The challenges of scaling success

uBuyFirst’s innovative platform, designed to streamline eBay purchases for professional buyers, faced mounting pressure as its client base expanded. Limited by on-premise infrastructure, the company struggled with scalability, high operational overhead, and inconsistent responsiveness during demand spikes. These challenges threatened uBuyFirst’s ability to provide the precision and speed its clients required to capture undervalued Buy-It-Now deals in the competitive e-commerce space.

Recognizing the need for change, uBuyFirst realized that scaling its success required a multifaceted approach. To meet growing client demand, the company aimed to enhance scalability by leveraging flexible infrastructure solutions. Addressing operational inefficiencies became critical to reducing costs and freeing up resources for strategic priorities.

Additionally, the need for reliable and adaptable systems drove the pursuit of cloud-based infrastructure, which would provide the flexibility and power required to respond to dynamic market needs. Finally, delivering advanced capabilities was imperative to maintaining a competitive edge, ensuring that uBuyFirst’s clients could continue to secure high-value deals with unparalleled efficiency.

«We wanted to optimize our existing AWS components and migrate the on-premise infrastructure to the cloud to solve these issues,” says Roman Monastyrnyi, Infrastructure Architect at uBuyFirst. “Our goal was to achieve greater operational efficiency, improve reliability, and unlock advanced capabilities that only a cloud environment can offer, allowing us to support our clients more effectively in their high-stakes purchasing activities.»

Choosing AWS and Crayon

uBuyFirst evaluated several cloud providers and potential IT partners for the migration. Crayon quickly distinguished itself as an ideal IT partner, due to its strong reputation, extensive experience in guiding businesses through complex migrations, and its ability to deliver tailored solutions. Crayon's team offered comprehensive support, helping uBuyFirst objectively evaluate each option based on its requirements for performance, scalability, and reliability.

"Our vision was multifaceted: to streamline a portion of our existing AWS infrastructure while migrating the on-premise infrastructure seamlessly to the cloud, all without downtime," comments Monastyrnyi.

"We aimed to transition smoothly to a cohesive cloud ecosystem that could support our service delivery at its highest quality, with no interruptions for our customers. This approach would enable us to fully harness the cloud's advantages – from scalability and resilience to advanced management capabilities – creating a foundation for sustained efficiency and innovation.

"Performance was a top priority, as we needed an infrastructure that could reliably handle high volumes of data and processing without compromising speed. Rapid scalability was also crucial – a cloud infrastructure that enables us to scale up or down seamlessly to meet demand spikes without significant lead time or hardware investments."

With Crayon’s assistance, uBuyFirst compared various providers and determined that AWS provided the infrastructure, scalability, and resilience aligned with the company’s long-term vision for the project.

"For us, the key selection factor was the combination of AWS’s robust cloud infrastructure with Crayon’s expertise in cloud solutions and best practices," added Monastyrnyi. "AWS brought the technical capabilities we needed: powerful performance, rapid scalability, and enterprise-grade security. Meanwhile, Crayon’s in-depth guidance ensured the migration process was seamless and aligned with our operational goals. Together, they could provide a reliable, high-performance solution backed by security, scalability, and strong ongoing support – key requirements for us to continue delivering value to our clients without disruption."

The migration journey

The migration began in August 2024 and took just a month to complete. During this period, uBuyFirst navigated several key stages to ensure a successful launch:

1. Proof of Concept (POC): Validated the viability of its solution and ensured it met specific requirements.
2. Testing: Conducted thorough testing to identify and resolve potential issues before moving to the production environment.
3. Statement of Work (SOW): Outlined the scope, tasks, timelines, and responsibilities.
4. Production Rollout: Successfully deployed the project to production with zero downtime marking a critical milestone for the organization.
5. Technical Documentation and Staff Training: Developed comprehensive technical documentation and training to equip team members with the knowledge to maintain and optimize the new infrastructure.

Post-migration benefits

The key post-migration benefit for uBuyFirst is the fast scalability and flexibility that the new cloud infrastructure provides. With cloud resources, it can easily scale up to meet demand and adjust capacity as its needs evolve, all without the limitations and overhead of physical hardware. This agility allows it to respond quickly to business changes, optimize performance, and allocate resources efficiently. The streamlined access to advanced cloud services also supports ongoing innovation, helping it continuously enhance its offerings and deliver greater value to its clients.

"We observed a 10% increase in operational efficiency, as some routine tasks are now automated and team members can focus on strategic priorities," said Monastyrnyi. "This improvement aligns with our goals, underscoring the project’s success in enhancing productivity and reducing manual effort."

Measuring success – infrastructure costs down by 25%

In the first two months of the collaboration with Crayon, uBuyFirst achieved substantial results:

Infrastructure cost reduction: By optimizing resources in AWS, it reduced infrastructure costs by approximately 25%. 

Operational optimization: Streamlined workflows led to a 10% reduction in the time spent on routine tasks, improving team productivity

Integration efficiency: Successfully integrated new solutions into its existing infrastructure.

Seamless transition

Cloud migration has given uBuyFirst the agility to adapt quickly and efficiently to business needs, supporting faster growth and a more responsive infrastructure. "One aspect that significantly exceeded our expectations was the seamlessness of the migration process." Says Monastyrnyi. "We anticipated challenges and potential downtime, but with Crayon's meticulous planning and execution, the transition was remarkably smooth, with minimal disruption to our operations. This level of service not only met but surpassed our expectations, reinforcing our confidence in Crayon as a trusted partner.

"With the migration now complete, we’re planning several additional cloud initiatives – in which Crayon’s expertise will feature – focused on cost optimization and workload modernization," he added.

"In the next six to 12 months, we’ll be working to refine our cost management strategies to further reduce expenses while scaling resources as needed. We’re also exploring modernization initiatives that include updating our workloads to take advantage of more efficient cloud-native services and enhancing automation. These steps are intended to maximize the return on our cloud investment and support sustainable, long-term growth."