It Svit

AI Text Recognition Solution for European HR Startup Executive summary Client: HURMA Systems, a SaaS company specializing in HR and recruitment automation. Challenge: The primary challenge faced by HURMA was the manual data processing and transfer of thousands of resumes, complicated by the lack of standardized formats, arbitrary text structures, and multiple languages. Solution: IT Svit implemented an AI-powered text recognition algorithm, revolutionizing the resume processing experience. This innovation enabled users to send resumes in various formats and languages effortlessly, saving time and optimizing their workflow. HURMA: What Do They Do? HURMA Systems is a SaaS company for automating HR and recruitment processes. Initially, we created the system for the company’s internal needs, so we used our extensive experience and expertise in DevOps, Big Data, and data security. We put our hearts and souls into creating HURMA Systems, and in 2018, it was launched to the public. Since then, it’s been transforming the approach to HR and recruiting in the European market. Challenge details One of the biggest challenges for SaaS companies is constantly optimizing their functionality to retain current customers and attract new ones.  In the case of HURMA, the main audience for the product is recruiters. One of the frequent problems they face is the need to process and transfer data from hundreds of different resumes manually.  It is also worth highlighting other issues that created extra obstacles for recruiters:  There is no unified document format for a CV, so recruiters can receive PDF, DOCS, or even an IMG file.  The text formatting is also arbitrary. For example, even in the name section, it can be a different order of name and surname.  Users from multilingual countries also face the problem of receiving resumes in different languages. Therefore, the HURMA team sought to provide users with a convenient solution to this problem. Solution Implementation IT Svit has extensive experience in implementing AI for business, so in this case, our team used this technology as the basis of the solution. The ultimate goal was to create a service for recognizing resumes’ text and transferring data to the internal functionality of HURMA. To implement this idea, our engineers tested several text recognition algorithms. We tested the NER solution from NLTK, CoreNLP, and different off-the-shelf solutions, but such algorithms were unsuitable for searching for Slavic names. For our final product, we used a solution for Google library using the Celery library to improve stability under high loads. As we mentioned earlier, all resumes have different formats, text patterns, and even languages, so the model had to be trained to work effectively in such conditions. A series of tests and improvements took 2 months to complete. Now, users can send one or more resumes in different formats: PDF, TXT, DOCS, IMG, etc., and receive standardized data in HURMA. Also, if a person responds to a vacancy on a job portal and sends a resume, the service processes it and transfers the data to the system. Such a solution allows users of HURMA to save hours of their time and optimize their workflow.  Conclusion  IT Svit has developed an AI solution for a leading European HR Tech startup. Our engineers trained the algorithm and implemented it in the HURMA environment so that users without technical skills could easily use it. The solution has brought many benefits to our client, including increased product satisfaction among current customers and increased sales to new users. Would you also like to boost your SaaS or implement an AI solution for business? IT Svit can become a reliable partner for your technology solutions. Read More

Our client, the medical services application owner, turned to the IT Svit team with the request to transfer their medical app to the cloud and automate & simplify the file conversion for the further data analysis process.  Case info Location: France Partnership period: 2018-ongoing Team size: 2 – 4 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: cloud architecture, cloud infrastructure management, CI/CD Expertise delivered: GCP cloud administration, DevOps services, cloud infrastructure management Technologies: GCP, Kubernetes, Nginx, Jenkins, Ansible, Terraform. Project requirements The IT Svit team distinguished the following tasks: to design the new infrastructure on AWS or other providers; to ensure the system operational stability and resilience; to enable CI/CD pipelines for the file conversion processes; to enable simple system configuration and monitoring. Challenges and Our solutions  Challenges:  app deployment must be quicker and error-proof through CI/CD; app must be able to receive and store .raw files from external sources; .raw files must be converted into .zip files through a complex process; storage must be with folders for the ready files. Our solutions:  to use a Google Cloud provider; to use Jenkins pipelines for the conversion of the files; to apply Ansible to install Jenkins, Docker, Java, Nginx, pip; to apply Terraform manifests to manage the future infrastructure in the cloud and to create the bucket in Google Cloud Storage for files; to use Nginx as a proxy server. Results Our work resulted in:  building a CI/CD pipeline using Jenkins, allowing us to automate and drastically shorten the process of app deployment and configuration; enabling several operators to work simultaneously during app deployment, instead of waiting for a single operator to build the Docker image; automation of files conversion process to speed up the app performance. Final thoughts  The customer’s existing infrastructure was unreliable with heavy workloads. IT Svit improvements automated and shortened the process of app deployment and configuration, as well as automated files conversion process that significantly sped up the app performance. Read More

One of our UK customers suggested IT Svit build a blockchain-based customer loyalty program. We planed to use blockchain technology to issue discount coupons that would allow creating a mutually beneficial platform for both eCommerce shop owners and their customers. Additionally, this platform could not be hacked and data could not be lost or altered, and the origin of each discount coupon could be easily tracked.  Case info Location: UK Partnership period: September-October 2017 Team size: 2 – 4 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Blockchain development, cloud architecture, web development Expertise delivered: AWS cloud administration, DevOps services, blockchain development, cloud infrastructure management Technologies: Ethereum API, Laravel, Node.js. Project requirements The IT Svit team specified the following tasks: to design and develop a platform able to interact with Shopify and Ethereum APIs; to create a web portal for the retailers with simple and useful functionality for issuing the coupons; to develop a mechanism of simple gaining, transferring and spending discount coupons. Challenges and Our solutions Challenges:  platform should support online shops on Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento; shop owners can issue any amount of discounts and specify the rules of applying them; customers can use the coupons themselves anywhere across the network or give them as a gift to any other user; platform should allow tracking each coupon, providing analytics on where and how they are applied. This allows the shop owners to adjust their offers and increase the profits. Our solutions:  we created an intuitive and useful web portal for online retail owners and shoppers; we developed an integrated platform working with Ethereum, Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce APIs; we enabled the customers to save money and get discount coupons in any shop on the network. Results Blockchain technology ensures the safety of user’s data. The shop owners gain a powerful analytics tool, enabling them to track their coupons across the network. This allows adjusting their offers to maximize the user experience. Moreover, the number of cross-sales and up-sales grew by 75%, as the customers are incentivized to save money while making purchases. Final thoughts  IT Svit has developed an easy-to-use and efficient platform for issuing, transferring, applying and tracking discount coupons through a network of Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento eCommerce shops. Read More

The IT Svit team decided to use blockchain technology to replace the excise stamps with QR-codes because this would provide benefits such as: reduction of excise stamps spendings by approx 90%; reduction of fraud risk to 0; increase the tax revenues by nearly 100%. Case info Location: Ukraine Partnership period: September-October 2017 Team size: 2 – 4 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Blockchain development, cloud architecture, web development Expertise delivered: AWS cloud administration, DevOps services, blockchain development, cloud infrastructure management Technologies: Ethereum API, Laravel, Node.js. Project requirements The QR-code should be used the same way an excise stamp is used nowadays, just without the possibility to forge it. It should be issued by the governing body and store the data about each excise good unit. Challenges and Our solutions Challenges: the system should be to highlight the status of each item, whether it is “packaged”, “delivered” or “sold”; the open ledger should ensure the records cannot be altered and the destination of each item can be tracked; the codes cannot be forged. Our solutions: we usedEthereum smart contracts that allowed us to deliver a flexible and highly configurable platform that can interact with multiple third-party software modules through API; we configured MongoDB in the cloud to store the textual files and only the transaction hashes are stored within the blocks. This leads to minimal usage of system resources and allows the transactions to happen in milliseconds; we delivered both a web portal and a lightweight blockchain wallet for checking the QR-code status through a mobile device. Results Here is how our system works: regulator prints the QR-codes; manufacturer marks the goods with QR-codes and packs them; tokens are put into the “packaged” state; once the wholesale distributor splits the batch, the tokens are updated and the pallet codes are activated; customers scan the item QR-codes to ensure their validity; once the item is sold, its token is put to the “sold” state, closing the block. Final thoughts  Replacing the expensive (and forgeable) excise stamps with low-cost (yet unforgeable) QR-codes would ensure both cutting the stamp production costs and increasing the tax revenues from the distribution of excise goods. Read More

Skillbyte GmbH with its custom Content Management System (CMS) contacted IT Svit with the request to build an out-of-the-box solution that uses cloud technology to rapidly deliver scalable, easily configurable and manageable infrastructure to showcase a web-based CMS. Case info Location: Cologne Area, Germany Partnership period: May 2016 – ongoing Team size: 2 – 8 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and development, DevOps-as-a-Service, Big Data solutions, Web Development, QA and testing, product and infrastructure monitoring Expertise delivered: AWS cloud administration, DevOps services, microservices and containerization, DevOps support team, cloud monitoring solutions Technologies: AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Ansible, Jenkins Project requirements The IT Svit team specified the following tasks: to migrate the showcase from Mesos/Marathon environment to Kubernetes; to shorten the product deployment time; to add the missing features; to configure error-proof update and recovery procedures; to introduce the Continuous Delivery pipeline to automate the setup and configuration; to split the monolith app into microservices to provide stability; to containerize the components for scalability; to deploy an in-depth monitoring and logging solution. Challenges and Our solutions Challenges: CMS itself is a monolith product built in Java, with more than 100 modules; more than 15 processes interacting with each other, creating a high workload; setup process is too complicated. Our solutions: we performed a test deployment of the CMS and analyzed all the dependencies and possible bottlenecks; we moved the CMS from a Mesos/Marathon environment to a redundant Kubernetes cluster; we containerized the system components using Docker; we enabled the Continuous Implementation / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline using Jenkins; we automated the product build and deployment using Ansible;  we automated the process of recovery for all the components in case of an interruption during the system update; we enabled the auto-scaling for the front-end service and automated its release cycle; we designed and developed a customized monitoring tool.  Results The process of the CMS setup and deployment is now fully-automated and the product has: 3 commands and around 15 minutes to deploy the CMS (previously it took 2 weeks to deploy); auto-scaling of the cluster nodes (to handle the load and optimize the costs); in-depth logging and analytics; real-time monitoring and smart alerts. Final thoughts The product is now enterprise-grade and production-ready. A truck manufacturing giant, several leading media, popular retailers and many other high-level EU enterprises have already appreciated this setup advantage. Read More

One of the IT Svit customers turned to the IT Svit team with the request to build a user-friendly news aggregator platform from scratch. The client intended to have a platform where each customer could form a unique, personalized news feed, based on their preferences. Case info Location: Netherlands Partnership period: December 2016 – July 2017 Team size: 2 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Big Data Development, Machine Learning, Web Development, Data Science, Cloud Architecture, Python Development Expertise delivered: Big Data solutions, training ML models, a rapid detection system for checking the news source updates Technologies: Python, Django, Docker, jQuery, Theano, aiohttp, MongoDB, SphinxSearch. Project requirements The IT Svit team distinguished the following tasks: to have the news data frequently updated; to have the news data categorized; to have the news data checked. For it to be credible, only primary sources should be given. Challenges and Our solutions Challenges: data set must be frequently updated and kept relevant; news must be categorized to simplify the navigation and personalize the user experience; only the primary source of the news must be listed. Our solutions:  we built a web scraper tool utilizing the aiohttp library. The data gathered was stored in MongoDB; we created several Machine Learning models utilizing Theano and used these ML algorithms to filter out the irrelevant and/or unwanted content; we built the front-end using jQuery, and the back-end instances were containerized and automatically scaled using Docker; we used SphinxSearch to allow the customers to create their personalized news feeds; we created a huge base of news sources worldwide, split by industries, locations and spheres of interest; we built-in a highly performant tool that swiftly analyzed the article content to check if it was updated. Results IT Svit has built a powerful, flexible and highly performant news aggregation platform. This news base is rapidly updated, using a highly performant tool. The platform can create a personalized news feed for any customer, based on their preferences and settings. Moreover, the aggregator is easily embedded into any website as a plugin with a simple configuration. Final thoughts  The IT Svit team created a platform for automated collection, verification, deduplication and classification of industry-specific news from a variety of credible sources. These news feeds can be both shown on a web portal, and/or can be embedded into any website. Read More

IT Svit customers mentioned a lot that they pretty often face one and the same problem - they cannot find some piece of information they need on their site fast. That is when the IT Svit team decided to create a bespoke web scraper tool that can be added to a particular website and will create custom search indexes. Case info Location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Partnership period: August 2015 – February 2018 Team size: 2 – 4 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and development, Python development, Data Science, Big Data solutions, Machine Learning algorithms Expertise delivered: Cloud infrastructure design and implementation, Python development, Big Data architecture design and management Technologies: Python, asyncio, aiohttp. Project requirements The IT Svit team specified the following tasks:  to create lightweight, simple, yet efficient web crawlers; to design a user-friendly interface; to develop tools with low hardware requirements. Challenges and Our solutions Challenges: We were supposed to built-in search tools that have: high performance; low system resource consumption; ease of configuration; ease of use. Our solutions: We used asyncio and aiohttp Python libs to create a tool that: comes with a built-in webserver to ensure the simplicity of launching it; can be easily integrated into any website; can be utilized through any browser; has low hardware requirements; works quickly. Results and Final thoughts  IT Svit developed the required web scrapers and other Big Data solutions to enable our customers to form the data set for training their search engine. The main advantages of our searching tool, precisely its usability and speed were appreciated by our clients. Toweya, let us say, provided us basic specifications and we helped them create an easy to use and performant search engine platform, which enables incremental web search and provides accurate results. Read More

IT Svit decided to implement internal monitoring for our services with Zabbix-server, Prometheus operator and Grafana components. Case info Location: Ukraine Partnership period: 2005-ongoing Team size: 2 – 4 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud architecture, cloud infrastructure management, cloud monitoring solutions Expertise delivered: AWS cloud administration, DevOps services, cloud infrastructure management, monitoring solutions configuration Technologies: Zabbix, Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana. Project requirements We wanted our system to provide: automatic monitoring of various cloud infrastructure parameters like CPU usage, bandwidth usage, disk volume usage, etc; timely alerts if any issues occur; informative notifications with screenshots. Challenges and Our solutions Challenges:  automatic monitoring performed by Zabbix; timely alerts sent to Telegram; informative screenshots attached. Our solutions: Zabbix + Prometheus as a data source for Grafana. This allowed us to enable detailed and on-point issue-reporting; Zabbix agents are running in every container or instance within our infrastructure and they report to a Zabbix server should any issue arise; Python script sends all the information about the incident to Telegram chat, so the admins are notified immediately. Results With Zabbix+Prometheus+Grafana monitoring installed, we always receive alert notifications in Telegram and know when something is wrong with our Linux server or Kubernetes cluster. It allows us to respond instantly and solve issues very fast.   Informative screenshots, when attached to the notifications, give us detailed information about the issue. As a result, we save much of our time dealing with bugs, because we know exactly what happened.  Final thoughts  The IT Svit DevOps team implemented an internal monitoring system to be better informed of the various processes within our IT infrastructure and to be able to identify and solve the issues faster. Combining Zabbix + Prometheus + Grafana allows us to monitor the IT infrastructure cost-effectively and almost effortlessly while immediately responding to the issues. Read More

A stock-breeding concern specializing in breeding pigs contacted IT Svit with the request to develop a Big Data solution for data processing and visualization.  Case info  Location: The United Kingdom Partnership period: September – December 2017 Team size: 2 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and development, Big Data solutions, Web Development, Python development, data visualization, data normalization Expertise delivered: AWS cloud administration, Machine Learning, DevOps services, Big Data architecture, Python development, data science, data visualization Technologies: PostgreSQL, ML in AWS, Python, Flask, Jupyter Notebook, Chart.js. Project requirements The customer wanted us to provide the following services: to develop a Big Data solution for processing data; to decrease the time needed to assess the data; to configure a user-friendly dashboard enabling the users to visualize the data. Client’s challenges and Our solutions Challenges:  existing data set improvement; Machine Learning model to track the effectiveness of the meds creating and implementing; dashboard for data visualization designing. Our solutions: we wrote a data normalization tool in Python to ensure the uniformity of data; we used Python and JupyteR Notebook to makestatistical analysis and highlight patterns; cloud infrastructure was deployed in AWS and we used the AWS Machine Learning service in the process of training the model; data was stored in the cloud using the PostgreSQL database and Amazon RDS; we used Flask and Chart.js to enable the data visualization and created a flexible dashboard for viewing the graphs.  Results With ML algorithm based on the historical data implementation our client’s system has experienced the following improvements: - quick and precise diagnosis of the disease based on the symptoms; - recommendations for treatment are given; - the time between identifying the disease and applying the treatment, is significantly reduced.  Final thoughts The IT Svit team developed a solution for data processing and data visualization that increased our client’s business profitability and reduced the losses due to livestock diseases. Read More

The marketing and advertising agency needed a full-scale team of developers to build the frontend and backend for a trip-planning portal and a travel website and deliver a cloud infrastructure for these projects. Case info Location: United States Partnership period: October 2016 — ongoing Team size: 2-8 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and development, Full Stack Web Development, Python development, QA and testing Expertise delivered: AWS cloud administration, DevOps services, Python development, QA and testing Technologies: AWS, Python, Django, AngularJS. Project requirements The customer needed to create two websites — a travel website and a trip planning portal. IT Svit team specified the following tasks: to write the back-end for two websites using Python and Django; to write the frontend part with AngularJs; to provide the cloud infrastructure to support the development and functioning of these websites; to provide the QA and testing of the functionality. Challenges and Our solutions  Challenges:  - the portal had to be able to interact with other travel industry tools through  an API;  - the travel website had to allow the customers to provide feedback while  remaining anonymous;  - IT Svit had to provide the marketing support, content creation and technical documentation for these websites. Our solutions:   - we built a regular reporting process to keep the PM overseas up-to-date with the development progress;  - we developed a clean API to allow the platforms to interact with third-party modules;  - we provided the full cycle of infrastructure provisioning services, from delivering the testing environments and building CI/CD pipelines, to managing the ongoing maintenance of the websites. Project results This project required the full cycle of software development and IT Svit delivered:  full-stack development for both websites; cloud infrastructure design for their deployment; ongoing QA and improvement of the services. Final thoughts  The talented IT Svit DevOps team has built frontend and backend for a trip-planning portal and a travel website and designed a cloud infrastructure for marketing and advertising agency that allowed our customer to gain new clients and provide better services. Read More

IT service management provider Preterion contacted IT Svit with the request for our DevOps team to assist with a wide range of tasks and augment their internal team with our skillset. Case Info  Location: Kellyville Ridge, NSW, Australia Partnership period: January 2017 – ongoing Team size: 2 – 8 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and development, DevOps-as-a-Service, Web Development, QA and testing, product and infrastructure monitoring Expertise delivered: AWS cloud administration, DevOps services, microservices and containerization, Perl development, PHP development, DevOps support team, cloud monitoring solutions, Big Data solutions Technologies: AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Ansible, Jenkins, PHP, Perl, MySQL, Linux. Project requirements Preterion needed the IT Svit DevOps team to provide such services: Linux-based DevOps software development PHP-based CRM development web-based app in Perl Various fixes and improvements of existing cloud monitoring solutions Ongoing cloud monitoring and support Enabling CI/CD pipelines IT Infrastructure management automation IT Svit DevOps team specified the following tasks: to design and implement various cloud infrastructures; to fix bugs for multiple apps; to develop and deploy CRM; to manage and optimize multiple IT infrastructure tasks (implementing xWiki backups, Your Backup tool, implementing Baruwa Spam Protection solution, etc.) Results  Our work resulted in: in-depth analysis of IT infrastructures to identify possible bottlenecks; proactive consulting on system improvements; implementation of improvements; automation of infrastructure deployment & management through scripts; providing the detailed developer documentation for each module built; training the customer’s team to leverage the system best. Final thoughts IT Svit has handled all the tasks successfully and currently provides ongoing support for various Preterion projects through a ticketing system. It Svit DevOps team is currently involved in: team cloud architecture delivery and management web development and QA various software maintenance and updates. This allowed Preterion to engage with various projects as well as decrease the ticket processing time by 50% and average operating expenses by 25-30%. Read More

Preterion, an Australian cloud migration service provider, turned to IT Svit for us to assist with a wide range of tasks and augment their internal team with our skillset.  Case Info Location: Kellyville Ridge, NSW, Australia Industry: Cloud management, IT Security, DevOps services Partnership period: January 2017 – ongoing Team size: 2 – 8 people Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and development, DevOps-as-a-Service, Web Development, QA and testing, product and infrastructure monitoring Expertise delivered: AWS cloud administration, DevOps services, microservices and containerization, Perl development, PHP development, DevOps support team, cloud monitoring solutions, Big Data solutions Technology stack: AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Ansible, Jenkins, PHP, Perl, MySQL, Linux. Project Requirements  Project requirements included:  Linux-based DevOps software development; PHP-based CRM development; web-based app in Perl development; cloud monitoring and support providing; CI/CD pipelines enabling; IT Infrastructure management automation. Challenges and Our solutions Challenges:  design and implementation of various cloud infrastructures; bug fixes and deployment automation for multiple apps; CRM development and deployment; IT infrastructure management and optimization tasks (implementing xWiki backups, Your Backup tool, implementing Baruwa Spam Protection solution, etc.) Our solutions:  analysis of IT infrastructures to identify possible bottlenecks; proactive consulting on system improvements; implementation of improvements; automation of infrastructure deployment & management through scripts; providing the detailed developer documentation for each module built; training the customer’s team to leverage the system best. Results IT Svit has handled all the tasks successfully and currently provides ongoing support for various Preterion projects through a ticketing system. IT Svit DevOps team is engaged at: cloud architecture delivery and management; web development and QA; various software maintenance and updates.  Our DevOps services allowed Preterion to engage with the projects outside the scope of their abilities and reap the benefit of: significant skillset extension; reduction of technical support ticket response time by nearly 50%; IT infrastructure management optimization and expenditure cuts by 25-30%. Feedback Here we present feedback from our customer instead of conclusions. Cristian Iconomu, Director at Preterion Pty Ltd, said about IT Svit, “Given their successful track record and wide skill set, IT Svit now handles all our tasks internally, from full-scale projects to complex technical portions. Their integrity, responsiveness, and compelling price point continue to promote a productive partnership.” Read More

IT Svit received a request to assist with moving an enterprise SIEM (security information event management) system from Rancher to a Kubernetes deployed at Tectonic, a commercial Kubernetes+CoreOS platform.  Case info Location: New York, USA Industry: Enterprise cybersecurity Partnership period: May 2019 – ongoing Team size: 1 Team Lead, 1 DevOps engineer Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: App containerization, cloud transition, CI/CD and monitoring implementation Expertise delivered: App containerization, cloud infrastructure management and optimization, monitoring and alerting implementation, CI/CD configuration Technology stack: Tectonic, Kubernetes, AWS, DigitalOcean, Azure, Google Cloud, Docker, OVA, VirtualBox, VMWare, HyperV. Project requirements The IT Svit team decided to take two main steps: Create Docker images and docker files for all system components: ELK stack with SearchGuard; front-end web app for interacting with all components; RabbitMQ message broker; Grafana/Prometheus for monitoring; MineMeld for threat intel aggregation; dradis for threat assessment; Opmantek for a security audit. Design high-performance environments for various hosting platforms with the following features: high-availability; failover; fast response times; optimized for deployment; stateful deployment for Elasticsearch data nodes; CI/CD deployment pipelines; autoscaling; monitoring tools. Challenges and Our solutions With the customer providing detailed all interactions, IT Svit DevOps engineers quickly elaborated scenarios for automated deployment and configuration of a Kubernetes cluster to various hosting platforms utilizing our extensive expertise with AWS, Google Cloud and DigitalOcean. We also provided the tools for monitoring the system in production and detailed developer documentation on platform installation and configuration. Results The customer received scenarios for the error-free automated deployment of their platform to a variety of hosting providers that allowed them to increase their target audience and lower the learning curve. Final thoughts IT Svit DevOps team has shown an in-depth understanding of app containerization best practices and configuration of scalable, secure, highly-performant and cost-efficient environments on various cloud platforms. The result of our work not only met but exceeded our customer’s expectations. Read More

Anthems, a media portal from the USA, required our help with infrastructure optimization. More specifically Anthems wanted us to audit existing infrastructure and suggest ways to ensure that the platform will be able to handle millions of users simultaneously. Case info Location: The United States Industry: Social Media Network Partnership period: June 2019 – ongoing Team size: 2-3 DevOps specialists Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and implementation, database optimization, Web Development, load-testing Expertise delivered: GCP cloud administration, DigitalOcean cloud, DevOps services, PHP app architecture, SQL and NoSQL database management, cloud monitoring  Technology stack: GCP services, JMeter, DO, Ansible, MySQL, NoSQL, PHP. Project requirements Anthems required our DevOps team to: perform a load-testing to ensure that the platform can handle millions of users; test the current API to see how many users they can handle; leverage monitoring tools to identify if any scalability bottlenecks exist due to poor PHP code VS poor MySQL queries VS poor MySQL index VS suboptimal server configuration; design and implement the solutions for the problems found; conceptualize other ways to increase scalability and performance; design and develop infrastructure using DevOps best-practices. Challenges and Our solutions The main challenges are: data and content stored in MySQL (not the fastest DB); resource-intensive queries in the common DB. Our solutions: suggested introducing separate tables for every user; suggested storing all user data in some NoSQL database and store only the link to it in the common MySQL database.  Results IT Svit DevOps team:  enabled and configured correct Google CDN caching, which allowed the system to process 2,000 rps with 250 ms response time under 90% percentile; wrote a detailed description of the infrastructure and workflows in place; created an Ansible playbook for automated creation of load-testing infrastructure on DigitalOcean; selected the safest cache for the system; started logging the SQL query caching to ensure it helped speed up the system operations; configured system monitoring and alerting using Google Stackdriver; ensured the system security by hiding the instances behind Cloudflare CDN into a private subnet behind a bastion host to avoid direct access via the Internet; created auto-scaling groups for API and PHP endpoints to ensure simple scalability under heavy workloads. Final thoughts The IT Svit devoted team helped Anthems with infrastructure optimization and continues working on Anthems’ PHP and database architecture improvement because we can always do better. Read More

The cryptocurrency exchange allowing to instantly trade in various cryptocurrencies including Ethereum turned to the IT Svit DevOps team with the request to optimize the resource usage of the existing cluster, implement automated MongoDB backups and enable smart monitoring of the key system parameters. Case info Location: London, UK Industry: Cryptocurrency trading Partnership period: October 2019 – ongoing Team size: 1 Team Lead, 1 DevOps engineer Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: MongoDB database performance optimization, monitoring implementation, automation of backup/restore operations Expertise delivered: Cloud infrastructure management and optimization, monitoring implementation, CI/CD configuration Technology stack: AWS, GitHub, Ansible, Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, MongoDB, Prometheus, Grafana, AlertManager. Project requirements The customer wanted our DevOps team to: optimize Prometheus+Grafana monitoring to identify slow MongoDB queries; optimize Kubernetes cluster performance; automate backup/restore operations for MongoDB; enable archiving and retrieval for historical MongoDB data; build a staging environment that runs in parallel; minimize the expenses of the system operations. Challenges and Our solutions The main challenge is that  MongoDB had some long queries that used an exorbitant amount of resources. Additionally, Prometheus and Grafana versions were outdated and not configured quite correctly. Finally, he lacked an inexpensive staging environment to test the system changes before rolling them out to production. We solved this in three steps: configured the backup and restore for MongoDB. Luckily, IT Svit has developed our solution for automated MongoDB backup/restoration in AWS using Terraform and Jenkins; optimized the MongoDB performance. We used the database sharding. Another solution was to use specific node pools for specific workloads (one for monitoring, one for staging, one for prod, one for MongoDB). We have also configured limits to resource requests. This helped reduce resource usage and lower costs; improved the efficiency of cluster monitoring. We utilized Helm charts to build and update Prometheus and Grafana operators to the latest versions and configure their interaction with AlertManager.  Results Our customer currently has a system running on a Kubernetes cluster with automated backup and restoration capabilities. By sharding the database we helped lower the system workload and decrease the expenses.  Final thoughts The IT Svit DevOps team helped lower our customer’s resource consumption and operating costs significantly and is currently working on further improving the system performance. Read More

An influencer marketing cloud for enterprise creators that offers private enterprise cloud services CreatorIQ turned to IT Svit with the request of infrastructure optimization and migrating the legacy infrastructure to AWS. Case info Location: Los Angeles, CA Industry: Private enterprise cloud  Partnership period: July 2019 — January 2020 Team size: 1 team lead, 2 DevOps engineers Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and optimization, database performance optimization, monitoring implementation, CI/CD implementation, app containerization, API integration Expertise delivered: App containerization and container management, cloud infrastructure management, monitoring implementation, CI/CD configuration, API integration Technology stack: AWS, GitHub, Jenkins, MS SQL, AWS Lambda and Redshift, ElasticSearch, Node.JS, social media APIs (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) Project requirements The customer’s requests were for our team to use their DevOps expertise to:  optimize the existing infrastructure and workflows;  automate testing and deployment of the new platform features; integrate multiple external tools and services; migrate the legacy infrastructure to AWS and ensure its ultimate cost-efficiency. Challenges The customer required a full-scale transformation of their infrastructure resulted in the scope of the following challenges: application containerization and deployment; load balancing and autoscaling; ensuring security; k8s cluster maintenance and troubleshooting;  routing and network configuration; smart alerting and monitoring implementation. Results PHP was actively used in developing the main platform at the server and backend application level. We utilized MS SQL Server, Redshift, ElasticSearch and the Lambda architecture at the database storage organization level, focusing on Node.js.  In the working databases, all large accounts and posts for all key social networks are collected and aggregated, with a capacity from hundreds of gigabytes to dozens of terabytes. Search is built on ElasticSearch 6 and consists of 7-8 indexes which contain more than 1 TB of data each and still growing. We started integration with IBM Watson AI services and API. The daily organizing and automating Agile SDLC processes running with GitLab, Jenkins. We prepared the infrastructure for the implementation and coverage of new feature functionality with automated tests; The main application hosting is located in Amazon Cloud using its services (S3, Route53, CloudFront and others). The back-end is a Laravel API. The database is MS SQL, where stored procedures, functions, etc. are actively used. We work with Git to consistently implement Continuous Integration + Continuous Deployment. We use AWS Lambda while working with Node.js. Final thoughts With our great DevOps expertise and AWS architecture design best practices, we were able to deliver the expected results and exceed customer expectations. CreatorIQ was fully satisfied with our performance and complimented us in a 5-star IT Svit customer review on Clutch. Read More

Swedish online recipe-sharing platform that also provides grocery and delivery services turned to us with the request to help optimize the back-end performance, enable monitoring and develop new features for their platform. Case info Location: Stockholm, Sweden Industry: Meal planning, online grocery and delivery Partnership period: May 2019 – ongoing Team size: 1 Team Lead, 2 DevOps engineers Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: AWS infrastructure performance optimization, monitoring implementation, CI/CD Expertise delivered: AWS Cloud infrastructure management and optimization, monitoring and alerting implementation, CI/CD configuration Technology stack: AWS, Kafka, GitHub, Docker, RDS Aurora (MySQL), Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Lambda, EC2, ECS, ELB, CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeCommit, AWS auto-scaling groups, CloudWatch, SNS, S3, Github, Varnish, DataDog. Project requirements Once the IT Svit team analyzed customer’s needs we specified the following tasks: to assess the existing AWS infrastructure; to design and implement the failover plan; to restructure the current DB setup; to finish the CI/CD configuration; to optimize the system performance; to increase the cost-efficiency of operations; to provide detailed developer documentation; to provide ongoing system support and updates. Challenges and Our solutions The infrastructure the customer operates is split into two regions, in Germany and the US. Both have the test and production environments and run several apps that enable platform functionality. As the product is very popular in Sweden,  so the customer needed us to: configure a failsafe CI/CD pipeline for developing and releasing platform updates using AWS resources and services; optimize the system performance and reduce the number of AWS services and resources used; move the workloads from Germany to the US to increase the response time. Our solutions: we assessed the existing infrastructure and configured AWS VPC peering to optimize resource allocation; we moved the production environment to the US and created an Aurora RDS slave replica in the US region; we configured AWS CI/CD tools to update both the US and Germany regions simultaneously and replicated the monitoring system from Europe to the US region; we also updated the Varnish deployment to change the endpoint based on the region; we’ve prepared detailed developer documentation and currently provide project support. Results Properly configured AWS services allowed the customer to reduce the expenses on infrastructure maintenance, shorten time-to-market for the platform updates and new features deployment and increase the overall cost-efficiency of the operations. Final thoughts The IT Svit DevOps team helped the leading Swedish meal planning platform become more cost-efficient and deliver an uninterrupted positive end-user experience to their customers. Read More

How IT Svit DevOps Team Containerized a Web Conferencing App A global company, the creator of the conferencing tool used by 19,000 customers in 100 countries, contacted the IT Svit team with the request to set up a Kubernetes cluster and containerize their application. Also, they wanted us to enable CI/CD pipelines for updates and monitoring.  Case info  Location: Barcelona, Spain; Hamburg, Germany; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA. Industry: Web conferencing software Partnership period: July 2019 — January 2020 Team size: 1 team lead, 2 DevOps engineers Team location: Kharkiv, Ukraine Services: Cloud infrastructure design and optimization, database performance optimization, monitoring implementation, CI/CD implementation, app containerization, API integration Expertise delivered: App containerization and container management, cloud infrastructure management, monitoring implementation, CI/CD configuration, Technology stack: AWS, GitHub, Jenkins, Ansible, PHP, MySQL, MariaDB, Apache, Nginx, Terraform, Docker, Prometheus, Grafana, AlertManager Project requirements Our customer needed help with:  improving their infrastructure by splitting the platform into a set of microservices with containerized apps; building and configuring the Kubernetes cluster for the platform; enabling monitoring of the platform.  Our solutions  The work process included:  challenges around persistent data such as DB, file uploads and user-generated content resolving: Redis for PHP sessions configuring; Dockerfiles to structure the platform’s Docker Registry creating; config data to PHP container runtime passing; Kubernetes setting up; monitoring and alerting pipeline enabling; system dependencies managing. Results Here are our results: By deploying the platform consisting of microservices with containerized Docker apps to a Kubernetes cluster, the IT Svit DevOps team enabled security, load balancing and auto-scaling of resources; By implementing CI/CD processes, we allowed our customer to update various platform components independently and their performance is not affected by other operations; In-depth monitoring ensures the customer’s team keeps a hand on the pulse of the project at all times and the TTR has shortened significantly. Final thoughts Our talented DevOps team used the most effective and innovative DevOps practices and tools to ensure error-free deployment, updates and maintenance of enterprise-grade conferencing software used by thousands of people daily.   Read More