Client situation

Pixevety utilised individual CloudFormation templates for each CI/CD pipeline in a shared environment to deploy services and configurations across workload accounts. The existing setup consisted of numerous templates, each requiring manual review and maintenance, making it complex and inefficient to manage:

Every template had to be updated manually via the AWS Console using Cloudformation change sets.

Redundant, deprecated and inconsistent logic across multiple templates increased maintenance overhead.

The client needed a more structured, maintainable, and scalable solution to streamline their CI/CD processes while maintaining flexibility for different environments and branches.

Their challenge

Pixevety faced several operational inefficiencies with their previous CI/CD setup:

  • High Maintenance Overhead: Each CloudFormation template required separate updates, making it difficult to manage and scale.
  • Complexity in Deployment: Identifying dependencies and making modifications was time-consuming due to the distributed nature of templates.
  • Inconsistent Configurations: Managing different target environments and branches required manual intervention, increasing the risk of errors.
  • Cost Inefficiencies: The existing CI/CD pipelines lacked an optimised cost structure, leading to unnecessary expenses.

These issues impacted Pixevety’s ability to quickly deploy changes, scale their infrastructure efficiently, and maintain a streamlined DevOps workflow.

3. What they needed

To overcome these challenges, Pixevety required:

  • A Unified Pipeline Management System: A streamlined approach to CI/CD configuration that reduces redundancy and complexity.
  • Configuration-Based Adjustments: The ability to manage environment-specific configurations without modifying core templates.
  • Automation and Scalability: A solution that supported rapid deployments and automated updates without extensive manual intervention.
  • Cost Optimization: A more efficient pricing model for their CI/CD pipelines, reducing overall cloud infrastructure expenses.

What we did

PolarSeven conducted a full audit of Pixevety’s pipeline templates, identifying unused and deprecated components. We then implemented a strategic optimisation plan:

  1. Consolidation and Standardization:
    • Grouped similar pipelines together to reduce duplication.
    • Abstracted common logic into reusable configuration files.
  2. Implementation of Sceptre and Jinja:
    • Used Sceptre as a deployment tool to manage CloudFormation templates.
    • Integrated Jinja for dynamic adjustments in CloudFormation templates, making build configurations more flexible.
    • Eliminated the need for CloudFormation exports, making dependencies more transparent.
  3. Simplified Branch and Environment Management:
    • Introduced a single configuration file for defining build targets and environments instead of modifying template code manually.
  4. Pipeline Upgrade to v2:
    • Enabled the replay of individual pipeline stages, improving debugging and rollback capabilities.
    • Leveraged a more cost-effective CI/CD pricing model to achieve savings.

What outcomes they enjoyed as a result

Following the implementation of these optimisations, Pixevety experienced significant improvements:

  • Increased Efficiency:
    • Reduced maintenance complexity with a unified, reusable CI/CD pipeline structure (less than half the templates than before and one unified pipeline per service in favour of up to three)
  • Enhanced Scalability:
    • Streamlined branching and environment selection without modifying templates (before branch naming was limited to master and development).
    • Simplified management of target environments through configuration files.
  • Operational Cost Savings:
    • Transitioning to the v2 pipeline model optimised costs while maintaining performance (75% cost reduction)
    • Reduced time spent on CI/CD management, freeing up DevOps resources for higher-value tasks.
  • Improved Reliability:
    • Standardized pipeline structure reduced deployment risks (cross account / region support for each workload account template)
    • Ability to replay pipeline stages improved debugging and rollback processes.

With a more maintainable and efficient CI/CD framework in place, Pixevety can now focus on innovation and growth, confident in the reliability and scalability of their DevOps infrastructure.

Contact us

Phone: 1300 659 575
Email: hello@polarseven.com
Address: Level 2/13/15 Wentworth Ave, Sydney NSW 2000
Website: www.polarseven.com