Executive summary
Devine Globe’s production web application had outgrown its managed hosting platform, which offered limited visibility, scalability and control. The business faced risks around performance, security, backup reliability and the lack of structured monitoring. DevOps TechLab designed and built a dedicated AWS production environment, migrated the application, and put backups, audit logging, monitoring and CI/CD foundations in place.
- Client
- Devine Globe · Web application
- Business problem
- Managed hosting limited visibility, scalability and control, with backup and security risks.
- What we delivered
- A dedicated AWS production environment with backups, audit logs, monitoring and GitLab CI/CD guidance.
- Resilience
- 30-day database backups and 1-year audit log retention
- Outcome
- Better stability, faster incident detection and lower operational risk.
The business challenge
The production application ran on a managed hosting platform with limited visibility, scalability and control. There were risks around performance, security hardening and backup reliability, and no structured monitoring. The business needed a production-ready AWS environment to support its growth.
Why it mattered
- Limited control over production
The hosting platform restricted visibility and scaling decisions.
- Backup reliability in doubt
Recovery from a failure could not be relied on.
- No structured monitoring
Without structured monitoring, issues were harder to spot early.
- Growth held back
The platform could not support the business’s next stage.
What Devine Globe set out to achieve
- Move production to a dedicated, secure AWS environment.
- Make backups automatic, with clear retention.
- Keep a full audit trail of activity.
- Detect incidents early with monitoring and alerts.
- Prepare for automated deployments and future growth.
The solution: a dedicated AWS production environment, layer by layer
DevOps TechLab built the new environment one layer at a time, each with its own controls, and migrated the application onto it.
- VPCPublic and private subnets
- ComputeEC2 with restricted security groups and an Elastic IP
- DatabaseRDS MySQL in private subnets
- MediaS3, reached through IAM roles
- WatchCloudWatch Agent and alarms, email alerts
- RecordCloudTrail and VPC Flow Logs
Key design choices
- Isolated network
A VPC with public and private subnets; the database sits in private subnets.
- Controlled compute
Amazon EC2 with restricted security groups and an Elastic IP.
- Managed database
Amazon RDS for MySQL with automated backups kept for 30 days.
- Media without keys
Amazon S3 for media, reached through IAM roles rather than stored credentials.
Security and governance
The environment was designed so that every change is recorded and every failure can be recovered from.
- Audit trail for a year
AWS CloudTrail logs are kept for one year, with VPC Flow Logs on lifecycle policies.
- Recoverable data
RDS automated backups with 30-day retention.
- Hardened access
IAM password policies, restricted access and SSL.
- Watched around the clock
CloudWatch Agent and alarms for CPU, memory, disk and database health, with email alerts.
Architecture on AWS
| AWS service | Role in the solution |
|---|---|
| Amazon VPC | Isolated network with public and private subnets |
| Amazon EC2 · Elastic IP | Application servers with restricted security groups |
| Amazon RDS for MySQL | Managed database in private subnets, 30-day backups |
| Amazon S3 · AWS IAM roles | Media storage without stored credentials |
| AWS CloudTrail · VPC Flow Logs | Audit trail (1-year retention) and network logs |
| Amazon CloudWatch | Agent, alarms and email alerts |
| GitLab CI/CD | Release pipeline (advisory) |
How we delivered
- 01Discover
Worked with Devine Globe’s technical team on architecture and dependencies, database growth, security needs, monitoring gaps and the release process.
- 02Build
A dedicated AWS production environment: VPC, EC2, RDS for MySQL in private subnets, and S3 through IAM roles.
- 03Operate
RDS backups, CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, CloudWatch Agent and alarms with email alerts.
- 04Advise
IAM password policies, SSL, log retention on S3 lifecycle rules, database observability and CI/CD with GitLab pipelines.
Business outcomes
Devine Globe now runs production on an environment it controls, with the safeguards a growing business needs.
- Migrated to a secure AWS environment
Production moved from managed hosting to a dedicated AWS setup.
- Stability and reliability improved significantly
A better-controlled, better-monitored platform.
- Faster incident detection
Proactive monitoring and alerts flag issues early.
- Lower operational risk
Automated backups and centralised logging enable faster recovery.
- Ready for growth
A foundation for automated deployments and future scale.
What’s next
The next step is fully automated deployments through GitLab CI/CD. DevOps TechLab continues to advise on observability, security and scaling as the application grows.
DevOps TechLab is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner with the AWS SMB Competency, approved to run AWS MAP-funded migrations. We have moved 275+ workloads to the cloud and manage 265+ cloud environments for growing businesses.
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