Javelo Scales to Boost Growth, Supports International Expansion with A1 Cloud Technologies on AWS
Executive Summary
Javelo, a Tellent owned company, migrated to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and cut its infrastructure maintenance and support costs by 98 percent. The company was faced with strong growth and a looming international launch—and a need to innovate. It also needed to scale easily and build in strong security measures on a flexible infrastructure. Javelo worked with AWS Partner A1 Cloud Technologies to achieve its goals. Since migrating to AWS, it has seen a 200 percent increase in web traffic over 2 years and cut platform response times by 50 percent. Using AWS System Manager and AWS KMS they can easily comply with data regulations and focus on product innovation.
Supporting Short- and Long-Term Growth
Fast-growing French startup, Javelo, today part of the Tellent Group, was founded in 2015 and offers a software as a service (SaaS) product that helps employees set business objectives and improve skill sets and knowledge. The company’s talent management product is designed to be transparent and collaborative, supporting teams and individuals to find creative solutions and increase their productivity, helping to drive overall business performance. Both business managers and employees can use the tool to track employees’ progress and identify any areas where support is required.
The company’s market share was experiencing rapid growth in France and it had established a strong product fit for its target market. An international launch of the product was also imminent. However, its existing cloud platform was no longer meeting its needs on multiple levels and the IT team had not planned sufficiently for sudden growth. The company needed to meet its short-term needs, ensure that its infrastructure could support business expansion, and meet high data security requirements. “Our clients trust us to keep their HR data confidential—it’s crucial to what we do,” says Bakari Sumaila, CTO at Javelo.
Javelo identified several objectives for a new solution. It needed to scale up easily, support innovation, and have better control of the cloud services used. Javelo also wanted to reduce technical debt and ensure that they would comply with regulations and different data laws, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
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Working with A1 Cloud Technologies and using AWS granted us a modern cloud infrastructure, allowing us to grow without limits”
Bakari Sumaila
Chief Technology Officer, Javelo
Building in Platform Flexibility and Easy Scaling
Faced with a tight deadline to complete the project over 4 months during the summer of 2021, and with few internal resources to support the project, the company turned to AWS Partner A1 Cloud Technologies to help them migrate their platform to AWS. “A1 Cloud Technologies was a natural choice for us, based on my previous knowledge of working with them on AWS migration and modernization projects,” says Bakari Sumaila.
Javelo began working with A1 Cloud Technologies to migrate its IT setup to AWS and completed the migration in the agreed timeframe. While it was important that the Partner met the company’s key requirements to support growth, they also wanted the flexibility to both scale automatically and manually set scaling limits. Additional factors they needed included an easy-to-manage infrastructure and the ability to control costs better.
The new cloud architecture was built mainly using a combination of Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), which runs highly secure, reliable, and scalable containers, along with AWS Fargate, which provides serverless compute for containers. “Our IT team was trained by A1 Cloud Technologies throughout the project so they could easily get to grips with the new AWS platform,” says Bakari Sumaila. “After conducting multiple tests to check the limits of the new system, we were fully operational by summer end—and we gained valuable hands-on experience of using AWS.”
Setting up Strong Data Security Measures and Access Management
A1 Cloud Technologies and Javelo next worked on data security by isolating databases at the network level and centralizing related cloud resources to support security management and monitoring. For this, they used a number of AWS services, including AWS Systems Manager, to manage resources on AWS and store API keys, while keeping confidential data secure. They also used AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) to create and control keys to encrypt its data at rest and Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) to easily store, share, and deploy container software anywhere. This helps to scan Docker images and manage IAM groups and roles for user access control.
A1 Cloud Technologies also built in a semi-automated process to assign administrative rights to developers who are only allowed access to production environments only when required—under the supervision of the CTO and the Technical Lead. “This allowed to ensure the principle of least privilege, and to grant access to production environments only during maintenance” says Bakari Sumaila. “Throughout the project, A1 Cloud Technologies carefully listened to our needs in order to match them with the appropriate AWS services.”
Using AWS, the company’s security setup has given Javelo’s customers confidence and is helping to acquire new ones. It is also now much easier to enter new markets and meet strict compliance regulations and data privacy laws. “Customers feel assured they can trust us with their data, and since the migration, the acquisition success rate, when we are in contact with the legal or technical departments for audits, increased by more than 36 percent.” says Bakari.
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Customers feel assured they can trust us with their data, and since the migration, the acquisition success rate, when we are in contact with the legal or technical departments for audits, has increased by more than 36%”
Bakari Sumaila
Chief Technology Officer, Javelo
Supporting SaaS Traffic Growth by 200%
Built on AWS, Javelo now has a stable and highly scalable platform. It can also easily adapt to traffic and limit cloud costs by automatically sizing workloads during specific times of the week, depending on expected usage figures. In just two years the company has seen a 200 percent increase in platform traffic and response times have been reduced by 50 percent. “Stability and cost control were essential to this project,” says Marc-Antoine Adélise, managing director at A1 Cloud Technologies. “Javelo now has a solid infrastructure that will help support its ambitious growth targets.”
Because Javelo can now benefit from managed services, it has helped to maintain the size of its IT team and reduced operational expenditure. “We now only spend 2 hours a quarter on platform maintenance and support, which has reduced said costs by 98 percent,” says Bakari Sumaila. “We can now use this time to develop new features for our users.”
Javelo has also benefited strongly from containerization, which has supported innovation and new services development with the support and expertise of A1 Cloud Technologies. “We have been able to launch many new services and strengthen our product offering for HR departments and employees,” says Bakari Sumaila. “Amazon ECS really helped us to easily modernise our software architecture. This made it much easier to increase our visibility with HR departments and integrate machine learning into our product using Amazon SageMaker.”
By building on AWS, Javelo has greatly improved performance and its product’s user experience. “Working with A1 Cloud Technologies and using AWS granted us a modern cloud infrastructure, allowing us to grow without limits.” says Bakari Sumaila. “ We no longer worry about software performance and now focus on innovation and making our customers happy—that’s the goal of any business.”
And this is just the beginning. The modularity of these new features also helps to adapt the SaaS software publisher's offer to the different legal and regulatory contexts of other countries where the platform is offered.
And since the migration was entirely satisfactory, the relationship between Javelo and A1 Cloud Technologies is further strengthened: “We still regularly call on A1 to deploy innovative services,” emphasises Bakari Sumaila.
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About Javelo
Javelo (by Tellent) is an online human resources (HR) tool delivered as software as a service. The platform lets HR teams optimize employee performance through setting and monitoring objectives to help build skills and promote professional development. The platform supports periodic performance reviews, employee surveys, 360-degree feedback, and identifies areas for further training and development. Overall, Javelo helps improve and simplify the HR function, drive employee engagement, and boost business success through the solid support of business personnel.
AWS Services Used
Benefits
- 200% increase in web traffic with high scalability
- 50% reduction in software response times
- 98% cut in maintenance and support costs
About AWS Partner A1 Cloud Technologies
A1 Cloud Technologies, based in France, supports companies of all sizes and provides deep expertise in DevOps, infrastructure, and cloud development. The company provides a range of services that support cloud migration and the enhancement of existing AWS setups. It supports the design and creation of tailor-made architectures that focus on security, scalability, and cost control to allow businesses to focus on developing customer value.
Published Septiembre 2023