Transforming E-commerce Marketplace Management with Azure Cloud Migration

Executive Summary

Company Info: eBazaaris, founded in 2016, is a leading specialist agency that provides brand manufacturers with comprehensive marketplace platform solutions in Germany and the rest of Europe.

Challenge: eBazaaris faced operational complexities due to maintaining two separate cloud infrastructures, resulting in fragmented management, slower development, and suboptimal data utilization.

Solution: IT Svit team migrated eBazaaris to Azure Cloud, consolidating resources into a single infrastructure. The solution streamlined operations, accelerated development, and enhanced data utilization, positioning eBazaaris to deliver greater value to clients.

eBazaaris: What Do They Do?

eBazaaris is a dynamic and rapidly growing agency dedicated to assisting brand manufacturers in navigating and excelling on marketplace platforms across Germany and Europe.

Since its founding in 2016, eBazaaris has successfully implemented over 200 customer projects with emerging and established brand manufacturers. The company takes a holistic and entrepreneurial approach in all projects, aiming to open up new and sustainable growth opportunities on e-commerce marketplaces.

Their international team, based in Berlin and Tbilisi, brings over 10 years of industry experience supporting brands with e-commerce and marketing projects.

What Was Behind the Migration Decision

When eBazaaris approached us, we carefully analyzed the existing infrastructure and operational bottlenecks. The chosen solution was a comprehensive migration plan to consolidate eBazaaris’ entire cloud infrastructure onto Azure Cloud.

Several critical needs drove the decision to migrate to Azure Cloud. eBazaaris’s team recognized the importance of simplifying and standardizing its cloud hosting environments to centralize maintenance and monitoring.

Prior to the migration, eBazaaris operated two distinct cloud infrastructures. The Digital Ocean Cloud hosted the ELMO platform, which leveraged cutting-edge technologies such as PHP Laravel, GraphQL, and ReactJS, all running within a Docker environment. This setup encompassed a virtual machine, an FTP server, a MySQL database (ELMO DB), and a CI/CD pipeline managed through Bitbucket for efficient deployment and unit test execution.

In contrast, eBazaaris’ Azure Cloud was dedicated to their BI and data infrastructure, comprising essential components such as Azure ADF, Power BI Embedded, virtual machines, ADF, Databricks, and an MSSQL database (BI DWH). The deployment of these components was seamlessly managed using Azure Pipelines.

What Were the Other Reasons?

Moreover, the company sought to natively connect its ELMO DB, currently running on MySQL, with powerful Azure services. This seamless integration was expected to significantly accelerate development processes.

To ensure a seamless migration process, IT Svit provided a dedicated team for eBazaaris project with highly skilled experts, including a DevOps specialist, a project manager, and an account manager. This team oversaw the migration, managed timelines, and ensured all requirements were met with meticulous attention to detail.

Migration Process and Key Steps

The expert team at IT Svit meticulously planned and executed the migration of eBazaaris’ infrastructure to the Azure Cloud. The process involved several critical steps to ensure a smooth transition, minimal downtime, and enhanced functionality post-migration.

Assessment and Planning: The initial phase involved thoroughly assessing the existing infrastructure. The IT Svit team conducted an inventory analysis, dependency mapping, risk assessment, and established a detailed timeline with milestones.
Environment Preparation: IT Svit provisioned Azure resources, configured security measures, and established CI/CD pipelines with Bitbucket to prepare for migration.
Data Migration: Critical activities included exporting data from MySQL and MSSQL databases, securely transferring it to Azure, importing data into Azure SQL Database, and validating data integrity. IT Svit ensured each step was meticulously executed.
Application Migration: Our team containerized the ELMO platform and other applications using Docker, deployed them to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and integrated them with Azure services such as ADF, Databricks, and Power BI.
Integration and Optimization: This phase involved connecting ELMO DB and the BI database with Azure services to enhance data analytics, followed by performance tuning by IT Svit experts.
Final Testing and Go-Live: Comprehensive testing ensured all systems functioned correctly, leading to a successful go-live. The IT Svit team conducted end-to-end, performance, and user acceptance testing to validate the system.

Achieved Goals and Results

An ambitious target was to complete the migration within 50-60 hours. With the help of the IT Svit’s team, the project successfully met this goal, achieving the following impressive results:

The ELMO platform was seamlessly migrated to Azure, harnessing the power of an AKS-based deployment.
Seamless integration with Bitbucket Pipelines was established, enabling efficient and streamlined CI/CD processes.
The ELMO platform was effectively connected with Azure’s cutting-edge Data Mining system, significantly enhancing data analysis capabilities.

The successful migration to Azure Cloud resulted in a standardized, simplified, and highly efficient cloud infrastructure. This transformative move not only greatly improved the operational efficiency of eBazaaris, but also laid a robust foundation for future development and data utilization.

Conclusion

IT Svit conducted a strategic migration to the Azure Cloud, a shining example of a meticulously planned and flawlessly executed cloud migration strategy. By harnessing the power of Azure’s robust services and seamlessly integrating them with their existing systems, our team achieved ambitious goals of streamlined operations, accelerated development, and enhanced data utilization.