Nextrack is an Australian-based company that provides real-time tracking solutions for industries such as logistics, transportation, and asset management. By leveraging cloud technology, Nextrack enables its customers to monitor the location and status of assets in real-time, helping to streamline operations and enhance decision-making. Nextrack’s use of IoT devices to collect and transmit data is central to their service, requiring a reliable and secure platform to ensure uninterrupted performance.
The Challenges
As Nextrack’s customer base grew, so did the demands on its AWS-based platform. The company faced several key challenges that needed to be addressed to maintain their service quality:
- Platform Resilience:
- Nextrack’s platform experienced occasional outages, affecting the real-time tracking service relied upon by customers.
- Delays in identifying the causes of these outages slowed recovery times, impacting the company’s ability to meet customer expectations.
- Data Security and Environment Separation:
- As Nextrack handled sensitive customer data, particularly location information, robust security measures were essential.
- Nextrack needed to securely separate their production environment from their development environment to prevent disruptions and ensure customer data protection during testing and updates.
- AWS Operational Management:
- Nextrack’s technical team needed to focus on product development and enhancing platform features, but managing the AWS infrastructure consumed time and resources.
- The internal team lacked the specialised AWS knowledge for ongoing maintenance, such as monitoring, patching, and incident response.
- Team Capacity:
- The team required more efficient backup and patch management processes to ensure platform security and operational integrity.
The Solution:
Nextrack implemented a two-phase solution that prioritised AWS best practices for platform resilience, security, and operational management.
Phase 1: Best Practice Setup & AWS Management
- Platform Resilience & Security:
- Load balancers and auto-scaling were implemented to handle fluctuations in user traffic, ensuring that the platform could scale without compromising performance or availability.
- Backup and patch management processes were automated, and AWS GuardDuty was set up for real-time threat detection. AWS Config was deployed for tracking and auditing resource configurations.
- Production and development environments were separated to avoid interference between testing and live operations.
- AWS Operational Management:
- Nextrack partnered with AWS consultants to handle platform monitoring, root cause analysis, and incident response.
- Regular backups of key databases, with encryption of data at rest, were introduced to ensure data security and resilience.
Phase 2: Future Platform Evolution
- Improved Platform Resilience:
- Automated deployment pipelines were developed for faster platform updates, reducing downtime and manual intervention.
- Enhanced Security and Data Protection:
- Advanced access controls, proactive threat detection through AWS GuardDuty, and segregation of environments safeguarded sensitive customer data.
The Benefits
By adopting AWS best practices and leveraging expert support, Nextrack experienced several key benefits:
- Improved Platform Resilience:
- The introduction of load balancing and auto-scaling mechanisms reduced downtime and ensured that Nextrack’s platform could handle varying workloads without interruptions.
- Enhanced Security:
- Nextrack strengthened its security posture with advanced access controls and proactive threat detection.
- Operational Efficiency:
- Outsourcing AWS operational management tasks to PolarSeven allowed Nextrack’s internal team to focus on innovation and platform enhancements.
- Scalability and Future Readiness:
- Automated deployment pipelines and AWS management enabled faster rollouts of new features and ensured scalability to meet increasing customer demand.
