S3, and Amazon EC2 proved to work very well when the new solution was implemented.

eResourcePlanner was not satisfied with how the colocation provider was managing its environment. AWS introduced Onix, a trusted AWS Partner offering consulting services to the customer. The eResourcePlanner team really liked the migration approach and proven methodology Onix offered, and were also eager to leverage the resources of a deeply knowledgeable and experienced Managed Service Provider partner. eResourcePlanner recognized and appreciated Onix's strong customer focus.

The AWS platform has provided eResourcePlanner with a more stable environment and better SLAs than with the previous on-prem colocation provider arrangement. The customer is so pleased with its migration that it plans to transition to the Onix MSP program so Onix can also manage its environment. The migration enabled eResourcePlanner to achieve more stability and faster and better service at a price point similar to their colocation expenditure. eResourcePlanner also now enjoy elevated service levels delivered by AWS and Onix, along with more responsive customer support and deeper expertise managing the physical infrastructure. The Onix MSP program and hard SLAs were additional compelling reasons for the  eResourcePlanner’s migration; the shift provided them with greater peace of mind that its digital transformation has taken a solid path.