Case Study - Agra University

Prior to migration, DBRAU’s infrastructure was hosted on public EC2 instances with security groups configured to allow global access on all ports. This setup presented significant security and operational challenges: 

• Public Exposure & Security Risks: All ports were globally open, exposing the infrastructure to unauthorized access and potential cyberattacks. 
• Configuration Management Issues: Lack of isolation and inconsistent configurations made management complex and increased the risk of service instability. 
• Scalability Limitations: The infrastructure could not handle fluctuating workloads efficiently, limiting flexibility during peak academic or administrative periods. 
• Compliance & Monitoring Deficiencies: Absence of integrated monitoring and security tools hindered proactive detection and mitigation of threats. 

To address these challenges, DBRAU required a private, secure, and scalable AWS environment following best practices.

A secure, AWS-native infrastructure was designed and implemented for DBRAU to meet security, compliance, and performance objectives.

Solution Highlights

Private & Secure Cloud Infrastructure

• EC2 application and database instances were moved to private subnets within an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), eliminating 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 enable controlled outbound access for updates and patching.

Compute, Networking & High Availability

• Amazon EC2 instances are deployed across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) to ensure high availability and fault tolerance.
• Amazon RDS is deployed in a Multi-AZ configuration for the database, providing automatic failover in case of AZ failure.
• Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) ensures efficient distribution of traffic across EC2 instances in different AZs.
• Security groups and NACLs were meticulously configured to restrict access and eliminate global exposure.

Security & Compliance

• AWS Config continuously assesses and audits AWS resource configurations against best practices.
• Amazon GuardDuty provides continuous monitoring for threats and anomalous activity.
• AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) protects against common network and application-layer attacks.
• All ports and network access were verified to ensure no public exposure beyond the VPN server.

• The infrastructure supports load testing for workload simulation and performance validation.
• Auto Scaling is enabled to dynamically adjust EC2 capacity based on demand.
• AWS-native services were selected to optimize both cost and performance.

• Enhanced Security: Workloads are fully isolated in private subnets with secure VPN access, eliminating public exposure.
• High Availability: EC2 instances across multiple AZs and RDS Multi-AZ deployment ensure fault tolerance and uninterrupted service.
• Scalability Ready: Supports load testing and dynamic Auto Scaling for variable workloads.
• Operational Efficiency: Simplified management and faster deployments through AWS-native tools.
• Cost Optimization: Predictable costs with efficient resource utilization across compute, storage, and networking.

By migrating to AWS, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University successfully transitioned from insecure public EC2 instances to a secure, private, and highly available cloud environment. The new architecture strengthens data security, ensures fault tolerance across multiple AZs, improves operational efficiency, and provides flexibility for future growth—all while adhering to AWS best practices.