Database optimization and security on AWS helps SwipedOn deliver a world-class access service
With Rackspace Technology as its strategic partner and a well-architected platform that supports its forward-looking approach to the visitor experience, SwipedOn continues to push a higher standard in visitor management.
![SwipedOn](https://www.rackspace.com/sites/default/files/styles/rxt_customer_logo/public/2021-09/Customer-Logo-SwipedOn_500px-01.png?itok=i1-9cOj7)
With an expanding global customer base, SwipedOn needed a technical partner who could support its AWS infrastructure and proactively react to any issues. It also needed support to optimize and scale as the company grows.
Solutions Cloud, Public Cloud, Security, Security Strategy Platforms Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), SecurityProfessional & Managed Services
Professional Services, Managed ServicesOur customer
Headquartered in the vibrant coastal city of Tauranga, New Zealand, SwipedOn is the developer of a world-leading visitor management platform aimed at providing the best visitor experience possible for businesses of any size.
But what does the best visitor experience look like? It’s a modern, digital sign-on solution that seamlessly integrates with a business to provide a frictionless experience for visitors and employees. This simple, yet effective, solution has taken SwipedOn from tech start-up to a global leading visitor management system provider.
Today, the SwipedOn team mixes its passion for the great outdoors and good coffee with immersion in a thriving tech scene. The company has been servicing Australian businesses since 2014, including Brisbane Airport, Disney, Bolloré Logistics and Tourism & Events Queensland, to name a few.
“We knew the business had to scale to support growth. We talked with a few parties, but we had the most confidence in Rackspace Technology."
![SwipedOn](https://www.rackspace.com/sites/default/files/styles/parallelogram/public/2021-09/Related-Stories_480x360_11.jpg?itok=ETM9WB6F)
SwipedOn is freed up to focus on user-facing features
Working with Cooney, the Rackspace Technology team designed a completely new environment that fit the criteria of SwipedOn’s needs and provided everything to help set the company up for success.
“We wanted to focus on user-facing features and not spend our time configuring and managing infrastructure,” said Cooney. “Rackspace Technology looked at everything we had and how it worked and designed a completely new environment. That really appealed to us because it was an opportunity to have a clean slate.”
On top of this, Rackspace Technology provided a dedicated engineer to help implement the new environment at no extra cost. “Having that expertise readily available and at no extra cost really made a difference and gave us the confidence to move forward with the project,” Cooney added.
![SwipedOn](https://www.rackspace.com/sites/default/files/styles/rxt_image/public/2021-09/Text-and-Video-Thumbnail-Image_600x338_3.jpg?itok=a-tNx8_f)
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“During this natural evolution of our product, it’s been great knowing our infrastructure is in strong hands. We don’t have a dedicated Sys Admin or DevOps or anything like that here, but we have a high degree of trust knowing Rackspace Technology has our back.”
![SwipedOn](https://www.rackspace.com/sites/default/files/styles/rxt_image/public/2021-09/Text-and-Video-Thumbnail-Image_600x338_2_4.jpg?itok=KfI9W6Tc)
Seeking 24x7x365 AWS architecture support
Since its founding in 2013 by CEO Hadleigh Ford, the company has seen tremendous growth, scaling its team to 39 employees. Built on AWS, the platform has since facilitated 70 million movements across 70+ countries and more than 6,000 locations globally.
However, with a large majority of its customer base existing overseas, SwipedOn needed a technical support partner it could trust to maintain the platform.
SwipedOn Chief Technology Officer, Matt Cooney said, “Our development teams are in a coastal part of New Zealand and our customers are not. So, our platform is busiest when we’re asleep. With that in mind, we were looking for a partner who we could have confidence in watching our infrastructure while we sleep and be in a position to act proactively in the case of an issue.” Beyond infrastructure maintenance, the company also needed a partner it could consult with at a moment’s notice.
“We were looking for someone who could sanity check our architectural changes, make sure our infrastructure was optimized, ensure our scaling designs work, and assist with out-of-hours change management,” Cooney said. “Rackspace Technology could do all of that — and at a pretty reasonable price compared to what other companies were offering,” he added.
SwipedOn is freed up to focus on user-facing features
Working with Cooney, the Rackspace Technology team designed a completely new environment that fit the criteria of SwipedOn’s needs and provided everything to help set the company up for success.
“We wanted to focus on user-facing features and not spend our time configuring and managing infrastructure,” said Cooney. “Rackspace Technology looked at everything we had and how it worked and designed a completely new environment. That really appealed to us because it was an opportunity to have a clean slate.”
On top of this, Rackspace Technology provided a dedicated engineer to help implement the new environment at no extra cost. “Having that expertise readily available and at no extra cost really made a difference and gave us the confidence to move forward with the project,” Cooney added.
Architectural consultations provide added value
Since the beginning, the relationship between Rackspace Technology and SwipedOn has been an ongoing partnership built on a strong foundation of technical expertise and support. Part of this support is ensuring Cooney and his team have regular and consistent access to Rackspace Technology talent.
“I have a fortnightly call with our account manager and lead engineer at Rackspace Technology, which gives us an opportunity to go over what we’re planning, what we’re doing and any issues that are arising,” said Cooney.
Beyond ongoing support, knowing that Rackspace Technology architects are available for consultation on any architectural alterations when they need them has been a value-add for Cooney and his team.
“When we’ve had architectural changes, it has always been an opportunity to give the architects at Rackspace Technology a chance to look over our plans,” Cooney said. “And while they’ve never come back with any substantive issues, knowing that is worth quite a lot to us.”
Staying on top of cybersecurity threats
Because the SwipedOn platform handles a wealth of visitor data, security is also always top of mind for Cooney and his team. Rackspace Technology has continued to provide an expert shoulder to lean on, ensuring all parts of the platform are both secure and compliant, guaranteeing a robust visitor experience for all.
“Security is important to us, and one the most useful aspects of our relationship with Rackspace Technology has been its peer review of our security plans,” noted Cooney.
Utilizing security and monitoring tools such as AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) and CloudWatch allows SwipedOn to stay on top of security by mitigating web exploits that might affect availability, compromise security or consume excessive resources.
With most of SwipedOn’s customers accessing its platform internationally, the company needed to simplify its database management. Using AWS Relational Database Service (RDS), SwipedOn has been able to automate time-consuming administration tasks whilst reducing operational overhead.
Right-size instances keep support high and costs low
To ensure costs are constantly being optimized for the SwipedOn platform, Rackspace Technology regularly looks for ways to reduce spending — including monthly reporting to review budgets. Through the partnership, SwipedOn has also been able to get a deeper understanding of its environment, which has helped to identify the right-size instances for its needs.
“We’ve had great advice from the guys around what size instances typically give us the best performance over time, which has been pretty good,” said Cooney.
With rightsizing the most effective way to control cloud costs, Rackspace Technology continuously analyses instance performance, usage needs and patterns — turning off any idle instances and optimizing those that are over provisioned or poorly matched with workloads.
“We recently went through a re-sizing exercise which actually moved us to a lower tier in terms of our Rackspace Technology spend,” Cooney added. “So that’s always a good sign when your vendor identifies savings that essentially pays them less — we’re happy with that.”
About Rackspace Technology
Rackspace Technology is the multicloud solutions expert. We combine our expertise with the world’s leading technologies — across applications, data and security — to deliver end-to-end solutions. We have a proven record of advising customers based on their business challenges, designing solutions that scale, building and managing those solutions, and optimising returns into the future.
As a global, multicloud technology services pioneer, we deliver innovative cloud capabilities to help customers build new revenue streams, increase efficiency and create incredible experiences. Recognised as a best place to work, year after year, by Fortune, Forbes, Great Places to Work and Glassdoor, we attract and develop world-class talent to deliver the best expertise to our customers. Everything we do is underpinned by an obsession with our customers’ success — our Fanatical Experience™ — so they can work faster, smarter and stay ahead of what’s next.
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