COUNTRY FOCUS : S AFRICA
The old platform was slow to add and enable all the features the company envisioned creating . It wanted to optimise its spend and the cloud model provides a pay-per-use model , where AFGRI can switch off applications not in use and switch those back on compared to the on-prem model with nontransparent rates .
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BY MAKING USE OF AWS AS WELL AS AN EKS CLUSTER , AFGRI CAN NOW DELIVER A BETTER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TO EACCOUNTS USERS .
To provide the best , uninterrupted service to all customers , AFGRI made the decision to modernise its eAccounts and migrate the platform to the public cloud . With the guidance of the Synthesis team , AWS was chosen as the preferred cloud provider .
However , AFGRI did not have the skills in-house to perform the modernisation and migration . Partnering with Synthesis , AFGRI could focus on its expertise and Synthesis could enable this implementation to happen .
Solution
Due to its extensive AWS expertise and the in-depth knowledge it had of eAccounts , Synthesis was chosen as the technical expert to carry out this modernisation and migration .
Johann Barnard , Chief Operating Officer , UNIGRO , explained that : “ Synthesis provides team agility . They are highly professional individuals and commendable .”
The solution was a combination of AWS Cloud and Synthesis architecture . This was the most cost-effective way to ensure the greatest reliability , security and innovation . To this end , Synthesis set-up a Landing Zone ( LZ ), rearchitected it and placed it in the cloud .
According to Synthesis , it rearchitected the infrastructure into a containerised Kubernetes environment that could take full advantage of the cloud . Following this approach , the infrastructure could now scale up and down , systems could be switched off when not in use and any future innovations , such as Artificial Intelligence ( AI ), could be easily attained .
AFGRI now had an enabling , fit-forcloud infrastructure with the greatest of benefits . Data , for example , could be easily replicated across multiple availability zones and the infrastructure could scale to easily manage platform demand .
Results
With the help of AWS , AFGRI is now enabled to scale the eAccounts platform up or down within minutes , ensuring that interruption due to infrastructure issues is reduced or totally mitigated . This provides its customers with the best possible experience . Additionally , AFGRI now has fine-grained insight into what eAccounts costs to run monthly and has been enabled to control spend .
Furthermore , monitoring has also been optimised through the transparency of the cloud . AFGRI is immediately alerted to any potential problems before they arise and there is self-healing in the infrastructure . The company now operates off an exceptionally visible and stable IT infrastructure environment and it has received the full suite of benefits of the cloud , addressing all its challenges .
“ We now have utilisation transparency and exceptional stability . This has proved to be a worthwhile investment ,” said Barnard .
By making use of AWS as well as an EKS cluster , AFGRI can now deliver a better customer experience to eAccounts users . In addition , it can now focus on creating new features that truly matter to these users , rather than focusing on supporting the platform . In addition , other applications within AFGRI are now enabled to make the move , since the eAccounts team has forged the path and done most of the hard work already . The infrastructure has enabled AFGRI to unlock the potential of the cloud , enabling its customers in a fast-paced digital era . •
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