Customer case
Why AWS cloud services are an important platform for communications company Involve!
Involve! established itself on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2016 to gain access to a future-proof platform for application development and service delivery. Among other things, the platform was used to set up websites in collaboration between internal developers and international partners.
With increased volume and increasingly sophisticated, operational and 24/7 delivery, the AWS environment has become a key element of Involve’s business. The credibility the platform provides is also important in marketing the company’s services to new customers.
The challenge
After two years of use, Involve! saw the need to take dev/development, security and ops/operations a step further. From web development, the business had moved towards increasingly comprehensive design and development of mission-critical cloud solutions. The load and vulnerability was particularly high during evenings and weekends. To deal with this, the communications house had to either increase its operational expertise internally or seek external partnerships.
Involve also wanted to simplify the operational situation and facilitate better interaction between development resources in Norway and abroad. The company also saw a need for better scalability, strengthened quality control, security, external 24/7 monitoring and preparedness, and optimization of the cost structure.
Why Amazon Web Services and Orange Business
Cloud provider Amazon Web Services covers a wide range of needs. Involve! wanted an experienced partner who could contribute to an optimal service setup and support the company throughout the cloud journey. Involve! was looking for a partner with certification as an AWS Managed Service Partner, solid customer references and expertise well beyond their own. The need was for existing customer solutions, but the company also wanted to sell to small and large customers with a credible cloud platform as part of its offering.
Initially, Involve! looked for a partner who could provide 24/7 monitoring and operations. This falls within Orange Business’s Guided Operations and Frontline Operations service concepts. However, Orange Business proposed to start the collaboration with a needs analysis within the Orange business Advisory Services service category. The analysis included Involve’s existing AWS architecture, service needs, security and cost level.
Involve! got what it wanted. They went from a straightforward AWS setup to a “best practice” based solution. Guaranteed uptime with full redundancy, GDPR compliance and performance improvements are important keywords when describing the changes. Services such as AWS ECS Fargate (container hosting) and Amazon Aurora Serverless (database) became key elements. Supporting functionality includes the AWS S3 and AWS EFS file services. Amazon CloudFront provides a low-response time CDN (Content Delivery Network) for users wherever they are in the world.
Orange Business also facilitated a DevOps environment with streamlined value chain across tasks and nations. The facilitation includes build, deployment, monitoring, log management and strengthened change implementation. Orange Business also contributed with customization of applications for the new DevOps platform.
The benefits
Orange Business has used the experience gained from years of working with AWS cloud services. The framework is built with standardized Terraform-based IaC (Infrastructure as Code) modules. Thus, the provisioning of AWS services and user account management is controlled by code in the high-capacity solution that Involve wanted. Like all Orange Business customers, Involve benefited from a large code repository that could quickly and affordably adapt to new tasks.
Involve! has received a stable operational solution in accordance with its goal of minimal operational complexity and enhanced security. The solution is set up with full transparency. Involve! thus has a full overview and can go in and make adjustments themselves. The DevOps environment allows for implementation and roll-back during the day without disruption to operations. Monitoring is done with Datadog and other tools that help developers analyze and improve application processes.
Øyvind Nedrelid, CEO of Involve
About Involve!
Involve!’s areas of expertise include communications, advertising, design, PR, social media, content marketing, promotional items, graphic services and digital services. The Norwegian family-owned agency with 44 employees is part of Nordic PR Partners and Havas, one of the world’s largest advertising networks. Involve itself leads international development teams on major projects that require 360O communications expertise, serving everything from medium-sized companies to clients operating in many countries.
Øyvind Nedrelid, General Manager of the communications house, was involved in the selection of Orange Business as a partner. He states that “communication services and operation of the digital solutions we provide in those contexts should work seamlessly at all levels. With Orange Business as a partner, we can together deliver a product that ensures an optimal delivery and good user experience for our customers’ customers.” You can read more about Involve’s services here: www.involve.no