Galelo, established in 2016 by two entrepreneurs, is an advisory firm based in South Africa. The company aims to contribute positively to the South African economy and the broader African continent by addressing market and funding participation barriers for small businesses, particularly those from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. Galelo collaborates with SMEs, large corporations, and funders, utilising their technological solutions and deep management consulting expertise to overcome these barriers.

Galelo's infrastructure was previously hosted on a single server in Oracle Cloud, which presented several significant challenges:

• Single Point of Failure: The reliance on a single server meant that any failure could lead to extended downtime and potential data loss, severely impacting Galelo's operations.
• Limited Scalability: As Galelo's business grew, the limitations of a single server became apparent, causing performance bottlenecks and preventing the company from efficiently scaling its operations.
• Compliance and Security Risks: The lack of redundancy and proper disaster recovery mechanisms led to compliance issues, especially concerning data redundancy and security standards. Running diverse workloads on one server also posed security risks, making the system vulnerable to breaches.
• Operational Inefficiencies: Maintenance activities required downtime, disrupting business operations. The resource constraints also made it challenging to run complex workloads and implement an effective disaster recovery plan.

BATSAMAYI, an Advanced Tier AWS Partner with over 50 AWS certifications, was engaged to address Galelo's challenges by migrating and managing their infrastructure on AWS. The solution focused on enhancing security and streamlining operations through the following measures:

Security: Implementing Identity Management and Access Control

• Defining Access Controls: BATSAMAYI implemented a robust IAM strategy that clearly defined and enforced permissions across all AWS resources. This ensured that only authorised personnel and services could access specific data and applications, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorised access.
• Enforcing Permissions Across Services: IAM roles and policies were uniformly applied across Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon EC2, and other AWS services used by Galelo. This consistency in security measures helped in maintaining a secure and compliant infrastructure.
• Auditing and Monitoring: Continuous monitoring was enabled through AWS CloudTrail and AWS Config, allowing Galelo to audit all access and activities within their AWS environment. This provided a comprehensive audit trail, which was crucial for compliance and security reviews.

Providing Cloud Operations Management

• Centralised Operations Management: BATSAMAYI established a centralised operations management framework using AWS Systems Manager and AWS Service Catalog with AWS CloudFormation. This provided Galelo with a unified interface to manage and monitor their infrastructure, both in the cloud and on-premises.
• Automation of Operational Tasks: Routine tasks such as patch management, backups, and resource scaling were automated using AWS tools. This approach not only improved efficiency but also ensured that best practices were consistently followed, reducing the risk of human error. This automation included the implementation of Automated Deployments through AWS DevOps tools like AWS CodePipeline and AWS CodeDeploy, as well as the deployment of an Automated Scalable infrastructure through AWS Auto Scaling. These measures allowed Galelo to maintain a high level of operational efficiency, ensuring consistent performance and rapid response to changing workloads.
• Integration with Existing ITSM: The solution included integration with Galelo’s existing IT Service Management (ITSM) systems and third-party tools, ensuring seamless operations across different environments.
• Built-in Best Practices: By leveraging AWS’s built-in best practices, BATSAMAYI ensured that Galelo's infrastructure was optimised for security, performance, and cost-effectiveness. Automated monitoring and alerting systems were also put in place to proactively manage potential issues.

The migration to AWS and the implementation of security and operations management strategies resulted in significant improvements for Galelo:

• Enhanced Security and Compliance: The IAM framework and continuous monitoring ensured that Galelo's infrastructure met the highest security standards, reducing the risk of breaches and compliance violations.
• Increased Scalability and Reliability: The new AWS-based infrastructure provided Galelo with the scalability needed to support their growing business, with the added benefit of high availability and disaster recovery capabilities.
• Operational Efficiency: The centralised management and automation of operational tasks led to reduced downtime, faster deployments, and overall improved efficiency, allowing Galelo to focus more on their core business.
• Cost Optimization: By optimising resource usage and automating routine tasks, BATSAMAYI helped Galelo achieve significant cost savings while maintaining a robust and secure infrastructure.