Optimizing AWS Architecture for Improved Reliability and Security for Cascadia

Cascadia Scientific provides decision intelligence for optimized mining operations, driving productivity, efficiency, and availability gains. The company’s measurement and analytics platform combines high-precision sensing, vehicle network integration, and leading-edge machine learning (ML) for data-driven, actionable insights.

Cascadia Scientific wanted to improve its AWS environment’s security, reliability, and sustainability. To this end, it sought an AWS solution provider with specialized expertise in AWS workload evaluation and security best practices.

Cascadia Scientific particularly wanted a partner with deep knowledge of the AWS Well-Architected Framework and cutting-edge cloud services, ensuring robust AWS security, compliant infrastructure, and cost optimization. Cascadia Scientific’s search ended with Ibexlabs. Ibexlabs’ prescriptive guidance on the AWS Well-Architected Framework for cost-efficient and audit-ready AWS infrastructures made them the perfect fit for Cascadia.

At the project’s onset, Ibexlabs, an official AWS Well-Architected Framework Partner, conducted an in-depth assessment of Cascadia Scientific’s AWS environment. The assessment gave Cascadia Scientific a clear view of potential security risks, system design, fault tolerance, and other workload improvements in their AWS environment. The focus was on two essential pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework: Security and Reliability.

Below is a detailed report of the expert recommendations delivered by Ibexlabs, empowering Cascadia Scientific to achieve a secure, compliant, and cost-optimized AWS infrastructure.

Networking and computing: 

1. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Ibexlabs suggested Cascadia launch instances within a resilient VPC for better control over network traffic and enhanced security. Furthermore, VPC flow logs provided valuable insights into traffic patterns and aided in troubleshooting and security analysis. 

Advantage: Cascadia witnessed enhanced security and control over its network environment and access control policies.

2. EC2 for ECS: In this setup, Cascadia could control the provisioning, configuring, and scaling of servers with customization options for its containerized applications. They could also manage capacity provisioning, load balancing, and application health monitoring with a tailored container deployment and management approach. 

Advantage: Overall, Amazon ECS with EC2 empowered Cascadia to build scalable and resilient applications in a containerized environment.

Monitoring and management:

1. AWS CloudTrail: With CloudTrail, Cascadia Scientific could track and review the history of actions taken within their AWS environment. Additionally, CloudTrail allowed Cascadia to set up alerts based on specific criteria, enabling proactive response to potential security incidents or unusual activities.

Advantage: AWS CloudTrail helped Cascadia enhance the overall governance of AWS accounts.

2. AWS Systems Manager: Cascadia could efficiently manage and automate its AWS environments by leveraging various integrated tools within Systems Manager, such as Session Manager, Parameter Store, Maintenance Window, Patch Manager, and Inventory.

Advantage: Collectively, these tools allowed Cascadia to enhance operational efficiency, improve security posture, and ensure consistent management practices across the AWS infrastructure.

3. Security Hub: The service helped Cascadia aggregate, organize, and prioritize security alerts or findings from various AWS services like Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, and Amazon Macie, as well as third-party security solutions integrated via the AWS Partner Network. Moreover, with AWS Security Hub, Cascadia could continuously monitor its AWS environment using automated compliance checks based on AWS best practices and industry standards. 

Advantage: This comprehensive insight ensured that Cascadia consistently adhered to robust security policies while maintaining a compliant AWS infrastructure.

Security:

1. AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): With AWS IAM, Cascadia could create users, roles, and policies tailored to specific AWS resources, ensuring the principle of least privilege access. This meant users had access permissions based on the task, minimizing the risk of unauthorized actions.

Advantage: Cascadia could fine-tune access controls with IAM, limiting security vulnerabilities.

2. GuardDuty: With GuardDuty, Cascadia could analyze and process various data sources. GuardDuty mainly uses threat intelligence feeds, such as lists of malicious IP addresses and domains, and machine learning to identify unauthorized, malicious activity within the AWS environment. Activities mainly include escalating privileges, using exposed credentials, or communicating with malicious IP addresses, URLs, domains, etc.

Advantage: Overall, GuardDuty helped Cascadia enhance its security infrastructures by proactively detecting and alerting users, enabling swift response and mitigation measures.

3. Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS): Cascadia utilized AWS SNS to send emails whenever changes were detected in any resource or non-compliant resources within the production environment. 

Advantage: AWS SNS enabled Cascadia to effectively monitor their AWS environment, promptly respond to changes, and ensure compliance with operational standards.

Managed storage:

1. Elastic Container Registry (ECR): With ECR, Cascadia could effortlessly maintain its container images without the overhead of managing infrastructure, as it eliminated the need to operate and scale the underlying registry infrastructure.

Advantage: This approach simplified container image management and enhanced security by enforcing access controls and ensuring only authorized users can interact with the images stored in ECR.

2. Relational Database Service (RDS): Using RDS, Cascadia created a highly available, scalable, and secure database for applications running on ECS-Fargate.

Advantage: This setup ensured continuous availability and scalability and reinforced the security and reliability of Cascadia’s database environment.

3. Amazon S3: S3’s scalability allowed Cascadia to handle growing data volumes seamlessly and accommodate evolving storage needs without upfront provisioning or capacity planning.

Advantage:  S3 features like versioning, encryption, and access control mechanisms ensured data integrity during storage and retrieval.

With Ibexlabs’ Well-Architected Framework remediation, Cascadia could systematically address the weaknesses and gaps in their AWS architecture. Below is the list of benefits witnessed by Cascadia. 

Cost Optimization

With Ibexlabs as its backbone, Cascadia could assess the resource utilization of its AWS infrastructure and right-size instances, databases, and other services to match workload requirements. For example, AWS services like Amazon VPC and AWS Systems Manager aided Cascadia in cost optimization by reducing unnecessary resource provisioning, automating tasks like software configuration, and minimizing operational overhead.

Improved Security

Cascadia enhanced its security capabilities with AWS security services such as AWS IAM and GuardDuty based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Ibexlabs helped Cascadia implement in-depth security principles, which involved multiple security controls and measures to protect against threats. Finally, centralized security monitoring and compliance checks helped Cascadia reduce security incidents and improve overall security posture. 

Resilient to Disruption

Cascadia improved infrastructure reliability by automating operational tasks and ensuring consistent system configurations across instances. With multi-AZ deployments for high availability, Cascadia’s AWS architecture can now mitigate the impact of failures and handle fluctuations in demand. Ultimately, Cascadia could deliver consistent and uninterrupted service to its customers despite unexpected events or challenges.

Whether you are just starting or looking to accelerate your cloud journey, Ibexlabs is your trusted partner. We offer expert cloud consulting, managed services, cloud-native development, cloud security solutions, and more tailored to your needs. Contact us here today.