Improved 50% of productive time with implementation of Golden AMI - ITTStar

Executive Summary

The customer is focused on developing a platform for K-12 and continuing education to expand their digital learning and digital classroom experiences to integrate video with existing learning management systems by providing actual academic learning performance to get the best results through consultations, mentoring, and online tutoring.

Customer challenge

Providentia Learning was manually creating Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for 10+ ed-tech applications they use daily that was labor intensive and prone to errors stemming from inconsistent configurations and was facing difficulties maintaining security standards, patching, and auditing across its growing number of EC2 instances. Their inconsistent AMI creation process delayed application deployments across the environments, hindering their ability to innovate quickly and respond to market demands.

Partner Solution

ITTStar, with expertise in the ed-tech industry with its compliance, designed and implemented a Golden AMI solution leveraging AWS Image Builder.

We implemented Automated EC2 Image Builder pipelines to automate the creation and updating of Golden AMIs, as these pipelines incorporated essential security hardening, organization-specific configurations, and the latest operating system patches.

The solution seamlessly incorporated vulnerability scanners using Amazon Inspector for continuous compliance assessment of the Golden AMIs.

A centralized system was built to manage Golden AMI creation, versioning, testing, and deployment across different development, QA, and Production accounts.

Also, the creation of infrastructure was automated using Terraform templates deployed via Bitbucket

Why AWS?

EC2 Image Builder simplified the creation and management of secure, pre-configured AMIs, streamlining processes and reducing errors. AWS provides the scalability to support the organization’s growth and quickly adapt to the changing compliance landscape. It also leverages AWS services like AWS Config, Amazon Inspector, and AWS Security Hub to establish continuous configuration compliance and vulnerability management.

Why Providentia Learning chose ITTStar?

ITTStar’s deep understanding of Edtech regulations was critical for creating industry-specific security and compliance baselines. Also, ITTStar has proven successful in automating infrastructure tasks, increasing efficiency, and reducing risk. ITTStar provided ongoing consultation and support to ensure proper implementation and continuous optimization of the Golden AMI solution.

Results & Benefits

• Faster AMI Creation: This helped the customer in reducing the AMI creation and update time by 50%.
• Enhanced Security Posture: Strengthened security with built-in compliance controls and automated patching, decreasing potential vulnerabilities by 30%.
• Improved Auditability: Simplified auditing processes through centralized Golden AMI management, versioning, and testing, leading to a 25% reduction in audit preparation time.
• Streamlined Application Deployment: Accelerated application development cycles by 20% with consistent AMIs, enabling faster time-to-market.
• Cost Savings: Achieved around 15% cost savings after automation and efficiency gains from the Golden AMI solution.
• Risk Reduction:Minimized the risk of misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities by 40% using consistent, compliant AMIs.