“Particularly as a solo company owner, there’s a real danger of getting trapped in your own echo chamber. Having a team that gives you pushback and feedback is key.”
Bullet: Meeting CBI Requirements with AWS-Powered Data Processing
For many businesses, having a reliable partner who supports their software development is fundamental.
ABOUT THE CLIENT:
The Challenge
When Bullet decided to become a Central Bank Regulated entity it knew it needed a tier one infrastructure platform.
The Solution
Softjourn recommended migrating to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Softjourn fired up the project to build the architecture manage the transition, and provide all necessary support along the way.
The Benefits
- observability
- scalability
- reliability
- seamless blue-green deployment
- database improvements
- disaster recovery
The Challenge
For many businesses, having a reliable partner who supports their software development makes the difference for scaling with ease.
Bullet, an accounting software provider, and Softjourn have a history of successful collaboration. Over the past 8 years, Softjourn's dedicated software development team has become a trusted resource for Bullet. Open communication, deep expertise, and trust are the key reasons our partnership has spanned years.
Bullet is an Irish company founded by John Farrelly and Peter Connor, that offers cloud-based accounting applications for entrepreneurs and SMEs.
Located in Dublin, Ireland—a major European technology center—Bullet operates amidst intense competition for resources from industry heavyweights such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. In order to assemble a full development team to perform with excellence under high pressure, Bullet enlisted the services of Softjourn.
Previous projects between Bullet and Softjourn included our team fully taking over technical support and maintenance, rapidly getting Bullet's payroll system ready for payments during COVID, developing accounting automation for the reconciliation engine, and making Bullet's technical infrastructure compliant with Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) regulations.
Peter Connor, founder of Bullet
When Bullet decided to become a Central Bank-regulated entity, it knew it needed a top-tier infrastructure platform. Our client wanted to further improve their system’s reliability and scalability, so Softjourn recommended migrating to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Migration to AWS would allow them to decompose their monolithic “all-in-one server” deployment to a modern component-based infrastructure. AWS would also offer Bullet a variety of services and data centers they could use to expand business and meet its Central Bank of Ireland requirements on redundancy and security.
Even though it would be a great solution, the Bullet faced several challenges with this migration project, such as:
- Needing a competent team of developers;
- Ensuring thorough preparation and planning of such a complex migration process;
- Handling Auth flow by Jetty service with encapsulated logic;
- Making sure to preserve user sessions during instance failure or deployment;
- Managing outdated DB engine versions with code dependencies;
- Dealing with the constraints of the mobile application;
- Aiming for a target migration downtime of under 15 minutes.
The Solution
To make Bullet’s migration to AWS as frictionless as possible, Softjourn developed a detailed roadmap for building the AWS architecture and managing the database migration plan, while providing all the necessary support along the way. We took a multi-step approach to ensure a successful migration. First, our preparation phase involved:
- Reviewing existing system components, technologies, and software versions
- Adjusting the existing codebase for containerized delivery
- Preparing an estimate of infrastructure maintenance cost
- Defining CI/CD processes, blue/green deployment
Next, Softjourn's skilled developers worked closely with Bullet's team to find optimal solutions that balanced price and quality. Several brainstorming sessions were held to tackle the migration's complex aspects.
Finally, we executed the migration to AWS. Along the way, we utilized multiple AWS services, such as:
- DMS (Database Migration Service) with custom scripts for smooth real-time DB migration
- ECS (Elastic Container Service) to manage the runtime environment
- EFS (Elastic File System) for shared file access across containers
- ELB (Elastic Load Balancing) to route traffic between nodes
- EventBridge to simplify running scheduled jobs
- RDS (Relational Database Service) for easy DB monitoring, patching, backups
- SNS (Simple Notification Service) to deliver critical system notifications
- CodeDeploy for zero-downtime production updates
- CloudWatch for monitoring system performance and health
Benefits of Migration to AWS for Bullet
With the successful AWS migration, Bullet gained highly scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure to support its growth. The migrated application will also likely lead to cost savings for our client, which can reach on average 20% cost reduction over six years.
By partnering with Softjourn to leverage the power of AWS, Bullet is now exceptionally well-positioned as one of the few CBI-licensed AWS resellers.
Here are the biggest benefits they’ve felt since the successful migration:
Observability. Our client can now monitor system performance and resource utilization via CloudWatch dashboards, check system load metrics on ALB monitoring, and review all errors from multiple components in the CloudWatch Logs Groups.
Scalability. The new architecture is designed for scaling, as enough computing capacity is provided to handle spikes in load, and autoscaling policies can be activated with a small additional configuration.
Reliability. Now, our client has two instances that process requests. Sessions are seamlessly shifted from one to the other. Since these instances are in different availability zones, this means that if one zone stops working, the system would be available on another.
Faster deployment. The new deployment process doesn't cause system downtime, so new features or bug fixes can be added as soon as they are ready.
More reliable database management. With automatic snapshots placed on S3, the availability and reliability of data have been significantly increased.
Improved disaster recovery. All AWS components in the new infrastructure are designed for high availability and reliability. In case of AZ failure, the application will be automatically deployed in the new instances, and the DB can be restored from the snapshots stored on S3.
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Project Achivements
Softjourn’s team of skilled developers exceeded Bullet's expectations for the AWS migration, helping them to find the best option for finding a solution that balances price and quality.
“The project was well-planned, the team has good knowledge of AWS products, and they also did a good review of Bullet’s original platform and how to best migrate it, how best to future-proof it, and how best to execute it,“ said Peter Connor, Bullet's co-founder.
The impact of the AWS migration was huge for Bullet. The company can now offers services to a broader range of SMEs, enterprises, banks and continues to expand their market reach. The scalable AWS-powered infrastructure allowed Bullet to grow its user base without compromising performance or reliability.
The enhanced system enabled Bullet to deliver a superior customer experience with frictionless processes. The migration helped Bullet achieve greater security and compliance with CBI regulations, instilling trust in their clients and positioning them as a reliable partner for financial institutions.
Collaboration Based on Trust
The successful AWS migration provided Bullet with a highly scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure to support its growth. The close collaboration with Softjourn was essential, as Bullet CEO Peter Connor highlighted, "Bullet has a lot of moving parts, so the key goal was trust. Everything else filters down from that."
By partnering with Softjourn to leverage the power of AWS, Bullet is now one of the few CBI-licensed AWS resellers, making it a trusted partner for entrepreneurs and small businesses seeking cloud-based accounting solutions.
The migration to AWS has not only transformed Bullet's technical capabilities but has also opened up new opportunities for growth and expansion in the competitive landscape of cloud-based financial services.
If you’d like to get started on a well-prepared cloud infrastructure migration, Softjourn can help.
Partnership & Recognition
