High Plains Computing, an Advanced AWS Partner with a strong focus on EKS, successfully assisted one of its clients, an e-commerce company, in automating their build, push, and deployment process (CI/CD). By leveraging AWS CodeBuild, ECR, and EKS, the client achieved streamlined workflows, consistent environments, and improved application stability. This case study highlights the challenges faced by the client, the solution provided by High Plains Computing, and the remarkable results achieved through this partnership.
Challenges
Prior to adopting AWS CodeBuild for build automation, the client encountered several challenges:
Manual Build and Deployment The client relied on a time-consuming and error-prone manual process for building Docker images, leading to inefficiencies and potential mistakes.
Streamlined CI/CD Pipeline. The client sought to establish an automated CI/CD pipeline that would trigger the build, push, and deployment process whenever changes were made to their application code repository (git push).
Consistent Environments Ensuring consistent build environments, encompassing dependencies and configurations, across development, staging, and production environments was crucial to avoid discrepancies and improve overall application stability.
Solution:
High Plains Computing implemented a comprehensive solution utilizing AWS CodeBuild, ECR, and EKS to automate the client’s Docker image building, pushing, and deployment process (CI/CD). Key features and services were employed to address the challenges effectively:
- Build and Push with CodeBuild: CodeBuild was configured to build Docker images using the Dockerfile and push them to ECR. The buildspec.yml file defined the necessary build steps, including dependency installation, testing, and image construction.
- Integration with Source Control: CodeBuild seamlessly integrated with the client’s source control system, BitBucket, enabling automatic triggering of the build process whenever changes were pushed to the repository. This ensured that Docker images were consistently built and updated with the latest code changes.
- Image Deployment to EKS: High Plains Computing leveraged AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) to manage the client’s Kubernetes cluster. Once the Docker image was successfully built and pushed to ECR, a Kubernetes deployment manifest file was utilized to deploy the image to the EKS cluster. Tools such as kubectl or the AWS CLI were employed to apply the deployment manifest.
Results:
The implementation of an automated build, push, and deployment process to EKS yielded significant benefits for the client:
- Streamlined Deployment Process: The automation eliminated manual intervention, reducing the likelihood of errors during deployments. Consequently, the client experienced faster and more reliable deployments, resulting in reduced time-to-market for application updates.
- Consistent Environments: By leveraging CodeBuild, the client achieved consistency in build environments, including dependencies and configurations, across their development, staging, and production environments. This minimized environment-related issues and enhanced overall application stability.
- Deployment to EKS: High Plains Computing utilized Kubernetes manifests to define the client’s application deployment configuration, encompassing aspects such as pod numbers, service definitions, and resource requirements.
- Scalability and Flexibility: With EKS, the client obtained a scalable and managed Kubernetes environment capable of handling their growing application workload. CodeBuild’s scalability and customizable build environments empowered them to adapt to evolving requirements and scale their build processes accordingly.
Conclusion:
Through the implementation of AWS CodeBuild, ECR, and EKS, the client achieved automation of their Docker image building, pushing, and deployment process. This resulted in streamlined workflows, and consistent environments, and facilitated continuous integration and deployment. The client can now deliver high-quality applications more efficiently and effectively, enabling them to meet the needs of their customers with speed and reliability. High Plains Computing’s expertise in AWS technologies and commitment to delivering superior solutions solidifies its reputation as a reputable AWS Partner.
