CLEAR MIND GRAPHICS CASE STUDY

Hosting Solution for Improving High-End
Website Performance and Security

Challenges

Various outdated servers
Frequent operating system failures
Under-provisioned compute and over-provisioned storage

Benefits

Migrated over 100 websites on AWS
Increased availability and scalability
Cost savings with pay as you go pricing

Executive Summary

Clear Mind Graphics, a leading branding and marketing agency, struggled with their high-end websites suffering from slow loading times, expensive maintenance, increased CPU usage, and security vulnerabilities. With Futuralis's expertise in the cloud space, a robust web hosting platform was built on AWS, ensuring improved performance, scalability, and security. The solution provided Clear Mind Graphics with the capability to modernize their websites, optimize cost, and focus more on providing top-notch services to their customers.

The Challenge

The Clear Mind Graphics team encountered significant challenges with their high-end websites. Slow loading times, compatibility issues with outdated browsers, high maintenance costs, and security flaws were threatening the quality of their services. If left unaddressed, these issues could degrade user experience, impact client relationships, and lead to increased IT costs.

Clear Mind Graphics recognized an opportunity to better serve their end-customers with a secure, scalable platform. They needed the flexibility to change the size of the server and storage capacity as needed.

Why Futuralis & AWS

Futuralis was chosen due to its reputation as an AWS expert with extensive experience in web hosting solutions. Clear Mind Graphics believed that Futuralis could help them overcome their challenges with a focus on performance, scalability, and security. Futuralis's ability to provide a fully managed hosting solution allowed Clear Mind Graphics to concentrate on their core competency of delivering high-quality branding and marketing services.

Our Solution

Futuralis proposed a robust AWS infrastructure prioritizing performance, scalability, and security. The solution consisted of a fully managed web hosting platform, providing support for PHP-WordPress and different PHP versions, ensuring compatibility with the latest technology for improved performance and security. The solution was also built with robust security measures, including server-side encryption, SSL/TLS encryption via Let's Encrypt SSL and AWS ACM for CloudFront SSL.

Additionally, the web hosting platform integrated Bitbucket CodePipeline to streamline the deployment of website code changes. The platform's caching mechanisms at both the WordPress and CDN-Cloudfront levels were designed to improve website speed and performance. The AWS infrastructure allowed for auto-scaling of resources to manage changes in website traffic and demand.

Futuralis initiated the project with an inventory assessment of existing servers, noting server configuration, OS, WHM version, WordPress version, PHP version, and MySQL version. Following this, they conducted a proof of concept demonstration by launching an EC2 server with AWS Linux AMI2, migrating critical websites to the PoC server using the WHM migration wizard without server downtime.

After a successful PoC, a migration plan was developed in collaboration with Clear Mind Graphics, which involved classifying websites based on priority, identifying websites requiring a longer migration timeframe, and finding the optimal time for migration based on historical traffic data. During the migration stage, a static page was established for each customer's website to maintain database consistency. The DNS records for all the websites were hosted in Route53, but nameservers were not updated prior to the migration. Solid-state Drives (SSD) volumes were used for faster website speed. Automated backups of individual websites were scheduled and stored on S3 with lifecycle rules to reduce EBS size, addressing the issue of under-provisioned compute and over-provisioned storage.

Several guardrails were implemented for increased security, such as encryption at rest and in transit, the requirement of VPN access to servers, individual cPanel access, no superadmin access at the developer level, and comprehensive logging. Clear Mind Graphics was also assisted in identifying and resolving common attack surfaces for web attacks at the application layer.

Results & Benefits

Improved Performance and Scalability
Clear Mind Graphics saw a significant improvement in their high-end website’s performance, with faster load times, enhanced user engagement, and the ability to handle increased traffic without any impact on user experience.

Enhanced Security
The project greatly increased the security of Clear Mind Graphics’ websites, resulting in a reduction in security incidents such as hacking attempts, malware infections, and data breaches. This was achieved using robust security measures, including SSL/TLS encryption, server-side encryption, and regular security audits.

Cost and Time Efficiency
By moving to Futuralis’s fully managed hosting solution, Clear Mind Graphics was able to reduce the maintenance costs of their websites, saving both time and financial resources. This allowed the company to focus more on providing better services to their clients rather than managing technical aspects of website upkeep.

About Clear Mind Graphics

CMG is a fully integrated branding and marketing agency. Powered by leading creativity, strategy building and teamwork. Their services are tailored to every client’s specific needs. With a full suite of capabilities, Clear Mind Graphics is a comprehensive resource for clients no matter what their industry. Brands, businesses, new developments, hospitality, tourism, aviation, nonprofits and real estate. For more information visit, www.clearmindgraphics.com.

About Futuralis

Migrate – Modernize – Manage

Futuralis is a global tech consulting firm and AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner based in Washington, DC. We specialize in migrating complex workloads to AWS, modernizing them into fast, enterprise-grade solutions, and providing top-tier cloud management. Our ethos of Shared Business Excellence guides our pursuit of client capability enhancement, global customer satisfaction, and measurable results.