SQL Server Migration/Downgrade to SQL Standard on AWS EC2/RDS, with Read Replicas, High Availability, and Geo-Replication (Disaster Recovery)
Case Study Part 2 (S3 Data Lakes based Analytics)
OFX reduces TCO by scaling down from SQL Server Enterprise to RDS SQL Server Standard while migrating with no downtime from on-premise to AWS, uses CLOUDBASIX to create read replicas and offload primary for reporting, achieves high availability (HA) and geo-replication/disaster recovery (DR).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: OFX, previously known as OzForex, is a publicly-listed international payments service provider with a strong presence throughout the world, which facilitates money transfers in the billions for thousands of customers on a global scale. When the time came to deploy crucial financial IT infrastructure to the cloud, the company utilized the robust server replication technology from CloudBasix. to migrate its database servers to AWS. The result is an optimized cloud architecture with substantial savings in SQL Server licensing fees, and a broad range of functional benefits thanks to readily available High-Availability Database Read-Replicas.
The Client
OFX is a publicly-listed international payments service provider with a strong presence throughout the world. The company, originally established as OzForex in Australia in 1998, gained initial notoriety as a creditable source for foreign exchange information. In 2001 it launched its first online money transfer service, which was followed by a variety of innovative international payments services.
After several years of consistent growth the company launched successful brands in many financial markets, including Australia, UK, Canada, USA, and various countries in Europe and the Asia Pacific, providing money transfer services to businesses and individuals.
OFX, as a consolidated global brand, is also behind the money transfer services of some of the best names in the financial services industry, such as ING Direct, Travelex, and MoneyGram, and others. For more information, please visit https://www.ofx.com.
The Case
When you enable customers all over the world to make thousands of money transfers each day, moving hundreds of billions of dollars over time, in more than fifty currencies, and throughout a network of more than a hundred different banks, your IT infrastructure must be out of this world. Clearly, emphasis must fall on security, reliability, efficiency, and redundancy.
Cloud technology is secure and well suited to accommodate the network application requirements of such a system. While the existing AWS cloud infrastructure offers sufficient capacity for the breadth of the service, and offers managed RDS SQL Server solution, the classic RDS Multi-AZ replication solution poses series of limitations, which hinder the performance, high-availability, and business continuity potential of the cloud applications. AWS RDS Multi-AZ alone doesn’t live up to the high-standards required in a case with so much at stake.
The cloud presents enormous savings opportunities, in terms of data center real estate, staffing, software and hardware maintenance. Scaling down from the costly SQL Server Enterprise with CloudBasix’s RDS AlwaysOn mirroring to the substantially less expensive and yet managed cloud version of SQL Server Standard Edition, amplified with cloud replication technology designed specifically for the cloud, presents an opportunity to substantially lower the TCO.
The Solution
CloudBasix RDS Multi-AR for the Enterprise
View the benefits of CloudBasix RDS Multi-AR for Large Enterprise migrations and deployments
OFX successfully migrated its databases to AWS using the robust replication technology of CloudBasix’s RDS Multi-AR/Geo-Replicate. Utilizing the SQL Server conversion capabilities of the product and its support for all Microsoft SQL Server editions, the company was able to scale down from the costly SQL Server Enterprise to RDS SQL Server Standard, realizing substantial savings from licensing fees. The client further overcame the RDS Multi-AZ limitations, extended its functionality with deploying CloudBasix Multi-AR to continuously create High-Availability database Read-Replicas for reporting, offloading of primary RDS servers and data redundancy.
The Results
With the help of CloudBasix’s database server replication tools, which are specifically designed for the cloud, OFX was able to optimize its cloud infrastructure. The significantly reduced cost on database server licensing is only one of several key benefits.
CloudBasix’s RDS/SQL Server Geo-Read Replicas feature a number of performance improvements and offer features that are not available in a standard RDS Multi-AZ configuration on AWS.
CloudBasix’s Geo-Read Replicas can be deployed in different AWS regions or even in different cloud provider infrastructures, rather than just in different Availability Zones in the same region. That makes them particularly suitable to be the backbone of a comprehensive Disaster Recovery setup.
In addition, due to their full availability to the applications, they can be used for reporting, or to serve high-volume application read traffic from multiple copies of the main data located in different regions. This increases the aggregate read throughput and serving data to reporting desktop and mobile applications located near the data users around the world.
Furthermore, by utilizing RDS Multi-AR’s InterCloud replication capabilities, down the road OFX has the option to mirror all of its core RDS databases into Azure SQL or Google GCE SQL Server, and create a comprehensive disaster recovery solution by distributing its cloud infrastructure, as well as avoid cloud provider lock-in.
Leverage the cloud at its best with CloudBasix’s RDS/SQL Server Geo-Read Replicas for High-Availability, Reporting, Offloading of primary DB Instances, and Disaster Recovery! For more information about CloudBasix and its cloud technology products and services, please contact CloudBasix.
Related OFX Case Study - Financial Data Analytics on AWS
