Symbiotics helps small businesses go digital with support from First Distribution

Symbiotics Application Services is an AWS Select Tier Services Partner offering software development as well as hosting, cloud enablement and consulting services to customers. Their clients include several local and international organizations across Africa.

In response to recent acceleration in the online shopping industry, Symbiotics began developing Letha Shop, an e-commerce platform designed to help small and micro businesses change their business models and go online quickly, easily and in a cost-effective way.

By partnering with First Distribution, an AWS Distributor, Symbiotics was able to design an optimized, scalable solution that adhered to AWS best practices.

To effectively support customers with launching their e-Commerce businesses, Letha Shop had to be secure, reliable, agile, and user-friendly. Letha had to simplify the process of setting up and utilizing online stores, enabling self-provisioning for clients to launch their offerings with little technical knowledge or expensive development.

“The solution had to make it simple for clients to set up their stores; with no software to install, easy to use and fast to spin up,” says Mike Love, CEO and Founder of Symbiotics Application Services.

Letha Shop had to be deployed quickly and with minimal up-front capital outlay. Because uptake and usage of the platform would be unpredictable, the solution needed the ability to start small and scale automatically to meet variable demand.

At the same time, there would be limited administration or support staff allocated to running the online store, and most clients would not be able to manage infrastructure at all. Self-provisioning would be a cornerstone of the solution, allowing users to easily adopt and interact with the platform.

Ensuring the solution architecture and design of the platform were optimized, secure, efficient, cost effective and reliable would be a critical component of Letha Shop’s adoption, growth and ultimate success. And as a “born on AWS” platform, Symbiotics also wanted to ensure that the solution adhered to AWS best practices. It is here where First Distribution, an AWS Well Architected Partner, played and continues to play a substantial part in supporting Symbiotics.

Symbiotics has been working with First Distribution for several years, receiving support developing and growing their AWS practice and navigating programs and benefits. First Distribution has also assisted with marketing and demand generation, go-to-market strategies, training and enablement, and AWS Well Architected Framework reviews.

When Symbiotics determined that running their solution on AWS would provide the flexibility, security, and speed they needed to go to market quickly and to automate and scale efficiently, they knew that First Distribution’s technical expertise would be invaluable in designing and deploying Letha Shop.

With help from First Distribution, Symbiotics designed their AWS serverless compute solution to adhere to best practices and to deliver continuous cloud optimization as their platform grows.

First Distribution performs continuous review and high-risk issue (HRI) remediation for Letha Shop, helping to keep the solution optimized to support the continued success of the platform and deliver on user requirements

In addition, First Distribution conducts independent Well Architected Framework Reviews for Symbiotics that focus on security, reliability, performance and cost optimization. The reviews support Symbiotics’ technical teams by proactively identifying and addressing high-risk issues, helping to optimize the customer experience and allowing Symbiotics to keep their solution cost effective.

First Distribution played a significant role in aiding Symbiotics through the AWS Well-Architected Review Framework. By leveraging their expertise in AWS, First Distribution provided Symbiotics with a thorough review of their cloud infrastructure, identifying areas for improvement and optimization.

Through this collaboration, Symbiotics was able to make strategic changes to their system architecture, leading to enhanced performance, increased security, and cost savings. Overall, First Distribution's support was crucial in guiding Symbiotics towards a more efficient and effective cloud solution.

Today, Letha Shop is a subsidiary of Symbiotics. Together with Symbiotics and First Distribution, Letha continues to develop its platform and introduce new features. Letha aims to help clients to grow their businesses by continuously improving and evolving the platform.

Symbiotics continues to leverage First Distribution’s expertise to grow their AWS practice and to optimize Letha Shop through regular Well Architected Reviews.