Modernization for a global stock image and media platform

The client experienced a significant increase in new platform users, asset downloads, corporate clients, etc. The wide use of legacy systems to perform various tasks, such as user management, customer service, or handling media purchases, significantly slowed down the client’s operations and hindered the ability to effectively keep up with the business growth. Therefore, the client needed to conduct a comprehensive modernization and optimization of a wide range of systems and applications.

The client had an incomplete legacy application that was used by the client’s customer support department to manage users. Initially, the client considered optimizing the existing tool by making it more scalable and maintainable. After our collaboration began, together with the client we performed a thorough analysis of their needs and the capabilities of the existing solution. As a result, we have identified that the most effective way to go forward was designing and developing a brand new admin platform—a set of management tools.

During the first stage of our cooperation, we evaluated the existing codebase and defined a new concept and app architecture. We have developed the Node.js proxy backend for the admin tool, which interacts with the underlying services and a set of frontend applications based on a custom library. Our team has designed the architecture of the platform containing multiple React applications. For instance, we have developed the MVP of a second application for the platform within a couple of 2-week sprints thanks to well-defined architecture and our set of custom components.

Our team has helped the client’s core team migrate ETL from service databases to Snowflake. The task was to move to newer services with better performance since the client has accumulated a large amount of data and spent a lot of time on synchronization. We have used Looker to analyze and share real-time analytics, as well as SSRS, SSAS, and Tableau for data visualization.

The client used legacy applications for the key service they provided for their end-customers— buying and selling media. Since these applications were built using older technologies, updating them was quite burdensome. The N-iX team has modernized both iOS and Android apps. In particular, we have updated the applications to support the latest Android and iOS operating systems and removed old redundant frameworks. Additionally, we have centralized and standardized the project documentation.

Our team has helped the client optimize and modernize a platform for companies that need custom media content: photos, videos, cinematography, etc. The solution gathers the requirements and delegates the work to the best matching contributors from the connected network. Our team has worked closely with the client’s team on identifying user needs as well as collecting feedback, analyzing, estimating the scope, and suggesting what can be improved.

We have implemented two-factor authentication using Google Authenticator. Our team has managed the entire infrastructure in AWS with infrastructure as a code approach using AWS CloudFormation and Hashicorp Terraform tools. We have also worked on cost optimization by conducting load testing of the system core and replacing EC2 instances with the best types/families suited for the particular type of load. This not only improved the performance and throughput of the system but also decreased the cost of the underlying infrastructure. N-iX engineers have used Node.js, Express.js, React, Angular, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redshift, EMR Cluster, Scala, Python, Terraform, and AWS.

N-iX has helped the client develop and modernize a number of solutions intended for internal use and for end-customers. As a result, a wide range of business processes were revamped and optimized, allowing the client to improve their business in several significant ways:

• Streamlined internal operations by effectively managing users with the help of the new admin tool;
• Enhanced customer experience by making it easier to purchase and sell media using the modernized mobile apps and boosting the performance of the custom media content platform;
• Optimized infrastructure costs by conducting load tests, replacing EC2 instances, and migrating the ETL infrastructure from service databases to Snowflake.