AWS Case Study: Re-architecting Infrastructure from Monolithic to Microservices for Convexity

About Convexity

Convexity Technology Limited is a leading blockchain consultancy firm in Nigeria and across Africa. Their flagship product, the Convexity Humanitarian Aid Transfer Solution (CHATS), revolutionizes humanitarian aid distribution by ensuring transparency and efficiency through blockchain technology.

CHATS connects stakeholders—donors, NGOs, and beneficiaries—while leveraging blockchain’s immutability and transparency. Its key features include:

• Fraud Prevention: Blockchain-enabled security to mitigate mismanagement in aid distribution.
• Accessibility: Wallet accounts for recipients with multiple redemption channels (e.g., USSD, SMS, QR codes, and NFC cards).
• Real-Time Monitoring: Geo-fenced aid disbursements with live project tracking for donors.
• Accountability: A non-custodial smart contract system allowing donors to intervene in suspected malpractice.

CHATS underscores Convexity’s commitment to improving the welfare of vulnerable populations through innovative solutions.

Challenges

Convexity's existing monolithic infrastructure presented the following challenges:

1. Scalability Issues: Limited ability to scale individual components led to resource inefficiencies.
2. Deployment Bottlenecks: Application updates required full redeployment, increasing downtime and risks.
3. Limited Agility: Tightly coupled components slowed innovation and development cycles.
4. Resource Management: Inefficient utilization of resources resulted in higher operational costs.

Objectives

To address these challenges, Convexity aimed to:

1. Improve Scalability: Enable independent scaling of services to handle varying loads.
2. Enhance Agility: Support faster deployments with minimal downtime.
3. Optimize Resources: Leverage AWS to reduce operational costs.
4. Increase Reliability: Ensure fault tolerance and high availability for critical services.

CloudPlexo’s Solution

Convexity collaborated with CloudPlexo to re-architect its application into a microservices architecture, leveraging AWS's robust capabilities.

Key Steps

1. Assessment and Planning:
   • Comprehensive evaluation of the existing infrastructure.
   • Definition of microservice boundaries and selection of suitable AWS services.
   • Development of a CI/CD pipeline for seamless integration and deployment.
2. Service Decomposition:
   • Separation of core functionalities (e.g., authentication, analytics, and notifications) into independent microservices.
3. Containerization with Amazon ECS:
   • Dockerized microservices deployed via Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) for:
     • Scalability and load balancing.
     • Simplified management.
     • Seamless integration with AWS services.
4. API Gateway and Service Mesh:
   • Amazon API Gateway: Unified entry point for traffic management, authorization, and monitoring.
   • AWS App Mesh: Secure, reliable inter-service communication with observability.
5. Data Management:
   • Amazon RDS: For relational data with high availability and scalability.
   • Amazon DynamoDB: For high-performance NoSQL data storage.
6. CI/CD Pipeline with GitHub Actions:
   • Automated testing and deployment reduced errors and deployment times.
7. Monitoring and Logging with Amazon CloudWatch:
   • Real-time monitoring and detailed logs for proactive optimization.

Results

The re-architecting initiative delivered transformative results:

• Scalability: Independent scaling of microservices improved performance and resource utilization.
• Deployment Efficiency: Deployment times reduced by 70%, enabling frequent updates.
• Agility: Accelerated development cycles allowed rapid feature rollouts.
• Cost Optimization: Operational costs reduced by 30% through better resource management.
• Reliability: Enhanced fault tolerance and high availability ensured consistent service delivery.

Benefits

By adopting CloudPlexo’s AWS expertise, Convexity achieved:

• Improved operational efficiency and scalability.
• Reduced costs through optimized resource utilization.
• Heightened security and reliability for their flagship solution.
• A strong foundation for future innovation and growth.

AWS Services Utilized

• Amazon ECS: Orchestration of containerized applications.
• Amazon ECR: Secure container registry.
• Amazon X-Ray: Distributed tracing for application insights.
• AWS App Mesh: Service-to-service communication and observability.
• Amazon CloudWatch: Monitoring and logging.
• Amazon RDS for MySQL: Relational database management.

Conclusion

The transformation from a monolithic architecture to microservices on AWS empowered Convexity to overcome its operational challenges. By leveraging CloudPlexo’s expertise, Convexity enhanced scalability, reduced costs, and gained the agility to innovate rapidly. This strategic shift positions Convexity for long-term success in delivering impactful blockchain solutions.