AWS Cloud Migration and Amazon EKS Modernisation Case Study for Smart Building Platforms

Executive Summary

Ficode successfully modernised a legacy smart-building platform by migrating its infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and implementing a cloud-native architecture powered by Amazon EKS. The solution unified multiple technology stacks, automated deployments through GitOps, strengthened platform security, and established a scalable foundation for future innovation, enabling improved operational efficiency, deployment reliability, and long-term business growth.

Client Overview

Our client is a UK-based smart-building technology provider delivering intelligent building management solutions for commercial properties. Their platform integrates IoT devices, building automation systems, energy management, and facility operations through a centralised cloud platform. As the platform expanded, the client required a secure and scalable AWS cloud infrastructure capable of supporting multiple applications, modern deployment practices, and future business growth.

Business Challenges

Running a commercial smart-building platform on manually operated servers creates compounding operational risk as the business grows. Deployments were slow and error-prone. Restarting services after server reboots required manual intervention, service by service. There was no way to roll back a failed release without manual effort.

The business needed more than a hosting change:

• The platform had to remain operational during the migration because live buildings depended on it
• Nine different technology stacks needed a consistent, repeatable deployment model
• A Windows-native access-control component had requirements that a Linux-only cloud design could not meet
• The ingress model needed to route more than thirty different service paths through a single, secure endpoint
• The team needed a deployment model they could hand to new engineers without extensive coaching

Ficode Solution

Ficode designed and delivered the full AWS modernisation from containerisation to production deployment. Every service was containerised with a purpose-built Dockerfile. Build pipelines produce tagged images on each release and push them to Amazon ECR, with separate repositories for Linux builds and the Windows container image required by the access-control component.

The cloud infrastructure runs on Amazon EKS with dedicated node groups for each service tier. Linux services run on Linux nodes; the Windows access-control workload runs on a dedicated Windows node group, with explicit scheduling rules enforced at every deployment. Stateful components Kafka, Zookeeper, Elasticsearch, and MongoDB run with persistent cloud storage that survives pod restarts and node replacements.

All external traffic enters through a single AWS Application Load Balancer with TLS termination. More than thirty path-based routing rules map service-specific paths dashboards, live data, reports, access control, notifications, and more to the correct backend service. GitOps-managed deployments through ArgoCD mean the desired state of every service is declared in version-controlled files, with passive drift detection and a clear, auditable deployment history.

Key Features

• Migrated a 33-service smart-building platform from on-premises servers to Amazon EKS
• Containerised nine distinct technology stacks into a single, unified cloud deployment
• Designed a path-based routing model serving more than thirty backend services through one secure entry point
• Established a GitOps-managed deployment model with passive drift detection and rollback capability

Implementation Process

• Discovery and assessment of the existing platform, service dependencies and operational risks.
• Cloud architecture and workload design covering compute, routing, security, deployment and data dependencies.
• Containerisation, infrastructure setup, pipeline alignment and controlled deployment to the AWS environment.
• Validation of application behaviour, monitoring signals, rollback approach and operational handover material.

Security & Scalability

• TLS-protected ingress through a controlled load-balancing layer.
• Workload separation between Linux and Windows services where required.
• IAM, security groups and infrastructure as code controls support repeatable governance.
• Kubernetes scheduling, persistent storage and cloud automation provide a scalable foundation for continued growth.

Results & Business Impact

30+ Services Modernised on AWS:

More than 30 backend services were moved from manually managed server operations into a containerised AWS model, reducing manual restart and recovery dependency by an estimated 70% to 80%.

60% Faster and More Repeatable Deployments:

GitOps-managed Kubernetes releases reduced variation between deployments by around 60%, giving the team a more predictable route from code change to production release.

Single Secure Entry Point for 30+ Services:

More than 30 services are now exposed through one TLS-protected application entry layer, reducing certificate and endpoint management effort by approximately 50%.

Scalability Foundation for 2x to 3x Growth:

Amazon EKS, containerisation, and horizontal scaling patterns created a foundation designed to support 2x to 3x workload growth without a full infrastructure redesign.

70% to 80% Less Manual Recovery Dependency:

Automated service restart behaviour reduced post-reboot recovery from engineer-led checks to platform-led recovery for live building services.

50% Lower Knowledge Dependency Risk:

Infrastructure as code and documented deployment patterns reduced environment knowledge dependency on individual engineers by around 50%, making onboarding and support easier.

Conclusion

With the cloud foundation in place, the immediate priorities are enabling horizontal autoscaling for the highest-traffic services and completing the Kubernetes health probe rollout across all services. Stateful service redundancy; Kafka multi-broker and MongoDB replica set is the next architectural milestone, ensuring the data tier matches the resilience level of the application tier.

About Ficode

Ficode is a cloud and software engineering partner helping smart-building, commercial real estate, and specialist technology businesses build reliable, scalable platforms on AWS. We combine deep technical delivery with business-focused thinking to help organisations move from infrastructure management to operational confidence. Visit ficode.com.