Solmar Villas Case Study

Background

Solmar Villas, a leading provider of luxury villa rentals, faced significant issues with their existing AWS server infrastructure. These issues included performance bottlenecks, security vulnerabilities, high monthly costs, and the use of several AWS services that were not fully utilized. High traffic volumes caused the website to become unresponsive multiple times, highlighting the need for a more efficient infrastructure management approach.

Objective

The primary objective was to optimize Solmar Villas’ infrastructure by addressing performance, security, and cost issues. This involved restructuring the server environment on AWS cloud with a focus on CI/CD automation, ensuring efficient management of resources across development, production, and staging environments.

Industry / Domain

Solmar Villas is a renowned provider of luxury villa rentals, offering private villas with pools in over 30 destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean, and Florida. With over 30 years of experience in the villa holiday industry, Solmar Villas has earned a reputation for excellence, winning 9 British Travel Awards in 2024.
Solmar Villas 1

Technology Stack

Group 889

Features

  • CI/CD Pipeline: Implemented using Bitbucket for version control and CI/CD processes.
  • Deployment: Utilized AWS Elastic Beanstalk for seamless application deployment.
  • Database Management: Managed databases using AWS MySQL RDS with a Single AZ.
  • Caching: Improved application performance with AWS ElastiCache for Redis caching.
  • File Storage: Stored configuration files and static assets in AWS S3, and stored images and data dumps in AWS EFS for easy access and management.
  • DNS/CDN/WAF: Used Cloudflare for DNS management, CDN services, caching, and WAF to enhance security and performance.
  • Monitoring: Implemented the EFK stack (Elasticsearch, Fluentd, Kibana) for comprehensive logging and monitoring.
  • User Management: Configured IAM users and roles for secure access and management.

Challenges

  • Performance issues with the existing AWS server infrastructure.
  • Security vulnerabilities and high monthly costs.
  •  Inefficient use of several AWS services.
  •  Website becoming unresponsive during high traffic hours.

Solution Delivered

  • Conducted a thorough assessment and review of Solmar Villas’ existing environment.
  • Recommended and implemented a restructured server environment on AWS cloud with a focus on CI/CD automation.
  •  Utilized AWS Elastic Beanstalk for application deployment, ensuring seamless updates and rollbacks.
  •  Managed load between Beanstalk group instances using an Application Load Balancer.
  •  Managed databases with AWS RDS, including MySQL with Single-AZ.
  •  Stored images and data dumps in AWS EFS for easy access and management.
  •  Improved application performance with AWS RedisCache for caching the RDS.
  •  Enabled fast data access and response with AWS OpenSearch.
  •  Stored configuration files and static assets in AWS S3 for easy access and management.
  •  Used Cloudflare for DNS management, CDN services, caching, and WAF to enhance security and performance.
  •  Implemented the EFK stack (Elasticsearch) for comprehensive logging and monitoring.
  •  Configured IAM users and roles for secure access and management of AWS resources.
  •  Set up an EC2 jump server to provide engineers with access to the Beanstalk environment when needed.

Benefits

  • Enhanced application performance and scalability.
  • Improved security with robust IAM configurations and Cloudflare WAF.
  •  Reduced monthly costs by optimizing the use of AWS services.
  •  Efficient deployment and resource management with a CI/CD pipeline.
  •  Reliable data management and backup with AWS services.