9Logic Helps TLCengine Scale to Add 25,000 New Users by Moving Windows Workloads to AWS

9Logic worked closely with TLCengine to seamlessly migrate critical Windows-based real estate applications to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to meet 25 percent annual growth, give users a better experience, and cut IT costs by 50 percent. TLCengine, a real estate application provider, was able to move its Windows Server and SQL Server workloads to AWS, relying on services including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for Windows, Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for SQL Server, and CloudEndure Migration.

9Logic Technologies is a global IT consulting and solutions provider specializing in cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and application development. Based in Redmond, Washington, 9Logic works with large enterprises and small and midsize businesses across a range of industries.

An AWS Partner Network (APN) Advanced Consulting Partner and Amazon EC2 for Windows Server Delivery Partner, 9Logic helps its customers successfully move applications to the cloud. Our AWS business is growing quickly, and we continue to help our customers migrate from other cloud providers or physical data centers to AWS to overcome their scalability and performance challenges,” says Srikant Vemparala, President of 9Logic Technologies. One of these customers is TLCengine, which provides real estate applications for realtors and home buyers across the United States. Thousands of customers use TLCengine applications to search for homes and properties based on location, budget, or other preferences.

TLCengine ran its Microsoft Windows–based home-finding application on a combination of a public cloud environment and a data center. The company used Windows Server for the application and SQL Server for application databases. As TLCengine grew, it struggled to scale to support application traffic spikes. “With our previous public cloud, we weren’t able to add virtual servers quickly enough to manage growth,” says Krishna Malyala, Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of TLCengine. “Application performance was another challenge because we had connectivity issues between the data center and the cloud. It often took 10 minutes for new real estate listings to appear, which meant users weren’t getting the latest listings fast enough. We anticipate 25 percent business growth in the next year, so we needed to address this.”

Additionally, TLCengine sought better cost control. “We needed to optimize our costs, which were different for each account throughout the environment,” Malyala says. “Every time we added a new customer, our costs went up.”

9Logic worked with TLCengine to create an AWS Landing Zone with a multi-account environment so it could separate application deployment stages including development, staging, and production. “We started with a migration readiness assessment using the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF), which enabled us to design the right architecture for TLCengine’s requirements,” says Vemparala.

Then, 9Logic helped TLCengine architect an AWS infrastructure and migrate its Windows- and SQL Server–based workloads from its public cloud environment and the data center to AWS. TLCengine now runs its Windows applications and data on Amazon EC2 for Windows and Amazon RDS for SQL Server. 9Logic also uses CloudEndure Migration, an AWS service for preparing workloads and deploying them to the cloud. It also took advantage of AWS Database Migration Service to quickly migrate TLCengine databases to AWS. “With CloudEndure Migration and AWS Database Migration Service, we were able to simplify and streamline the entire migration process,” Vemparala says. 9Logic deployed Elastic Load Balancing to distribute traffic across multiple instances and AWS Auto Scaling to monitor applications and automatically adjust compute capacity based on demand. In addition, 9Logic used AWS Well-Architected Framework best practices for analyzing and implementing the TLCengine architecture.

TLCengine is now equipped to scale its Windows applications on demand as new customers are added. Vemparala says, “The scalability TLCengine can achieve on AWS will better prepare the company for business growth and other upcoming initiatives.” Malyala adds, “We can scale to meet demand without worrying about performance. We are onboarding two large customers, one of which is a realtor association that will have 25,000 agents working on our application. We could not scale automatically to support that in our previous environment. Using AWS, we can quickly add more listing services and real estate images without needing to manually add CPU and servers.”

By moving to AWS, TLCengine increased application performance for agents and home buyers. “We previously had application bottlenecks that slowed down the search function, but we no longer experience that on AWS,” says Malyala. “Our clients don’t have to wait 10 minutes for new listings to update, which significantly improves the user experience.”

9Logic has also helped TLCengine save money by using the AWS Well-Architected Framework to build the right architecture. “We have seen a 50 percent reduction in our operational costs by moving to AWS,” Malyala says. “In our old environment, we would have seen IT costs double or triple with the business growth we’re seeing.”

TLCengine expects to see additional cost savings and business benefits by expanding its AWS footprint. The company plans to modernize its Windows workloads on AWS and implement Amazon Aurora for serverless database management, as well as Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) for microservice and containerization management. “Having a partner like 9Logic, with comprehensive AWS experience, is invaluable,” says Malyala. “If we did this migration on our own, we would have made more mistakes and spent more money. Working with 9Logic, we are confident about moving more of our business to the cloud.”