Uploadcare Handles Millions of Files a Day for Businesses Worldwide

Startup Uploadcare gains IT infrastructure and support services to support growth while keeping costs down using AWS. The company provides a range of file handling services to businesses. AWS Auto Scaling ensures the infrastructure stays optimized while Amazon Rekognition Custom Labels enhances image search.

Founded in 2011, Uploadcare provides a range of file handling services for businesses. The startup adapts visual images for multiple devices and delivers content up to nine times faster than other content delivery networks while reducing costs by up to 86 percent.

Of the files it serves, 90 percent are delivered from a cache to increase speed, and more than 50 percent go through multiple adaptations. On any given day, Uploadcare processes around 500 million requests for file uploads and deliveries.

From the beginning, we needed infrastructure that didn’t require an upfront investment and could scale quickly,” says Igor Debatur, chief executive officer at Uploadcare.

The company chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) and joined AWS Activate, which provides startups with AWS credits, technical support, and training. “It helps optimize your infrastructure and services development,” says Debatur.

Using AWS, Uploadcare can constantly scale services while keeping running costs in check. For example, the startup uses AWS Auto Scaling, which automatically adjusts the AWS infrastructure to maintain performance at the lowest possible cost.

To reduce administration work, Uploadcare moved its PostgreSQL database from Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances to Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). As a result of the migration, the company gained cost-efficient and resizable capacity without time-consuming management.

“Thanks to Amazon RDS managing the database infrastructure, we no longer spend weeks preparing for upgrades. We can introduce new features faster,” says Dmitry Mukhin, principal engineer at Uploadcare.

The time Uploadcare has saved allows it to focus on development and integrating new AWS services—strengthening the company as a sustainable and reliable content delivery platform.

The firm has enhanced image search using Amazon Rekognition Custom Labels, which helps identify objects and scenes in images. Says Debatur, “Using advanced technologies from AWS, startups like us have a shot against much bigger firms in the market.”