Optimizing Cloud Infrastructure for Secure Research Management Platforms
35% Reduction in cloud costs
through optimized resource utilization and savings plans
60% Faster deployments
enabled by automated ECS-based release pipelines
About the Client
The client is an EdTech platform offering secure research management tools that enable users to organize research, build citations, and collaborate in real time, supporting academic integrity across K-12 and higher education, with 18+ years in business and US presence.
Industry
EdTech
Years in business
18+
Employee count
100+
Presence
United States
“As usage grew across our platform, cost and scalability became critical priorities. Forgeahead helped us implement a more efficient AWS architecture that improved both financial visibility and system performance.”
David Collins
VP of Engineering
the need
A leading online research management platform needed to strengthen data security while improving cloud infrastructure performance and cost efficiency. The platform supports students and educators in organizing research, managing citations, and collaborating in a secure, compliant environment.
As adoption increased across K-12 and higher education users, maintaining secure, scalable, and consistently available infrastructure became critical. However, manually managed infrastructure led to inefficiencies, including underutilized resources, overprovisioning, and rising operational costs.
The platform also needed to efficiently handle fluctuating workloads while ensuring uninterrupted availability, secure collaboration, and optimal resource utilization.
the solution
The cloud infrastructure was optimized using AWS-managed services to enhance security, scalability, and cost efficiency while reducing operational overhead. Data security was strengthened by implementing encryption for data at rest across AWS S3, RDS, and DynamoDB, as well as encryption in transit using HTTPS, ensuring secure and compliant data handling across the platform.
To simplify operations, AWS ECS, Lambda, SQS, and EFS were adopted as managed services, reducing infrastructure maintenance efforts and allowing teams to focus more on application development. Dynamic scaling was enabled through ECS autoscaling, which automatically adjusted resources based on demand, while AWS Lambda handled non-real-time workloads, reducing infrastructure overhead and improving efficiency.
A cost optimization strategy was introduced using Reserved Instances and AWS Compute Savings Plans to optimize costs for steady workloads and improve long-term financial efficiency. Traffic and load management mechanisms such as rate limiting and throttling were implemented to ensure stable performance during traffic spikes. Additionally, AWS Cost Explorer, budgeting tools, and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis provided visibility into cloud spending and supported informed cost governance decisions.
The Impact
50% Faster Deployments
Accelerated releases through automated ECS-based deployment pipelines.
Stronger Data Security
Ensured protection through encryption at rest and in transit across all critical services.
Seamless Scalability
Enabled smooth handling of peak workloads through automated autoscaling.
35% Reduction in Cloud Costs
Achieved significant cost savings through reserved capacity and optimized resource usage.
Role of AWS
AWS played a central role in enabling a secure, scalable, and cost-efficient cloud environment. AWS ECS and Lambda provided scalability and elasticity by automatically adjusting compute resources based on workload demand, eliminating the need for manual intervention.
AWS Cost Explorer and TCO analysis enabled continuous visibility into spending patterns, helping identify optimization opportunities and improve financial governance. AWS managed services also reduced operational overhead by handling routine maintenance tasks such as updates and patching, thereby simplifying infrastructure management. Security and compliance were reinforced through encryption at rest and in transit, ensuring strong data protection, privacy, and regulatory compliance across the platform.
Tech Stack