About Customer

Parakore Enterprises Private Limited (PEPL) is an Indian startup founded in 2019, and headquartered in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Operating within the diverse Business Services Industry, PEPL provides innovative solutions that help clients across sectors streamlinetheir operations and boost productivity. Known for its rapid growth, PEPL has established itself as a trusted partner, delivering tailored and intelligent solutions that address the unique challenges of the Indian market.

Parakore’s key offerings include ParaCare+, ahealthcare solution that integrates essential hospital management functions, ParaEd, an education solution that supports comprehensive administrative needs forinstitutions at any level, and Parakore HRMS, a unified HR management system that automates daily HR tasks and boosts employee engagement. Thesesolutions showcase PEPL’s commitment to smart, integrated tools that driveoperational success across diverse industries.

Challenges

As a leading player in India's digital business sector,Parakore Enterprises encountered significant challenges with its AWS cloud-based applications and infrastructure. Operating on EC2 instances with minimal cloud infrastructure, Parakore faced inefficiencies, security concerns,and frequent unplanned outages as its user base rapidly expanded. The existing setup struggled to keep up with the increased demand. Key challenges included:

• Manual Deployment Process: Parakore relied on manual deployment processes, resulting infrequent downtimes and operational disruptions. The lack of an automated CI/CDpipeline led to inefficient deployments.
• Lack of AWS Managed Service Support: Without dedicated support for maintaining and optimizing itscloud infrastructure, Parakore's team required expert assistance to improvescalability, ensure 24/7 monitoring, and optimize AWS resources.‍
• Logging and Observability: Insufficient logging mechanisms made it challenging to gaininsights into the performance and health of AWS services and resources, impacting operational efficiency.‍
• Lack of Scalability and Availability: The absence of a well-architected High-Level Design (HLD) restricted scalability and availability, limiting Parakore’s ability to adaptto evolving business needs.‍
• Lack of Security Measures: With no Web Application Firewall (WAF), AWS Security Hub, orother essential security services in place, Parakore's infrastructure was vulnerable to security threats.

Why Velocis

To overcome the challenges in its existing infrastructure, Parakore Enterprises sought the support of a reliable Cloud Managed ServiceProvider. Velocis, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, stepped in to assist. Velocis valuescollaborative partnerships and is committed to helping clients succeed byproviding tailored solutions to enhance their business operations. Following an in-depth review and discussions with Parakore, Velocis proposed a customized architecture that addressed all major concerns. This solution was specificallydesigned to improve the reliability, scalability, and security of Parakore's AWS infrastructure.

Solution Advised

AWS Web Application Firewall |AWS Elastic Load Balancer | AWS Auto Scaling Group | Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud | AWS Certificate Manager | AWS CodePipeline, Code Deploy, CodeBuild | AWS Security Hub | Amazon Inspector | AWS Secrets Manager | Amazon GuardDuty |Amazon CloudWatch | AWS CloudTrail

Parakore selected Velocis as their cloud-managed service partner,and a series of recommendations were proposed to address their challenges.Below are some of the recommended AWS services:

• AWS native tools like CodePipeline,CodeBuild, andCodeDeploy, toestablish a robust CI/CD pipeline, automating deployment processes to reducemanual efforts and minimize downtime. ‍
• Amazon EC2 (Elastic ComputeCloud) to provide scalable andresizable compute capacity in the cloud, allowing us to adjust resources basedon demand for cost efficiency and performance optimization. Integrated with AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) and Auto Scaling Group (ASG),it ensures high availability and scalability by distributing traffic acrossmultiple servers, and seamless scalability to enhance the user experience.‍
• AWS WAF (Web ApplicationFirewall) to provide an essential layer of protection for web applications againstcommon web exploits and attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting(XSS), and HTTP floods. Also, AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to provide simple andcost-effective way to manage SSL/TLS certificates for domain names.
• A combination of AWS Security Hub, AmazonInspector, AWS Secrets manager andAmazon Guard Duty to robust security of AWS environment. This combination enabled proactive identification ofvulnerabilities, protection of sensitive data, threat detection, and efficientmanagement of security alerts and compliance. Together, these servicessignificantly improved the security posture of Parakore's AWS infrastructure,safeguarding valuable data and fortifying the overall environment againstpotential threats.

Monitoring and logging within the infra are managed through Amazon CloudWatch and AWSCloudTrail.CloudWatch and CloudTrail monitor the health, performance, and logs of variouscomponents, providing insights into system behavior. Additionally, Amazon SES and Amazon SNS are utilized for notification purposes, enhancing the ability to stay informed about important events and updates, thusfacilitating efficient communication and problem resolution.

Solution Description

Parakore’s development and production environments were deployed within same AWS account, each in separateVPCs for enhanced security, scalability, and streamlined operations. The architecture segregates frontend and database layers (RDS MySQL) within each VPC, optimizing security, scalability, and maintainability.

Compute resources are powered by AmazonEC2, with Elastic Load Balancing (ALB) and Auto Scaling Groups (ASG) ensuring high availability and performance by adjusting resources based on demand. GoDaddy serves as the DNS resolver, directing traffic to the load balancer. ALB, configured across two Availability Zones (AZs), distributes incoming traffic for fault tolerance, while AWS WAF and ACM certificates secure connections through SSL/TLS encryption.

A CI/CD pipeline wasimplemented using AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy, automating deployment toreduce manual intervention and accelerate updates. Code changes pushed to GitHub trigger the pipeline,deploying updates to the Auto Scaling group for the ParaED and ParaCare Applications. Both web andmobile applications are hosted on EC2 instances, seamlessly integrating withthe RDS MySQL database.

To enhance security AWS Security Hub, Amazon Inspector, AWS Secrets manager and Amazon Guard Duty were deployed. This suiteenables proactive vulnerability identification, data protection, threatdetection, and efficient alert management. Monitoring and logging aremanaged via Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail, while Amazon SNS providestimely notifications, ensuring efficient communication and quick issueresolution.

Results and Benefits

Velocis takes great pride in servingas the trusted cloud-managed services provider for Parakore Enterprise, and ourcollaborative partnership has led to significant advancements in their application and public cloud environment. The AWS Cloud architecture solutiondelivered for the challenges has not only helped Parakore to overcome shared challenges but has also contributed to their business growth in the following areas –

• Reduced Downtime and Automated Deployment Process: The implementation of automated CI/CD pipeline reduced the risk of humanerror and eliminated the need for manual interventions during new codedeployments.
• Comprehensive Logging & Monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail: These services providereal-time monitoring and logging capabilities, offering detailed insights intosystem performance and enabling proactive management. Amazon SNS ensuresthat critical alerts are promptly communicated to stakeholders, facilitating swift troubleshooting and resolution.
• Cloud Managed Service Support: Velocis, asa Managed Services Partner, provided Parakore with comprehensive support andexpertise for managing AWS cloud infrastructure and ensuring scalability. Our services include 24/7 monitoring and support, promptly identifying and resolving anyissues to maintain seamless operations and optimize performance.
• Enhanced Security: The implementation of robust security measures, including AWS CertificateManager (ACM), Identity and Access Management (IAM), Systems Manager (SSM), AWS Security Hub, Amazon Inspector, AWS Secrets Manager and Amazon Guard Duty fortifiedthe infrastructure against potential security threats.