GOStack migrated People-Analytix from Exoscale to a scalable, cost-effective and enterprise-ready AWS platform, implementing modern DevOps practices and a sophisticated data platform that directly contributed to their successful acquisition by Learning Pool.
OVERVIEW
Information
- Client: People-Analytix
- Industry: HR Tech / Skills Management
- Project Type: Cloud Migration, Platform Engineering, DevOps Transformation
- Services: Amazon EKS, ECS, RDS PostgreSQL, Amazon ElastiCache, DynamoDB, AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, AWS Glue, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Athena, Amazon S3, AWS SageMaker, GitHub Actions, GitOps with ArgoCD, Infrastructure as Code
Intro
People-Analytix was a Swiss-based HR technology company that developed a market-leading, AI-powered skills management platform. Their proprietary skills ontology, with over 20,000 unique skills, allowed large enterprises to identify skills gaps, forecast workforce trends and strategically match employees to new roles, projects and learning opportunities. Their product was powerful, but their infrastructure was holding them back.
Hosted on a regional Swiss cloud provider, their platform lacked the scalability, global reach and enterprise-grade security posture required to win major international clients. GOStack partnered with People-Analytix to execute a full migration to AWS, re-architecting their platform for scale and implementing the DevOps practices needed to operate it efficiently. This transformation made their technology enterprise-ready, a key factor in their subsequent acquisition by Learning Pool in October 2022.
The Challenge
People-Analytix faced a classic scale-up challenge. Their innovative product had found a strong market, but their underlying infrastructure was not built for the global enterprise stage. Their reliance on Exoscale, a regional cloud provider, presented several critical limitations.
Limited Scalability and Global Reach: The regional provider could not offer the same level of on-demand scalability or the global datacenter footprint of a major hyperscaler like AWS. This was a significant barrier to serving large, multinational customers.
Enterprise Compliance Gaps: The existing platform lacked the robust security controls, certifications (like SOC 2, ISO 27001) and data residency options that are non-negotiable requirements for enterprise buyers, particularly in the HR space.
Inefficient Operations: The infrastructure was not managed as code, leading to manual configuration, inconsistent environments and slow provisioning times. The engineering team was spending too much time on operational firefighting instead of product innovation.
Fragmented Data Architecture: Their data and AI workflows were not integrated into a cohesive platform. This made it difficult to manage the end-to-end lifecycle of their machine learning models, from data preparation with AWS Glue to model training with SageMaker and analytics with Redshift.
Our Solution
GOStack executed a comprehensive migration and modernization project, moving People-Analytix to a new, enterprise-grade platform on AWS.
Cloud Migration and Infrastructure as Code: The first step was a lift-and-shift migration from Exoscale to AWS, immediately followed by a complete re-implementation of the infrastructure as code using Terraform. This ensured the new AWS environment was secure, reproducible and manageable from day one.
Scalable Compute Layer: We designed a flexible compute architecture using both Amazon EKS for their core microservices and Amazon ECS for other containerized workloads. This provided a balance of powerful orchestration and simplified container management, allowing each service to run on the most appropriate platform.
Modern Data and AI Platform: We built an integrated data and machine learning platform on AWS. Data is stored in Amazon S3, processed with AWS Glue and loaded into Amazon Redshift for analytics. AWS SageMaker was implemented to provide a fully managed environment for their data science team to build, train and deploy the sophisticated AI models at the heart of their skills ontology.
Robust Database and Caching: The data persistence layer was built on RDS PostgreSQL for reliable relational data storage, DynamoDB for high-performance NoSQL workloads and Amazon ElastiCache to provide in-memory caching for low-latency access to frequently used data.
GitOps and DevOps Transformation: We introduced a full GitOps workflow using GitHub Actions for CI and ArgoCD for CD. This automated the entire deployment process, from code commit to production release. By making Git the single source of truth, we improved deployment speed, reliability and auditability. This DevOps transformation empowered the People-Analytix team with a self-service model, reducing their reliance on a dedicated operations function.
Results and Benefits
The migration to AWS and the platform modernization effort delivered significant and measurable results.
- Enterprise-Ready Platform: The new AWS infrastructure provided the scalability, security and compliance posture People-Analytix needed to confidently sell to the world’s largest companies.
- Cost-Effective Operations: Through right-sizing, automation and the use of managed services, the platform became more cost-efficient to operate at scale.
- Accelerated Innovation: The self-service platform and automated GitOps workflow freed up the engineering team to focus on building new product features instead of managing infrastructure.
- Integrated AI/ML Lifecycle: The new data platform on AWS streamlined their machine learning operations, enabling faster model development and deployment.
Transformation Impact
The new, enterprise-ready platform on AWS was a critical enabler of People-Analytix’s growth and ultimate acquisition. It gave them the technical credibility to pass the rigorous due diligence processes of enterprise buyers and corporate acquirers. In October 2022, Learning Pool, a Marlin Equity Partners portfolio company, acquired People-Analytix to integrate its sophisticated skills management technology into their corporate learning suite.
About GOStack
GOStack is an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner specialising in platform modernisation, DevOps, GitOps and data analytics on AWS. We help technology companies replace legacy infrastructure with modern, scalable and cost-efficient cloud platforms. We also embed the engineering practices that make those platforms sustainable long-term.
Why Partner with Us for Cloud Migration and Modernisation?
Migrating from a regional provider or a private data center to a hyperscale cloud like AWS is more than just a technical task. It is an opportunity to modernise your applications, automate your operations and align your technology with your business strategy. We have guided many companies through this journey, ensuring the new platform is not only scalable and secure but also enterprise-ready and acquisition-proof. If your current infrastructure is limiting your growth, let’s talk. Contact us to start your cloud journey.
