Case Study - Shobiz Lambda

Shobiz faced multiple operational challenges that impacted application performance, security, scalability, and overall service reliability. As business demand increased, the existing infrastructure struggled to efficiently manage growing workloads, traffic variability, and data-intensive operations, resulting in higher operational overhead and performance constraints. 

The lack of optimized traffic distribution, limited visibility into system performance, and increasing security requirements made it difficult to maintain consistent service delivery across applications and users. 

Key Challenges 

• Performance & Latency Issues: Increasing application traffic and database workloads led to higher response times, impacting user experience during peak business operations. 
• Scalability Constraints: Rapid growth in compute and database demand required manual intervention, making it challenging to scale resources efficiently during workload spikes. 
• Security Risks: Public-facing endpoints and critical backend services required stronger protection against web threats, unauthorized access, and potential data exposure. 
• Limited Observability: Inadequate centralized monitoring and logging reduced visibility into system health, performance bottlenecks, and root-cause analysis. 
• Operational Complexity: Managing multiple application components, databases, and services without optimized automation increased operational effort and infrastructure management costs. 

i2k2 Networks designed and delivered a secure, production-grade AWS-native solution for Shobiz, aligned with the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The solution focused on improving application performance, scalability, security, and operational visibility while reducing infrastructure complexity and operational risk.

Solution Highlights 

Content Delivery & Performance Optimization 

• Deployed Amazon EC2–based application infrastructure to support Shobiz’s core business applications with reliable and consistent compute performance. 
• Implemented Elastic Load Balancing (Application Load Balancer) to efficiently distribute incoming traffic across multiple EC2 instances, improving fault tolerance and application availability. 
• Utilized Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) to manage transactional databases with improved reliability, performance, and simplified maintenance. 
• Leveraged Amazon OpenSearch Service to support search, analytics, and log analysis workloads, improving data visibility and operational insights. 
• Used Amazon S3 for secure and cost-effective storage of application assets, backups, and logs, reducing dependency on compute resources. 
• Optimized network architecture using Amazon VPC, enabling secure communication between services, controlled traffic flow, and reduced latency within the cloud environment. 
• Implemented Amazon Route 53 for reliable DNS management and improved application accessibility. 
• Enabled AWS WAF to protect application endpoints from malicious traffic while ensuring uninterrupted access for legitimate users. 
• Utilized Amazon CloudWatch for real-time monitoring of system performance and resource utilization, enabling proactive issue detection and faster resolution. 

Security & Compliance 

• Implemented AWS WAF to protect Shobiz’s public-facing application endpoints from common web threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and malicious bot traffic. 
• Deployed application workloads within a secure Amazon VPC, ensuring network isolation and controlled communication between cloud resources. 
• Configured security groups and network access controls to tightly regulate inbound and outbound traffic, significantly reducing the overall public attack surface. 
• Enabled AWS CloudTrail to capture and retain detailed API activity logs, supporting security auditing, governance, and compliance requirements. 
• Activated Amazon GuardDuty for continuous threat detection, allowing early identification of anomalous behavior, unauthorized access attempts, and potential security risks. 
• Utilized AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to manage encryption keys and protect sensitive data at rest and in transit. 
• Enabled Amazon CloudWatch for real-time monitoring, logging, and alerting on security events and system health, improving incident response and operational awareness. 

Scalability & High Availability 

• Deployed application workloads on Amazon EC2 within the Asia Pacific (Mumbai) region, providing reliable and scalable compute capacity to support Shobiz’s business-critical workloads. 
• Implemented Elastic Load Balancing (Application Load Balancer) to distribute incoming traffic across multiple EC2 instances, improving fault tolerance and ensuring consistent application availability. 
• Designed the infrastructure following Amazon VPC best practices, enabling secure network segmentation, controlled traffic flow, and improved resilience against component-level failures. 
• Ensured service continuity through optimized instance sizing, database performance tuning, and continuous resource monitoring using Amazon CloudWatch, allowing the platform to handle workload variations without service disruption. 

Notifications & Operational Efficiency 

• Utilized Amazon CloudWatch to monitor application performance, database health, and resource utilization, enabling proactive issue detection and faster incident response for Shobiz. 
• Enabled AWS CloudTrail to capture detailed API activity logs, improving operational visibility, governance, and audit readiness across the AWS environment. 
• Leveraged Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) to deliver system alerts and operational notifications, ensuring timely awareness of critical events and system status. 
• Streamlined operational workflows by centralizing monitoring, logging, and alerting, reducing manual intervention and improving day-to-day infrastructure management efficiency. 
• Improved overall system reliability by using real-time metrics and alerts to support informed operational decision-making and faster resolution of incidents. 

Security and Monitoring: 

• Configured AWS WAF to protect Shobiz’s public-facing application endpoints from SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), bot attacks, and other common web threats. 
• Deployed application workloads within secure private Amazon VPC subnets, ensuring network isolation and controlled access to critical systems and backend services. 
• Implemented NAT Gateways and VPC Endpoints to enable secure outbound communication while preventing direct public exposure of backend resources. 
• Enabled Amazon CloudWatch to continuously monitor system performance, resource utilization, and application health, supporting proactive issue detection and faster incident response. 
• Activated AWS CloudTrail to log all AWS API activity, providing complete audit trails and improved visibility for governance and security reviews. 
• Utilized Amazon GuardDuty for continuous threat detection, identifying anomalous activity and potential security risks within the AWS environment. 

• Improved application performance: Optimized compute, networking, and load balancing using Amazon EC2, Elastic Load Balancing, and Amazon VPC architecture resulted in faster and more consistent application response times for Shobiz. 
• High availability for critical services: Use of Application Load Balancer and resilient EC2 deployments ensured continuous availability of applications, minimizing service interruptions during maintenance and operational changes. 
• Enhanced operational visibility: Centralized monitoring and logging through Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail improved system visibility and enabled faster issue detection and resolution. 
• Strengthened security posture: Implementation of AWS WAF, private VPC subnets, Amazon GuardDuty, encryption with AWS KMS, and strict network controls significantly reduced exposure to external threats and unauthorized access. 
• Improved reliability of system alerts: Use of real-time monitoring and alerting mechanisms enabled quicker response to infrastructure and application events, supporting stable day-to-day operations. 
• Operational efficiency and cost optimization: Right-sized EC2 resources, efficient database utilization with Amazon RDS, optimized storage using Amazon S3, and controlled data transfer resulted in a cost-efficient cloud environment while maintaining performance and reliability.