In 2016, Captis Intelligence, in collaboration with InfoMagnus, embarked on an ambitious journey to disrupt the criminal investigation landscape. Their groundbreaking product, Solve A Crime, attracted a global community of over 20 million users across 30,000 locations nationwide. However, with scaling demands and the need for agility, the team recognized the urgency to migrate their complex architecture to a more streamlined, reliable environment. Enter Amazon Web Services (AWS), whose plethora of tools not only aligned with the project's multifaceted needs but also set the stage for future innovations.
Addressing Technological Inadequacies to Enhance Crime Solving.
Law enforcement agencies are buckling under the strains of limited resources and an ever-increasing volume of unsolved crimes. Captis Intelligence sought to bridge this gap with their Solveacrime.com (SAC) platform. However, they encountered challenges tied to performance, scalability, and operational overhead in their existing IT setup.
The conundrum led them to reconsider their existing infrastructure and pave the way for an extensive migration to AWS, aiming to optimize both operational efficiencies and user engagement.
The AWS Migration Journey.
The move to AWS was far from a mere transfer of assets—it was a full-scale digital transformation, optimized to exploit AWS's vast, interconnected landscape of services. This initiative not only streamlined existing operations but propelled Captis into a new echelon of scalability and performance. The following details everything this multi-layered migration consisted of, while revealing how each component was reconceptualized to resonate with AWS's state-of-the-art offerings.
DNS Transformation: From GoDaddy to Route 53
- The initial phase of migration involved transitioning the Domain Name System (DNS) from GoDaddy to AWS Route 53. The move wasn't merely a change of platform; it was a strategic decision to benefit from Route 53's superior routing capabilities and to centralize services under the AWS ecosystem.
Content Delivery Overhaul: Cloudflare to Cloudfront
- The quest for enhanced content distribution led the team to swap Cloudflare for AWS CloudFront. This switch facilitated better integration with other AWS services and delivered content to end-users with lower latency.
Network and Load Distribution: Migrating from Azure to AWS Elastic Load Balancers
- While Azure had offered a competent load-balancing solution, Elastic Load Balancers provided a more dynamic and flexible approach, allowing the team to distribute incoming application or network traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances.
Application and Data Migration
The core API servers, previously hosted on Azure and a private cloud, were migrated to EC2 instances. Storage systems underwent a similar transition to AWS S3. These shifts dramatically streamlined the platform's architecture and simplified management operations.
Data Persistence: MySQL and Mongo Atlas
- To ensure optimal database management, MySQL databases were migrated from Azure and private clouds to AWS RDS, while Mongo Atlas was hosted via EC2 instances. This dual migration offered a more efficient and consolidated data management solution.
Deployment and Monitoring: Atlassian/JFrog to CodeDeploy and Dynatrace
- The software deployment process was overhauled from Atlassian/JFrog to AWS CodeDeploy, offering a more integrated environment for continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD). Monitoring was also elevated by migrating to Dynatrace, enabling detailed performance metrics.
Specialized Services: Text Indexing and Face Recognition
- Text indexing tasks previously managed by legacy systems were migrated to AWS Elasticsearch, while face recognition technology transitioned from private solutions to AWS Rekognition. These specialized services benefited from AWS's proven scale and reliability.
Results: Realizing the AWS Advantage
- Post-migration, the SAC platform has seen a significant reduction in operational complexities, latency, and costs. With AWS's robust set of tools, Captis Intelligence has successfully been able to focus on their core mission: reducing crime and enhancing public safety.
Transforming Crime-Solving: How AWS Migration Elevates Public Safety.
The migration to AWS has been a calculated but necessary evolution for Captis Intelligence and InfoMagnus. It has allowed them to transcend traditional limitations and redefine the scope of community-driven crime-solving platforms. Today, they stand as a testament to the transformative power of well-executed IT migration strategies, equipped with a flexible, scalable AWS architecture that is ready to tackle future challenges.
This AWS migration journey is more than a case study—it’s a blueprint for organizations aiming to strategically align their technological infrastructure with overarching business goals.
