National Matching Platform: Legacy Modernization & AWS Migration with 24/7 Ops
A multi-year engagement modernizing a mission-critical web application and re-platforming 100+ VMs to AWS — then running it.
A multi-year engagement with an independent, not-for-profit organization — modernizing a mission-critical web application, migrating the production stack from a legacy VM fleet to AWS, and assuming ongoing 24/7 production operations. Client identity, sector, and program details are withheld; this case study describes the work in generic terms only.
The Challenge
The client operates a national, mission-critical online platform running multiple parallel application and matching cycles each year. Its users span individual applicants, participating institutions, and internal administrators — each with distinct workflows, permissions, and annual deadlines that cannot slip. When Cloud Forces was engaged, both the application and the infrastructure had reached end-of-life: the codebase carried years of accumulated complexity, production workloads ran on an aging VM fleet managed by an unresponsive legacy provider, disaster recovery was non-existent, and release cadence had slowed to a crawl. The organization needed a single partner capable of modernizing the software, re-platforming the infrastructure, and then running both.
What Cloud Forces Built
Cloud Forces delivered a phased engagement across application modernisation and cloud migration, with production operations taken over at the end.
End-to-end feature delivery
Across applicant, institutional, and administrator workflows — from intake forms through multi-stage review cycles to final outcome delivery.
Core domain logic refactoring
Supporting several concurrent annual cycles, each with its own rules, timelines, and stakeholder roles.
Performance, stability, and UX improvements
With release processes designed to land safely inside tight, immovable operational windows.
External integrations
With data providers and supporting services used across the platform.
Full infrastructure discovery and audit
Every VM catalogued with its role, resource allocation, network dependencies, and security posture.
Target-state AWS architecture
Right-sized EC2, VPC segmentation, managed RDS, automated backups, and AWS-native disaster recovery.
Phased, low-risk migration
Validation and rollback procedures at every step, executed around the client’s live operational calendar.
Ongoing 24/7 managed operations
Monitoring, alerting, patching, incident response, and regular infrastructure reviews.
Cloud Forces’ Role
- Full-stack application development and ongoing feature delivery
- AWS architecture design and infrastructure modernization
- Phased production migration with zero critical-service downtime
- Security hardening, backups, and disaster-recovery design
- Production operations takeover and ongoing 24/7 managed services
- Trusted long-term partner across both software and infrastructure
Technology Stack
Application
Infrastructure & Security
The Result
The client now operates a modernized web application on a resilient AWS environment, with Cloud Forces as its single point of accountability for both the software and the production stack underneath it.
- Annual matching cycles run on schedule with zero critical-service downtime during migration.
- Infrastructure is fully observable and recoverable — AWS-native disaster recovery replaces the legacy provider’s non-existent DR.
- 15x reduction in operating expenses versus the legacy VM fleet.
- Multi-year relationship continues as a live build-and-run engagement.
Services Used in This Engagement
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