No Limits, No Downtime: illuxi Achieves 100% Uptime on AWS

illuxi offers dynamic, bilingual e-learning experiences through its advanced LMS and LXP, equipping government agencies and public institutions with the tools needed to train and upskill their workforces. With a growing content library and expertise in digital learning, the company supports more than 200,000 learners each month. As demand surged, new contracts brought thousands of additional users, including the Montreal School Board, which required onboarding 23,000 employees. While its platform expanded, so did the challenges of scalability, performance, and security. illuxi needed infrastructure that could handle rapid growth, support high-demand environments, and meet stringent compliance requirements.

The urgency of these challenges was felt most when a popular Canadian morning show featured illuxi’s platform, driving a surge in traffic that exposed the platform’s technical limitations. illuxi’s system crashed under the load, highlighting scalability gaps and performance bottlenecks. As public-sector clients onboarded thousands of users at once, the need for a more resilient, adaptable infrastructure became clear. illuxi required a cloud foundation that could scale to demand while maintaining uninterrupted service. “Every new customer brings thousands of learners. We needed confidence that our platform could grow with them—without limits,” explained Philippe Richard Bertrand, CEO at illuxi.

Beyond infrastructure strain, security and operational challenges added complexity. illuxi’s customers—many of them public institutions—required strict data protection and compliance measures like meeting SOC 2 requirements, but the platform lacked automated security monitoring and threat detection. Meeting SOC 2 compliance required proactive security controls, real-time threat alerts, and structured access management—areas that illuxi’s existing infrastructure couldn’t support efficiently. Meanwhile, maintaining the system pulled engineers away from innovating. “We’re not an infrastructure company. Every hour spent fixing systems was time lost on building a better product,” said Marc-André Lanciault, chief of product at illuxi.

That’s when Unicorne called. Known for helping software-driven businesses untangle complex infrastructure challenges, the AWS Partner stood out from the start. “I usually hang up on cold calls,” Lanciault said. “This time, I didn’t—probably because Unicorne didn’t sound like salespeople.” Rather than leading with a pitch, Unicorne introduced a structured plan to assess illuxi’s infrastructure, leading to an AWS Well-Architected Review. The evaluation surfaced 12 key recommendations, each prioritized based on effort and impact. These ranged from optimizing database queries and refining access controls to configuring automated scaling policies and improving cost efficiency. “Unicorne’s review didn’t just identify problems—it mapped out exactly where to start and what to prioritize,” Lanciault said.

For its database infrastructure, Unicorne adopted AWS services that optimized performance and ensured scalability to keep up with growing user activity. Unicorne migrated illuxi to Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for Amazon Aurora for MySQL with AWS Graviton instances, reconfiguring database parameters and resizing workloads to align with Graviton’s architecture. As part of the migration, Unicorne refined query execution for efficiency and adjusted read replicas to distribute traffic more effectively.

To manage fluctuating traffic demands, Unicorne configured Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) with AWS Fargate to dynamically scale illuxi’s workloads, setting minimum and maximum scaling thresholds based on CPU and memory utilization. This setup allowed Amazon ECS to provision and deallocate resources automatically, preventing over-provisioning while maintaining availability. The transition involved restructuring Amazon ECS task definitions and integrating Amazon CloudWatch, giving illuxi’s team real-time visibility into containerized workloads.

Security and compliance were also central to the project, particularly meeting SOC 2 requirements. Unicorne deployed AWS Web Application Firewall (AWS WAF) and Amazon GuardDuty, configuring custom rule sets to monitor for abnormal traffic patterns and potential threats. To align with compliance requirements, Unicorne integrated Amazon GuardDuty alerts with Jira Service Management, allowing security incidents to be logged and triaged within illuxi’s existing workflows. Unicorne automated illuxi’s infrastructure deployment using Terraform-based Infrastructure as Code (IaC), making configurations version controlled and repeatable across environments. Throughout the engagement, Unicorne maintained direct communication with illuxi’s engineering team, providing real-time support in a dedicated Slack channel for troubleshooting and architectural refinements.

By migrating to Amazon Aurora for MySQL on Graviton, illuxi reduced database costs by 30 percent while improving performance and scalability. With Amazon ECS and AWS Fargate, workloads scale automatically to meet demand, supporting a 10 percent month-over-month increase in active learners. “Scaling used to be something we had to plan for—now it just happens, and we can focus on expanding our reach,” said Bertrand. Additionally, Unicorne implemented AWS Savings Plans, cutting compute expenses by 20–30 percent.

Security and compliance also improved. As part of illuxi’s pursuit of SOC 2 compliance, Unicorne configured Amazon GuardDuty to provide continuous security monitoring, surfacing real-time alerts in Jira. This automated approach streamlined security oversight and reinforced compliance efforts. AWS WAF and Amazon GuardDuty also eliminated manual threat monitoring, and since implementation, illuxi has experienced zero unplanned downtime. “Deployments are smoother, and our team has more time to focus on what matters—building better learning experiences,” said Lanciault. With IaC, engineers redirected 30 percent of their time from troubleshooting infrastructure to advancing product development. Instead of resolving infrastructure issues internally, they now rely on Unicorne for quick resolutions, allowing them to stay focused on innovation.

With a more scalable, secure, and cost-efficient foundation, illuxi is well-positioned to support its growing learner base while continuing to enhance its platform. As demand rises, its infrastructure is no longer a constraint—it’s a competitive advantage.