Integrating Windows Server on AWS with Microsoft Entra for a Wind Energy Client

Integrating Windows Server on AWS with Microsoft Entra Domain Services

Windows

A wind energy startup specializing in developing autonomous flight control software manages a complex IT environment with a hybrid cloud infrastructure. They host critical applications and databases on AWS, including SQL Server instances, while using Microsoft Entra Domain Services (formerly Azure Active Directory Domain Services) for identity management. To streamline operations and enhance security, Ryval-X designed and integrated their Ec2/SQL Server instances on AWS with Microsoft Entra Domain Services.

Objectives:

  • Centralized Authentication: Enable SQL Server on AWS to use Microsoft Entra Domain Services for authentication.
  • Enhanced Security: Improve security by leveraging domain-based authentication and group policies.
  • Operational Efficiency: Simplify user management and access control by centralizing authentication.
  • Seamless Integration: Ensure a smooth and reliable integration process without disrupting existing services.

Implementation:

Planning and Preparation:
  • Assessment: Conducted an assessment of the current environment, including the configuration of SQL Server instances on AWS and the setup of Microsoft Entra Domain Services.
  • Requirements: Defined the requirements for network connectivity, security policies, and authentication mechanisms.
Network Configuration:
  • VPN/Direct Connect: Established a secure network connection between AWS and Microsoft Entra Domain Services using AWS Direct Connect or a VPN.
  • VPC Peering: Configured VPC peering to ensure that the AWS VPC hosting SQL Server could communicate with the network where Microsoft Entra Domain Services was hosted.
Domain Joining:
  • Domain Controller Setup: Deployed a domain controller on AWS and configured it to join the Microsoft Entra Domain Services domain.
  • SQL Server Configuration: Configured SQL Server instances on AWS to join the Microsoft Entra Domain Services domain. This involved updating DNS settings and configuring the SQL Server to use domain authentication.
Authentication and Authorization:
  • Windows Authentication: Enabled Windows Authentication for SQL Server instances, allowing users to authenticate using their Microsoft Entra Domain Services credentials.
  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Implemented RBAC policies to manage user permissions and access levels based on their domain roles and groups.
Testing and Validation:
  • Connectivity Testing: Verified network connectivity between AWS and Microsoft Entra Domain Services.
  • Authentication Testing: Tested domain-based authentication for SQL Server to ensure users could log in using their Microsoft Entra credentials.
  • Security Testing: Conducted security testing to verify that the integration adhered to GlobalTech’s security policies and standards.
Monitoring and Maintenance:
  • Monitoring: Set up monitoring tools to track authentication requests, login attempts, and network connectivity.
  • Maintenance: Established procedures for regular maintenance, including updates to domain controllers, SQL Server instances, and security policies.

Results:

Centralized Authentication:
  • SQL Server instances on AWS successfully used Microsoft Entra Domain Services for authentication, centralizing user management and access control.
Enhanced Security:
  • Leveraging domain-based authentication improved security by enforcing consistent policies and reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
Seamless Integration:
  • The integration was completed without disrupting existing services, ensuring a smooth transition and continuity of operations.

The Ryval-X Impact:

Improved Security Posture:
  • Enhanced security through centralized authentication and consistent application of security policies.
  • Reduced risk of credential compromise by using strong domain authentication mechanisms.
Simplified User Management:
  • Reduced complexity in managing separate authentication systems.
  • Improved auditability and compliance by centralizing authentication logs and policies.
Operational Efficiency:
  • Streamlined user provisioning and deprovisioning processes, reducing the administrative burden.
  • Improved user experience by allowing single sign-on (SSO) capabilities across different environments.
Scalability:
  • The solution provided a scalable authentication framework that could grow with GlobalTech’s expanding cloud infrastructure.

What Customer Realized:

By integrating SQL Server instances on AWS with Microsoft Entra Domain Services, the energy startup achieved a more secure, efficient, and scalable authentication framework. This integration not only enhanced security and operational efficiency but also streamlined user management and improved the overall user experience. The successful implementation serves as a model for other organizations looking to integrate cloud-based databases with centralized identity management solutions.

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Boosting Customer Engagement with AWS Pinpoint for a SaaS Startup

Boosting Customer Engagement with AWS Pinpoint

pinpoint

A Sports Picking startup, wanted to implement and enhance its user engagement  through personalized email campaigns after they register to the app. They aimed to increase user retention, promote tournament updates, and keep them engaged with the app. To achieve these goals, Ryval-X used AWS Pinpoint, a flexible and scalable outbound and inbound marketing communications service.

Objectives:

  • Increase Customer Retention: Engage existing customers with personalized offers and content.
  • Improve Campaign Efficiency: Utilize automation and data-driven strategies to enhance campaign effectiveness.
  • Promote Special Offers: Inform customers about discounts, promotions, and new products.
  • Drive Traffic: Increase website visits through targeted email campaigns.

The Transformation:

Data Integration:
  • User Data Collection: Integrated the app existing user database with AWS Pinpoint to collect user data, including email addresses, profile attributes.
  • Segmentation: Segmented users into various groups based on demographics, subscription and engagement levels.
Campaign Design:
  • Personalization: Created personalized email templates using AWS Pinpoint’s content creation tools. Emails were tailored based on user preferences.
  • A/B Testing: Designed different versions of email content and subject lines to test which variants performed better.
Automation and Scheduling:
  • Journey Builder: Used AWS Pinpoint’s journey builder to automate email campaigns. Created automated workflows that triggered emails based on user actions.
  • Scheduling: Scheduled campaigns to be sent at optimal times, considering user time zones and engagement patterns.
Analytics and Monitoring:
  • Real-Time Metrics: Monitored campaign performance in real-time using AWS Pinpoint’s built-in analytics dashboard. Tracked key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
  • Feedback Loop: Collected feedback and responses from users to refine and improve future campaigns.

The Ryval-X Impact:

Increased Engagement:
  • Open Rates: The personalized email campaigns achieved a 25% higher open rate compared to generic emails.
  • Click-Through Rates: Click-through rates increased by 30%, driving more traffic to the app.
Improved Retention:
  • Repeat Purchases: Users who received tournament updates were 20% more likely to be subscribed users
Enhanced Efficiency:
  • Automation: Automating email workflows saved the dev team significant time, allowing them to focus on strategy and creative tasks.
  • A/B Testing Insights: The A/B testing provided valuable insights into customer preferences, helping to refine future campaigns.
Revenue Growth:
  • Increased Sales: The promotions and special offers communicated through the campaigns resulted in a 15% increase in overall sales.
  • Higher Average Order Value: Personalized recommendations encouraged customers to purchase additional items, increasing the average order value by 10%.

What Customer Realized:

By leveraging AWS Pinpoint, the Startup successfully enhanced their user engagement and achieved their marketing objectives. The ability to create personalized, automated, and data-driven email campaigns not only improved user retention but also drove significant revenue growth. The insights gained from analytics and A/B testing allowed them to continuously optimize their strategies, ensuring ongoing success in their email marketing efforts.

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Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration testing for a SaaS Rewards Platform customer

Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration testing for a SaaS Rewards Platform customer

Web-Application-Penetration

A startup SaaS provider specializes in providing end-to-end reward experience to employees, colleagues and customers. Given the sensitivity of the data they handle, ensuring the security of their web application is paramount. To identify vulnerabilities and enhance their security posture, the provider engaged Ryval-X (an AWS Advanced Partner) to conduct a comprehensive penetration test of their web application.

THE CHALLENGE

  • Identify Vulnerabilities: Uncover potential security weaknesses in the web application.
  • Assess Impact: Evaluate the potential impact of discovered vulnerabilities on the business.
  • Enhance Security: Provide recommendations to mitigate identified risks.
  • Compliance: Ensure the web application meets industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Scope:

  • The penetration test focused on the provider’s SaaS platform, which included features such as user authentication, fund transfers, account management, and transaction history.
  • Both authenticated and unauthenticated access points were tested.
  • The testing was conducted in a non-production environment to avoid disrupting live services.

Ryval-X Methodology:

Ryval-X penetration test process followed a structured approach based on the OWASP Testing Guide: Information Gathering:
  • The penetration test focused on the provider’s SaaS platform, which included features such as user authentication, fund transfers, account management, and transaction history.
  • Both authenticated and unauthenticated access points were tested.
  • The testing was conducted in a non-production environment to avoid disrupting live services.
Identity Management Testing:
  • User authentication mechanisms were tested for vulnerabilities, such as weak passwords, lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA), and password reset flaws.
  • Authorization checks were performed to ensure proper role-based access control.
Authentication Testing:
  • Brute force attacks were attempted to identify weak login credentials.
  • Session management issues, such as session fixation and session hijacking, were tested.
Input Validation Testing:
  • The application was tested for common input validation issues, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site request forgery (CSRF).
  • Automated tools and manual techniques were used to identify injection points and other input-related vulnerabilities.
Client-Side Testing:
  • The client-side code (JavaScript) was reviewed for vulnerabilities.
  • The security of cookies, local storage, and other client-side storage mechanisms was assessed.
Configuration and Deployment Management Testing:
  • The configuration of the web server, application server, and database was reviewed for misconfigurations.
  • SSL/TLS configurations were examined to ensure secure communication.

Our Findings:

Critical:
  • SQL Injection: Identified in the login form, allowing attackers to bypass authentication and access sensitive data.
  • Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR): Allowed unauthorized users to access other users’ account information.
High:
  • Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Found in the transaction history page, enabling attackers to execute malicious scripts in users’ browsers.
  • Weak Password Policy: Allowed users to set easily guessable passwords, increasing the risk of account compromise.
Medium:
  • Session Management Flaws: Sessions were not properly invalidated upon logout, potentially allowing session hijacking.
  • Missing HTTP Security Headers: Lack of security headers like Content Security Policy (CSP) and X-Content-Type-Options.
Low:
  • Information Disclosure: Error messages revealed sensitive information about the application stack.

Ryval-X Recommendations:

Remediation:
  • Implement parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection.
  • Use secure coding practices to validate and sanitize all user inputs.
  • Enforce strong password policies and implement MFA.
  • Properly manage user sessions and invalidate them upon logout.
  • Add necessary security headers to HTTP responses.
Enhancements:
  • Conduct regular security audits and penetration tests.
  • Provide security training for developers.
  • Establish a vulnerability management program to address and track security issues.
Monitoring and Response:
  • Implement intrusion detection and prevention systems.
  • Set up real-time monitoring and alerting for suspicious activities.

The Ryval-X Impact:

  • The SaaS provider promptly addressed the critical and high-severity vulnerabilities, significantly reducing their risk exposure.
  • The provider implemented the recommended security measures and improved their overall security posture.
  • Regular security assessments were established to maintain a robust security framework.

What Customer Realized:

By conducting a thorough penetration test, the SaaS provider not only identified and mitigated existing vulnerabilities but also strengthened their security practices, ensuring the safety and trust of their customers.

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Lambda

AWS Service Delivery – Lambda

Ryval-X achieves AWS Service Delivery Designation for AWS Lambda

lambda

We are thrilled to announce that Ryval-X has achieved the AWS Service Delivery Program designation for AWS Lambda. This significant milestone was earned after passing a rigorous technical validation conducted by AWS Partner Solutions Architects, who are experts in AWS Lambda. They thoroughly tested our case studies and architecture models, ensuring that all best practices were meticulously implemented.

Our team is dedicated to helping organizations of any size redesign their legacy applications or release new ones by leveraging AWS Lambda and other serverless services. By doing so, we make applications easier to scale and faster to develop, fostering innovation.

What our AWS Lambda Service Delivery Achievement means for our Customers

As an AWS Lambda Partner, our recent AWS Service Delivery designation for AWS Lambda brings several benefits to our customers:
  • Expertise and Assurance: Our designation signifies that we have met AWS’s high standards and have been validated by AWS Partner Solutions Architects. This assurance of quality gives our customers confidence in our ability to deliver top-notch serverless solutions.
  • Advanced Services and Tools: We provide our customers with advanced services and tools to help build or migrate their solutions to a microservices architecture using serverless computing. This means that customers can focus on developing their applications without worrying about provisioning or managing servers.
  • Scalability and Efficiency: Leveraging AWS Lambda allows applications to automatically scale in response to incoming requests. This ensures that our customers’ applications can handle varying levels of demand efficiently, providing a seamless user experience.
  • Faster Development Cycles: By adopting serverless architecture with AWS Lambda, our customers can benefit from shorter development cycles. This enables faster time-to-market for new features and applications, fostering innovation and keeping them ahead of the competition.
  • Cost Optimization: AWS Lambda’s pay-as-you-go pricing model ensures that customers only pay for the compute time they consume. This can significantly reduce infrastructure costs compared to traditional server-based models, providing better cost efficiency.
  • Focus on Core Business: With serverless computing, our customers can offload the management of infrastructure to us, allowing them to focus more on their core business functions and strategic initiatives.

What is AWS Lambda?

AWS Lambda is a serverless computing service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows you to run code without the need to provision or manage servers. Here’s what makes AWS Lambda stand out:

  • Serverless Execution: Execute code in response to events such as changes in data, shifts in system state, or user actions, without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure.
  • Cost Efficiency: Pay only for the compute time you consume, with no charges incurred when your code is not running. This pay-as-you-go model can lead to significant cost savings compared to traditional server-based solutions.
  • Faster Time to Market: Eliminate the need for server provisioning and management, AWS Lambda allows for quicker deployment of applications, enabling faster innovation and time to market.

Ryval-X Expertise with AWS Lambda

Our team has extensive experience and a proven track record in implementing AWS Lambda across various use cases, including:

Data Processing:

  • File Processing: Automated the processing of files uploaded to Amazon S3, such as generating thumbnails from images, transcoding videos, or extracting metadata.
  • Stream Processing: Processed real-time streaming data from sources like Amazon Kinesis or Apache Kafka to analyze data, generate alerts, or store results.

Web and Mobile Backends:

  • API Gateway: Created robust, scalable backends for web and mobile applications using AWS API Gateway and AWS Lambda, handling API requests, performing business logic, and interacting with databases.
  • Authentication and Authorization: Implemented user authentication and authorization mechanisms, including token validation and user session management.

Event-Driven Computing:

  • Event Processing: Triggered AWS Lambda functions in response to events from other AWS services like Amazon S3, DynamoDB, or CloudWatch, enabling seamless event-driven workflows.
  • Notification Services: Send notifications through services like Amazon SNS or Amazon SES based on specific triggers or conditions in your application.

Scheduled Tasks:

  • Cron Jobs: Used AWS Lambda in combination with Amazon CloudWatch Events to run scheduled tasks such as cleanup scripts, data synchronization, or periodic reporting.

Real-Time Data Transformation:

  • Data Transformation: Transform and filter real-time data streams, enriching data before storing it in a database or data warehouse, ensuring the data is ready for analysis and reporting.

Serverless Web Applications:

  • Single-Page Applications: Built and deployed serverless web applications that interact with AWS Lambda functions via API Gateway, eliminating the need for traditional server hosting.
  • Static Website Hosting: Hosted static websites on Amazon S3 and use AWS Lambda for dynamic content generation and backend logic.

Security Automation:

  • Security Compliance: Automated security compliance checks and remediation actions in response to specific triggers, helping to maintain a secure and compliant environment.
  • Monitoring and Alerts: Monitored security events and trigger alerts or automated responses to potential security incidents.

Backup and Recovery:

  • Automated Backups: Created automated backup processes for databases and file systems, ensuring reliable and consistent data protection.
  • Disaster Recovery: Implemented disaster recovery workflows to automatically restore data and services in the event of a failure.

Machine Learning and AI:

  • Inference and Prediction: Used AWS Lambda to run machine learning inference and prediction models in response to data changes or user inputs, enabling real-time AI capabilities.

Our expertise ensures that we can help organizations of any size leverage AWS Lambda to transform their IT infrastructure, achieve greater scalability, and accelerate their development cycles.

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Tier

AWS Advanced Tier Services

Ryval-X achieves AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner status

advanced

We are proud to announce that AWS recognized Ryval-X as an Advanced Tier Partner.

The AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner status is a valuable accreditation granted to APN members with established expertise in AWS ecosystem technologies, a strong team of trained and certified technical professionals, and an outstanding proven record of developing cloud-native applications and managing the cloud infrastructure to deliver end-to-end solutions.

At Ryval-X we see AWS as our strategic partner and most of our customers rely on AWS Cloud to run mission-critical production workloads to serve a global audience and customer base. Ryval-X team of AWS-certified professionals trained within the Ryval-X Cloud Academy design, deploy and operate applications and infrastructure on AWS for global clients. They guide clients in streamlining their AWS environment and leveraging the latest AWS features and services.

Our goal is to provide customers with the best in class cloud consulting by bringing our expertise and best practices, whether for Migration, Optimization, or Management to fully leverage the robust AWS Cloud platform. Achieving an Advanced Tier partnership with AWS proves our extensive experience and knowledge of AWS.

  • Our Cloud engineers has extensive experience working with AWS technologies and we offer our clients expert advice and solutions on:
  • Cost reductions and streamlined resource usage through optimized cloud infrastructure
  • Enhanced application performance and improved user experience
  • Increased business agility with rapid deployment and seamless integrations
  • Robust security measures, ensuring compliance and mitigating risks
  • Competitive advantage in the digital landscape, driving growth and success
  • By becoming an AWS Advanced Tier Partner we will be able to provide these benefits to our customers,
  • Help customers on funding programs that AWS offers
  • Provide tools to make the cloud journey hassle-free
  • Direct access to AWS support and resolve the issues quickly

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Migration of Gaming Application from datacenter to AWS for a Startup

Migration of Gaming App to AWS

 

A gaming startup aimed to change how the sports picking competition is played among the different generation of sports lovers.

THE CHALLENGE

  • App hosted in a legacy infrastructure caused high maintenance costs and support
  • Managing rising costs of maintaining the app in a legacy infrastructure
  • Any upgrades to the app was time consuming
  • Lack of monitoring tools created challenge to figure out the issues
  • Performance was always a concern to scale the app

THE TRANSFORMATION

  • Migrated the app from legacy environment to AWS with best practices
  • Established new automated security and compliance processes
  • Seamless migration ensured business continuity to the customer

Ryval-X IMPACT

  • App infrastructure built on the AWS Well-Architected Framework which protects information and assets, supports recovery, scalability and provides observability.
  • Reduced operational costs, accelerated agility, and set a foundation for scaling operations
  • The customer achieved significant performance, efficiency, and cost optimization benefits including:
  • Efficient DevSecOps process
  • High availability and efficient monitoring system
  • Predictable cost estimates for newer workloads
  • Increased digital agility to innovate faster in the cloud
  • Reduced infrastructure TCO by ~ 25%
  • Reduce operational costs by ~ 20%

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Automate infrastructure deployment and provisioning for a Scouting Startup

Infrastructure Automation of a Scouting App

An athletic scout startup developing a scouting platform to digitalize the scouting process

THE CHALLENGE
  • App hosted in a legacy infrastructure not able to scale with the increasing demand
  • New feature releases to the app was time consuming
  • High Maintenance and Support cost
  • Performance was always a concern to scale the app
THE TRANSFORMATION
  • Migrated and modernized the app utlizing various AWS services
  • Implemented efficient DevOps processes to provision the infrastructure and to deploy the code
  • Established security guardrails in all layers of the infrastructure and application
Ryval-X IMPACT
  • App infrastructure was built on the AWS Well-Architected Framework which protects information and assets, scalability and provides observability.
  • Implemented Multi-Account Strategy with AWS Control Tower to govern the Cloud Security
  • Implemented Cost Optimization techniques and every client cost on the platform were realized using tagging
  • Reduced operational costs, accelerated agility, and set a foundation for scaling operations

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Modernize the Poll Worker Admin Process for a Technology Customer

Modernization of Poll Worker Admin Process

 

product customer specializing in automating the poll worker administration processess

THE CHALLENGE

  • Managing rising costs of maintaining the app in the AWS infrastructure
  • Lack of automation to release the new features to the platform

THE TRANSFORMATION

  • Architected and modernized the product utlizing various AWS services like AWS Fargate, Cognito, RDS, Secrets Manager
  • Implemented DevOps processes to provision the infrastructure and to deploy the code
  • Automated the client environment provisioning process
  • Established new automated security and compliance processes

Ryval-X IMPACT

  • Product infrastructure was built on the AWS Well-Architected Framework which protects information and assets, scalability and provides observability.
  • Implemented Multi-Account Strategy with AWS Control Tower to govern the Cloud Security
  • Implemented Cost Optimization techniques and every client cost on the platform were realized using tagging
  • Reduced operational costs, accelerated agility, and set a foundation for scaling operations
  • Modernization provided for a more robust, secure, and highly available platform.

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