Grupo JCPM

About Grupo JCPM

Grupo JCPM is a holding company operating in the Shopping Center, Real Estate, and Communication sectors. Present today in five Brazilian states (Pernambuco, Bahia, Sergipe, Ceará, and São Paulo), it has driven the creation of more than 50,000 jobs. The shopping segment consists of modern enterprises with distinctive architectural projects and a portfolio of 13 shopping centers.

In the Real Estate segment, it has become a reference in the development of state-of-the-art buildings. In Communication, it owns the Sistema Jornal do Commercio de Comunicação, which includes TV, print newspaper, radio, and online media.

Since 2012, the group has been producing wine at Quinta Maria Izabel, located in Douro, Portugal.

Recognized for the ethics adopted in its business dealings, its high standard of quality, and a strong sustainable conduct, the group undertakes highly relevant social actions. In Sergipe, in Serra do Machado, it established the Fundação Pedro Paes Mendonça almost 30 years ago, providing services in education, health, housing, elderly care, and income generation support. Around its enterprises, it operates with the Instituto João Carlos Paes Mendonça de Compromisso Social (IJCPM), which enhances the employability potential of young people aged 16 to 24. In this way, the group reinforces its social commitment to people.

The Challenge:

The 11 shopping centers located in major capitals of the Northeast region of Brazil (Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, and Aracaju) are capable of generating nearly 50,000 direct jobs. Closely monitoring the evolution of retail, the group has been rethinking what the shopping center of the future will be like and what energy should be invested to transform this business.

In this context, e-commerce naturally emerged as a significant force to be considered in the process of transforming the consumer journey and in constructing new business models for shopping centers, now considering both physical and digital engagement journeys for retailers and consumers.

The objective of this project was to migrate the client's previous structure—based on isolated data structures using MariaDB—to a single, integrated structure based on Amazon Aurora MySQL.

What was proposed:

This case study includes details related to the implementation project of Amazon Aurora MySQL:

The objective of this project was to implement the database layer for the e-commerce platform of Grupo JCPM. Aiming to ensure scalability, resilience, and security, we sought to establish a multi-tenant environment where each shopping center has its own data model for platform consumption. Additionally, the platform offers complete integration with the retailers' back-office infrastructure through services connected to external applications.

The Outcome and Benefits

Products used in this solution:

Aurora MySQL: The entire client database layer was migrated to Aurora MySQL, following Well-Architected Framework practices, ensuring high availability, security, and scalability.

How other AWS services were integrated into this solution:

AWS VPC: For connectivity, a VPC with two private subnets was provisioned for instance dispersion in Multi-AZ.
AWS CloudWatch: CloudWatch provides infrastructure and service monitoring through dashboards and event alerts.
AWS GuardDuty: GuardDuty supports the monitoring process, providing insights to our NOC (Network Operations Center) on managing security threats and issues.

Customer issues and concerns that have been overcome:

With the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the project—which initially aimed to serve one shopping center with plans for expansion—was accelerated to meet the needs of all other business units.

The plan was for launches to occur throughout 2020, but due to the pandemic, the project was completed in about two months. Consequently, all shopping centers managed by Grupo JCPM, seven in total, were included on the platform by the end of July.

The platform currently used by the group is designed with principles of scalability, elasticity, and serverless architecture in mind. The goal was to make the application infrastructure more decoupled and independent. It is a multi-tenant environment where each shopping center has its data model suited for platform consumption. Additionally, the platform offers complete integration with the retailers' back-office infrastructure.

To deliver this convenience, AWS services are utilized across four infrastructure fronts. Applications and databases use Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling. The monitoring and automation environment is managed by Amazon CloudWatch. The infrastructure also includes Amazon Aurora, AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), AWS CloudFormation, Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and AWS Lambda.

1. Operational Excellence

1. Implementation of continuous monitoring with CloudWatch
2. Integrated connectivity with high availability (Multi-AZ)

2. Security

1. Implementation of GuardDuty for intelligent perimeter infrastructure monitoring
2. Restriction of external access to the environment, segregating private and public subnets for back and front end, respectively
3. AWS environment access for administration only via VPN
4. Encryption of data at rest and in transit

3. Reliability

1. Multiple instance nodes, enabling read and write operation balancing
2. Minimal failover between nodes
3. Using the LifeCycle Manager to implement snapshot-level backups
4. Automatic backups of the database layer

4. Performance Efficiency

1. Calculation of expected environment demand for rightsizing

5. Cost Optimization

1. Monitored environment with a continuous flow of rightsizing tracking

Third-party solutions used:

FreeBSD pfSense: Used to provide VPN connectivity for administrators
Nazar Database Performance: Used for performance administration
Hashicorp Vault: Used to provide key control and security

Project Timeline:

Project Start Date: January 1, 2020
Project End Date: July 31, 2020

Achieved Results:

Managed infrastructure service by AWS
Professional managed services provided
99.97% environment availability
Enhanced end-user application performance
Greater efficiency in meeting operational demands
Elasticity of the environment
Platform usage enabled retailers to maintain sales despite physical store closures
Record-time platform delivery for shopping centers in Fortaleza, Salvador, and Aracaju
Reduced deployment time for new developments
Reduced integration timeline with retailers
Creation of donation spaces for social initiatives combating COVID-19
25% increase in productivity
5% increase in infrastructure uptime
Over 100-fold growth in online sales (2020 vs. 2019)

About EPI-USE Services for AWS

EPI-USE Services for AWS, recognized as a Next-Gen Managed Services Provider (MSP), offers comprehensive and scalable hosting solutions tailored to the dynamic landscape of AWS. Our team specializes in an array of managed and consulting services that encompass assessment, development, migration, management, and optimization of AWS environments. Our approach to cloud migration is adaptable and client-centric, enabling businesses to transition from traditional server environments to AWS seamlessly and efficiently, with minimal impact on their existing operations.

Our Capabilities and Competencies:

Managed Services Provider (MSP): As a recognized MSP, we offer comprehensive management and optimization of AWS environments, ensuring operational efficiency and strategic cloud utilization.

Migration Consulting Competency: We specialize in strategic migration planning, streamlined transitions, and ongoing post-migration support for optimal performance.
SAP Consulting Competency: Recognized for our excellence in SAP solutions, we streamline business processes using SAP and continually advance our expertise in SAP technologies.

By integrating these competencies, we enable our clients to focus on their core business, ensuring a seamless, secure, and effective digital transformation journey with AWS.

NXTsoft – Rapid Windows Migration to AWS