Case Study: Kimbal System Manager
Customer Overview
Kimbal Technologies is a fast-growing enterprise operating multiple production workloads on AWS across development, staging, and production environments. The infrastructure includes EC2 instances, application servers, and supporting services that require consistent configuration, patching, and operational governance.
As the organization scaled, maintaining operational consistency, security compliance, and visibility across instances became increasingly complex.
Business Challenges
Kimbal required centralized visibility and control over its distributed EC2 infrastructure.
Manual server management was leading to:
- Inconsistent patching cycles
- Limited operational visibility
- Increased risk of configuration drift
- Higher operational overhead
- Security and compliance concerns
The organization needed an automated, secure, and scalable solution to manage infrastructure efficiently
without increasing administrative burden.
Key Challenges
- Managing patch compliance across multiple EC2 instances
- Ensuring consistent configuration across environments
- Reducing manual intervention in routine operational tasks
- Maintaining audit trails for compliance requirements
- Securing administrative access without exposing SSH/RDP ports
- Improving visibility into system health and inventory
AWS-Powered Solution by i2k2 Networks
Solution Overview
i2k2 Networks implemented a centralized infrastructure management solution using
AWS Systems Manager as the core operational control plane.
The solution integrates:
- AWS Systems Manager – Centralized instance management
- Amazon EC2 – Application and backend servers
- Systems Manager Patch Manager – Automated patching
- Systems Manager Session Manager – Secure remote access
- Systems Manager Automation – Operational runbooks
- Systems Manager Inventory – Configuration tracking
- Amazon CloudWatch – Monitoring and alerting
- AWS CloudTrail – Audit and governance
All production and staging EC2 instances were onboarded into Systems Manager
using the SSM Agent with IAM role-based access.
Solution Highlights
Centralized Systems Management
- All EC2 instances registered under Systems Manager Fleet Manager
- Real-time visibility into instance health and configuration
- Unified dashboard for infrastructure operations
- Tag-based grouping for environment-level management
Patch Management & Compliance
- Patch baselines defined as per OS standards
- Automated patch deployment using Maintenance Windows
- Compliance reports generated for audit readiness
- Reduced vulnerability exposure through timely updates
Patch operations are fully automated without downtime for critical workloads
through controlled scheduling.
Automation & Operational Efficiency
- Standardized runbooks created for routine activities
- Automated instance restart, service validation, and configuration updates
- Reduced manual administrative effort
- Faster incident resolution through predefined automation documents
Security & Access Governance
- Session Manager enabled for secure access
- No inbound SSH/RDP ports exposed
- IAM role-based access control implemented
- Encrypted session logging enabled
- Centralized access audit via CloudTrail
This significantly improved security posture while simplifying access management.
Monitoring & Audit
- CloudWatch monitors instance metrics (CPU, memory, disk)
- Patch compliance dashboards track vulnerability status
- CloudTrail logs all Systems Manager API actions
- Centralized logging improves governance and traceability
Outcomes & Business Impact
- 100% centralized visibility of EC2 infrastructure
- Improved patch compliance across environments
- Reduced manual server management effort
- Enhanced security by eliminating direct SSH/RDP exposure
- Faster troubleshooting with centralized monitoring
- Improved audit readiness with automated compliance reports
Kimbal achieved operational standardization and improved governance without increasing infrastructure complexity.
Conclusion
By implementing AWS Systems Manager, i2k2 Networks delivered a secure, automated, and centralized infrastructure management solution for Kimbal Technologies.
The solution improved compliance, reduced operational overhead, and strengthened security controls—demonstrating i2k2 Networks’ capability to design and implement enterprise-grade AWS Systems Manager solutions aligned with AWS Systems Manager