Transforming Vision into Reality with BOAS Networks

In record time, Axians Amanox and BOAS Networks have brought a fully functional BETA version of a new type of web application to market maturity.

Industry
Information Technology

Challenge

No existing infrastructure
Scalable solution adaptable to growing requirements
Budget-conscious approach with constant cost control
Phased project implementation to manage costs effectively
Quick delivery of minimal viable product (MVP) to showcase

Solution

Gitdevops
Use of Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Fully serverless approach
Swagger as contract between front and backend teams

Download Success Story (PDF)

Initial situation

After BOAS Networks went public with the business idea of a „service request web application“, which puts together customised IT Services for customers from various industries, it quickly became apparent that there was great interest in this type of service. Now the technological basis for being able to offer the services had to be created quickly. The start-up company had no existing infrastructure, so Axians Amanox was entrusted with creating everything from scratch once the
partnership had been agreed.

Challenge and solution approach

The solution had to be easy to use and be able to grow with the requirements - if the business model proved to be successful.
In addition, it was clear from the outset that the limited budget would require constant cost control and that the project would have to be split into stages for this reason too.
Another important requirement was that BOAS wanted to demonstrate the functionalities and possibilities of the service to potential customers as quickly as possible with a minimal viable product (MVP).
These basic requirements had to be met. Apart from that, Axians Amanox was free to make the decisions regarding the development and type of provision along the way.

The Solution

The solution, customised according to BOAS Networks‘ requirements, is a completely serverless architecture. As it was a completely new build, Axians Amanox used Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with a seamless, orchestrated development process. This ensured the reliability and scalability of the application.

The developers chose „Angular“ for the front end, as this solution best met the visual requirements of BOAS Networks.
The interface solution (API) between the front and back end was solved using „Swagger“. State-of-the-art „AWS Serverless Services“ (Amazon Web Services) are used for the backend, which make it possible to use the latest microservices approach. Each problem is broken down, which significantly simplifies development and maintenance.

In this way, Axians Amanox provides the customer with a fully reactive system that guarantees transparent and low operating costs, which only spends money when it is actually needed and can be scaled as required.

Fig. 1:
An architectural overview/diagram

Tools & Technologies

Terraform for implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeBuild, GitHub for Deployments
Amazon Cognito for authentication
Amazon API Gateway, AWS Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon S3 as core serverless services

Amazon S3 and Amazon CloudFront for content delivery
Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) for notifications
Angular for front-end development
Swagger for API documentation & design

„The Team of Axians Amanox AG is not only very capable, but they really took me on a journey from first idea to ready to use digital platform for my business. I appreciate their professional manner in guiding me through the depths of turning my abstract idea into real life tool.“

Cord Engeling, Owner

Conclusion

Axians Amanox met the challenge of bringing a new product to market maturity in a short space of time with a limited budget by taking the initiative to implement requirements management in collaboration with BOAS. In the next step, Bezos‘ „two-pizza-team rule“ was applied to solve the constantly arising requirements in the form of a small and efficient team.

Axians Amanox was using the «CloudNative DevOps» approach for this project. The entire solution was developed using this agile methodology and the MVP version was ready for use in just three months – using four sprints. The project is a successful case of business innovation with cutting edge cloud technologies that enable the fastest possible market launch.

Advantages

BOAS Networks has a solution with which the start-up‘s vision could be turned into reality - as simply as possible, with maximum cost transparency in terms of development and operation and all within a very short period of time.

Very short implementation time
Low operating costs
Completely serverless solution
Cost transparency and predictable cost development
Scalability

User-friendliness
Axians Amanox offers a „single point of contact“
Ongoing consulting and coaching
High efficiency and technical expertise

BOAS Networks GmbH

BOAS Networks is a young company that started out with a business idea: to establish a vendor-neutral, unbiased global platform for IT services. BOAS Networks provides a „service request web application“ that puts together customised solutions for customers from different sectors, regardless of the manufacturer. It connects customers with IT service providers, focussing on the required performance and compatibility - not specific manufacturers or providers.

www.boasnetworks.com

AWS

As AWS Advanced Consulting and training partner, we support Swiss customers on their way to the cloud. Cloud-native technologies are part of our DNA. Since the company’s foundation (2011), we have been accompanying cloud projects, implementing and developing cloud-based solutions.