Case Study: BLS Manage Services
Customer Overview
BLS International is a global leader in technology-enabled services for governments and diplomatic missions, specializing in visa, passport, consular, and citizen services. Operating across multiple geographies, BLS relies on secure, highly available, and scalable digital platforms to support mission-critical workloads, high transaction volumes, and sensitive personal data processing.
To ensure operational continuity, security, and cost efficiency across its AWS environments, BLS engaged i2k2 Networks as its AWS Managed Services Provider (MSP) to conduct ongoing audits, optimization, and operational governance.
Business Challenges
BLS operates multiple AWS accounts across regions (Frankfurt, Beijing, Mumbai) hosting production, staging, and development workloads. As usage expanded, BLS required:
- Clear visibility into AWS resource utilization and costs
- Stronger security posture and access controls
- Standardized backup and recovery mechanisms
- Continuous monitoring and operational governance
- Actionable optimization recommendations without service disruption
The absence of centralized governance and inconsistent security configurations increased operational risk and management overhead.
Key Challenges
- Complex Multi-Account AWS Footprint
Multiple AWS accounts with EC2, RDS, EKS, S3, Lambda, and networking services required unified visibility and governance. - Security Exposure Risks
Several EC2 security groups had publicly open ports beyond required services; MFA was not uniformly enforced for IAM users. - Backup & DR Consistency
Backup policies varied across accounts and regions, increasing recovery risk during incidents. - Cost Optimization Gaps
Underutilized EC2 instances and oversized workloads increased infrastructure costs. - Limited Centralized Observability
Monitoring, logging, and utilization reporting needed standardization for proactive operations.
AWS-Powered Solution by i2k2 Networks
i2k2 Networks implemented a comprehensive AWS Managed Services and Cloud Audit framework tailored for BLS, covering performance, security, cost, and operational excellence.
Core AWS Services Managed
- Amazon EC2, EBS, AMI, Snapshots
- Amazon S3
- Elastic Load Balancing
- AWS Backup & Lifecycle Manager
- Amazon EKS
- AWS Lambda
- Amazon CloudWatch
- AWS WAF
- Amazon GuardDuty
- AWS IAM
- Amazon Route 53
Solution Highlights
- Infrastructure Visibility & Audit
- Conducted detailed audits across multiple AWS accounts identifying active EC2, storage, networking, and managed services
- Documented instance sizing, utilization trends, AMI sprawl, snapshot growth, and storage consumption
- Security Hardening
- Reviewed security group rules and identified publicly open ports requiring restriction
- Recommended enforcement of IAM MFA policies for all privileged users
- Validated WAF deployment protecting internet-facing workloads
- Leveraged GuardDuty for continuous threat detection
- Backup & Disaster Recovery
- Standardized AWS Backup plans with:
- Daily backups (3-day retention)
- Weekly backups (2-week retention)
- Automated EBS snapshot lifecycle management
- Validated recovery readiness across production workloads
- Performance & Utilization Optimization
- Analyzed CloudWatch metrics for CPU, memory, and disk utilization
- Identified opportunities for instance rightsizing where utilization remained low
- Flagged high-utilization database workloads for future scaling strategies
Security & Compliance
- IAM access review across 10+ users per account
- Principle of least privilege recommendations
- MFA enforcement roadmap
- WAF protection validated for external-facing applications
- Backup retention aligned with operational and compliance needs
Scalability & High Availability
- Reviewed Auto Scaling Groups and Load Balancers across regions
- Validated multi-AZ deployment readiness where applicable
- Ensured AMI and snapshot availability for rapid recovery and scale-out
Monitoring & Operational Efficiency
- Centralized monitoring using Amazon CloudWatch
- Alerting integrated with Amazon SNS
- Monthly utilization and cost reports delivered to stakeholders
- Proactive identification of security, capacity, and availability risks
Outcomes & Business Impact
- Improved Security Posture
Reduced attack surface through tightened security groups and IAM best practices - Operational Stability
Standardized backups and lifecycle policies reduced recovery risks - Cost Optimization Opportunities Identified
Rightsizing recommendations lowered unnecessary compute spend - Enhanced Visibility & Governance
Unified view of AWS resources across multiple accounts and regions - Audit-Ready AWS Environment
Continuous documentation and reporting aligned with compliance expectations
Why i2k2 Networks
- 26+ years of hosting and cloud services expertise
- AWS Advanced Tier Partner with MSP specialization
- 24×7×365 Managed Services Operations
- ISO-aligned operational and security practices
- Proven experience managing large, multi-region AWS environments
Conclusion
Through its AWS Managed Services engagement, i2k2 Networks enabled BLS International to gain full visibility, improved security, operational resilience, and cost control across its AWS landscape. The structured audit-driven approach ensured BLS could operate mission-critical citizen services securely and reliably while maintaining readiness for future scale and compliance requirements.
About i2k2 Networks
i2k2 Networks is the No.1 Dedicated Web Hosting company in India and a trusted name in the IT cloud hosting services industry that offers a full gamut of cutting edge enterprise solutions which drive business in today's Internet-powered world. Our folio includes Dedicated Servers, Cloud Hosting- Public, Private and Hybrid, Data Center Services, Business Email Solutions, Managed IT Services, Backup, and DR Solutions, DevOps Services, Cloud Enablement, Enterprise Hardware solutions, and various other integrated services. A team of dedicated and professionally driven IT experts conversant with diverse client requirements are available 24x7x365 to provide extended support. With superior technologies to host, design and develop high-quality websites and applications, we ensure to deliver unmatched value to our clients.