TableAir: Helping Companies Reap The Benefits of Hybrid Working

TableAir was created to help companies overcome the challenges of remote working by providing an all-in-one smart working solution that helps businesses avoid the most common hybrid working pitfalls. The TableAir solution includes everything from desk booking to parking solutions, enabling businesses to improve efficiency and cut costs while making a positive impact on their employee’s well-being. 

The TableAir platform was already powered by AWS, but TableAir wanted to ensure that it was using AWS to its full potential. To achieve this, they worked in close collaboration with us to conduct a Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR) of their AWS implementation. 

What Is A Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR)? 

A Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR) is conducted based on Amazon best practices, and helps companies like TableAir make the most of their AWS implementation. These reviews help reassure companies that they are complying with their responsibilities under Amazon’s shared responsibility model and provide deep insights into their set-up, and how to improve it even further. 

From the beginning of the project, Cloudvisor and TableAir worked closely together to create a streamlined workflow. The review supported TableAir in improving: 

Security 

Security is mission zero for any AWS implementation, and thus Cloudvisor’s review began there. The team identified a number of issues that could be resolved with simple changes to either TableAir’s procedures, or by implementing a number of AWS security solutions. 

The most important change was implementing zero trust security via robust security groups, and separating the production and staging environments into two separate VPCs, ensuring better security during updates to TableAir’s solution.

We also implemented AWS GuardDuty, in order to provide real-time security updates. This was supplemented with VPC logs, to provide in-depth activity reports.

Additionally, Cloudvisor recommended enabling the TableAir Systems Manager to have remote access to EC2 instances using the AWS recommended solution, eliminating the need for private keys, and instead relying upon AWS managed keys. 

Cost Optimization 

With security issues resolved, Cloudvisor’s next task was to identify ways to cost optimize TableAir’s AWS implementation. The first step was to implement specific solutions tailored to the unique needs of the staging and production environments. For staging, they implemented low cost Spot instances, and for the production environment they used Graviton-based EC2 instances. 

Additionally, Cloudvisor provided guidance on certain AWS services’ quotas and unused resources to help the TableAir team navigate AWS billing, and ensure that they were only paying for services that they needed. Furthermore, there’s always room for improvement, and Cloudvisor’s suggested infrastructure upgrades were taken into consideration by the customer.

This helped to improve the overall efficiency of TableAir’s solution, and reduced AWS related overheads by 10% so far. 

Operational Excellence

Once the immediate challenges were resolved, Cloudvisor and TableAir wanted to find innovative ways to further take advantage of their AWS deployment. The first step was to implement AWS Glue, which makes it easier to discover, prepare, move and integrate data from multiple sources for analytics or app development. This enabled TableAir to integrate all of their data into a single serverless solution, making it easier to manage and interpret their data, and ultimately use it to drive improvements in the TableAir platform. 

Additionally, TableAir implemented the data querying service AWS Athena. Athena is designed to make it easier for companies to interpret complicated datasets on S3 data lakes, or query collected AWS environments logs. Implementing Athena is an important step for AWS powered startups like TableAir, who often rely on insights from complicated datasets. 

Finally, Cloudvisor helped to prepare a list of step-by-step improvements that TableAir could implement in the future, ensuring that the impact of the review would be felt for a long time to come.  

AWS Services Used

• AWS WAF
• Amazon Athena
• AWS Glue
• Amazon Cloudwatch Dashboard
• Amazon Cloudwatch Alarms 
• Amazon VPC Flowlogs 
• Amazon Inspector
• Amazon GuardDuty
• Amazon RDS Graviton Instances
• Amazon EC2 Spot Instances
• AWS Config

Ready To Find Out Why Over 500+ Startups Like TableAir Trust Cloudvisor?

Cloudvisor was able to quickly establish a strong working relationship with TableAir because we think like a startup. We are structured the same way as many of our clients, and instinctively understand the unique needs of startups like yours. 

This enables the Cloudvisor team to quickly identify pain points, and implement positive solutions, without getting bogged down in bureaucracy or corporate procedures. 

Want to discover how you can take your AWS implementation to the next level? Book a Free Consultation!