Case Study - FSM

Prior to the migration, FSM’s website and application infrastructure were hosted entirely on on-premises public servers, which lacked proper isolation, scalability, and security controls. The infrastructure faced several operational challenges: 

• Public Exposure & Security Risks: The application and database were directly accessible from the internet, increasing the risk of unauthorized access and data exposure. 
• Configuration Management Issues: Maintaining consistent configurations on-premises was complex and time-consuming, often leading to service instability. 
• Scalability Limitations: The legacy environment could not efficiently handle increasing website traffic, particularly during admission seasons. 
• Load Testing Requirements: FSM wanted to perform load testing to ensure the site could manage high concurrent traffic without affecting performance or availability. 

To address these issues, FSM required a private, secure, and high-performing AWS infrastructure that would ensure uptime, protect sensitive data, and support load testing for future scalability. 

A secure, AWS-native infrastructure was designed and deployed for FSM to ensure privacy, reliability, and performance while meeting their operational and security objectives. 

Solution Highlights 

Private & Secure Cloud Infrastructure 

• FSM’s application and database servers were deployed within private subnets inside an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), ensuring no direct public exposure. 
• OpenVPN was implemented to provide secure, encrypted access for administrators and developers. 
• The VPN server is the only publicly accessible endpoint; all other resources remain isolated in private subnets. 
• NAT Gateway and VPC endpoints were configured to enable controlled outbound access for patching and updates. 

Compute, Networking & Performance

• Amazon EC2 instances host FSM’s application and database workloads, optimized for reliability and performance. 
• Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) was implemented to distribute incoming traffic evenly across servers, ensuring high availability. 
• Amazon Route 53 manages DNS routing for the fsm.ac.in domain with improved latency and failover handling. 
• Amazon S3 is used for storing static files, website assets, and backups, reducing load on the main servers. 

• FSM’s environment was configured to support load testing for traffic simulation and performance validation. 
• The architecture supports future Auto Scaling to dynamically increase or decrease capacity based on website demand. 
• AWS services were selected to maintain a balance between cost efficiency and performance. 

• Enhanced Security: All workloads are now isolated in private subnets with secure VPN access, eliminating public exposure. 
• High Availability: Load balancing ensures consistent performance and uptime even under heavy load. 
• Scalability Ready: The new environment supports load testing and future auto-scaling for peak traffic periods. 
• Operational Efficiency: Simplified management and faster deployments through AWS-native tools. 
• Cost Optimization: Predictable monthly costs with optimized resource usage across compute, storage, and networking. 

By migrating to AWS, FORE School of Management successfully transitioned from a publicly hosted on-premises setup to a secure, private, and scalable cloud environment. The new architecture not only strengthens FSM’s data security and reliability but also ensures seamless website performance during peak academic cycles. 

This cloud transformation, delivered by i2k2 Networks, empowers FSM to focus on its core mission of providing world-class education while maintaining operational excellence, scalability, and compliance on AWS.