Rebura Migrates PageSuite’s Databases to AWS to Reduce Risk and Boost Performance
Executive Summary
When PageSuite’s server colocation contract was due to expire, it urgently needed to migrate its on-premises database of customer images and PDF documents, as any loss of data or downtime could take down those customers’ sites and apps. It worked with AWS Partner Rebura to successfully migrate to Amazon Web Services (AWS) using Amazon Route 53, Amazon RDS for SQL Server and Amazon CloudFront in just 5 weeks, with only 10 minutes of total downtime.
Urgent Migration Needed as PageSuite Server Colocation Contract Due to Expire
PageSuite, founded in 2006 and based in the UK, is a digital publishing company that helps media organizations deliver content in digital, mobile, and tablet formats to enhance user engagement. The company provides services for some of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including The Sun, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.
PageSuite had already migrated some operations to AWS but faced a difficult decision about renewing its colocated databases, which housed images and PDF documents for PageSuite’s many customers. Any loss of data or downtime could take down those customers’ sites and apps.
A failure of its database servers was unthinkable. It would disrupt services for its customers and their audiences. With a server colocation contract about to expire, PageSuite wanted to improve reliability and responsiveness by migrating its database to AWS. To do that, it wanted experienced, expert guidance and chose AWS Partner Rebura, to advise and collaborate on the project.
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We have a fault-tolerant system. That’s worth so much. If we’d gone down on the old system and taken a bunch of clients offline, the cost would have been enormous, both in reputation and monetary damages.”
Mark Godden
Chief Technology Officer, PageSuite
Moving Media Databases to AWS
PageSuite migrated its front-end operations, which served the content to customers, to AWS a number of years earlier but wasn’t able to move its database at that time. The company couldn't architect a system that could handle the large volumes of traffic it received. As a solution, PageSuite used tools such as Amazon CloudFront—a content delivery network (CDN) service built for high performance, security, and developer convenience—to cache content from its on-premises Microsoft SQL Server database at the edge.
PageSuite was running its database using a colocation hosting provider. However, its contract was coming to an end and the servers were going out of support unless it enrolled in a new contract. The company needed to decide if it was going to renew its databases or migrate them to the cloud. As part of its evaluation, PageSuite asked its colocation provider to run a test to see how long it would take to restore the system if it failed. “Just restoring the testing data took 5 hours,” says Mark Godden, chief technology officer (CTO) at PageSuite. “The estimated time to restore the whole database was 4 or 5 days. We couldn’t allow that to continue—we needed to change.”
PageSuite realized it needed to act quickly so it reached out to Rebura for support and advice. “The system colocation agreement was about to end and, when you looked at it, the system didn’t have the resiliency, the fault tolerance, or the scalability that PageSuite needed,” says Sam Samarasekera, client solutions director at Rebura. “The database had to move quickly but with minimal disruption to services.”
The key to making this happen was Amazon RDS for SQL Server, a way to set up, operate, and scale an SQL Server database in the cloud with just a few clicks. This option hadn’t been available several years earlier when PageSuite evaluated its cloud migration options. However, the company had a good experience with the adoption of Amazon CloudFront and its ongoing level of service and support from AWS.
PageSuite saw this as an opportunity to bring everything together in one place. “Using AWS for our databases simplifies keeping the server up to date and patched. We have access 24/7 to do what we need with good transparency and speed,” says Godden. “That’s all part of the service from AWS. Updating our servers in the colocation took a lot of time on the phone with the colocation center.”
Collaboration Makes for a Quick Migration
Rebura worked together with PageSuite on a plan for the migration of the colocated database servers to the cloud. By collaborating closely with Rebura, PageSuite could ensure its needs and concerns were always part of the planning discussions. In addition, PageSuite’s IT team could do some of the actual work the pair of companies planned together. Sharing the workload helped PageSuite save costs and gain expertise in the new system. “PageSuite’s team did a lot,” says Samarasekera. “We helped with design, helped with troubleshooting, and helped with some of the hands-on stuff. It was a truly collaborative effort, which is quite rare, really. Most of the time we’re tasked with a project and just told to ‘make it happen’.”
There was a real back-and-forth in the collaboration, recalls Godden. PageSuite was working to a very tight timeline and made the choice to remove some safeguards, meaning errors were more likely. “Rebura, I want to be clear, did not suggest this,” says Godden. “They were very good about explaining the possible risks, but once we were informed, they respected our decisions and worked with us to still find the safest way to take those risks.”
That combination of planning and boldness paid off. Once the plan was in place, PageSuite and Rebura were able to complete the full migration in just 5 weeks. And they did it with only 10 minutes of downtime, thanks to the use of Amazon Route 53, a reliable and cost-effective way to route end users to internet applications to make sure its customers’ applications could always reach their data and resolve a query.
The migration to AWS has saved PageSuite a lot of worry and delivered a lot of value. “We’re saving a few hundred pounds per month—but the real value is immense,” says Godden. “We’re getting much more for our money. We can afford much larger instances than what our colocation could provide. We’ve upgraded to a newer version of SQL Server. We have a fault-tolerant system with multiple availability zones. That’s all worth so much. And then there’s peace of mind. The old system carried more risk with it. If it had failed and any of our customers went offline, the cost could have been enormous, both in reputation and monetary damages.”
PageSuite is now all-in on AWS and can serve up its customers’ content with confidence. “We did a test and the restore time was only about 20 minutes instead of the previous 5 hours,” says Godden. “And we can now create restore copies daily, meaning if we did have to restore, there’d be very little lost. This means we can focus on innovation and growing the business.”
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About PageSuite
PageSuite is a digital publishing company that helps media organizations deliver content in digital, mobile, and tablet formats to enhance user engagement. Headquartered in the UK, the company provides digital content services for many of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines.
AWS Services Used
Benefits
- Migrated database in just 5 weeks with only 10 minutes downtime
- Minimized failure risk with multiple availability zones and improved backup strategies
- 93% faster restore test results
- Cut monthly costs while increasing instance size
About AWS Partner Rebura
Rebura is a software company and AWS Service Provider that focuses purely on using AWS technologies to help its customers increase productivity, scalability, cost efficiency, and security.
Published February 2024