Case Study: Modernising Nubridge Publishing’s Learning Platforms with AWS
Challenge
Nubridge Publishing is a leading EdTech company operating three online learning platforms: Language Angels, Language CPD Hub, and Glurbs. Together, these platforms deliver online learning resources that provide foreign language teaching materials to teachers and learners. Their flagship brand, Language Angels, is recognised as an all-inclusive online platform that supports the teaching of foreign languages in primary schools, helping children access engaging and curriculum-aligned materials.
However, as the business grew, its existing managed hosting provider struggled to keep pace. The environment relied heavily on just two VMware virtual machines, requiring manual maintenance of multiple web servers. Code deployments were performed manually, and patch levels varied from server to server, creating unreliable performance. Regular outages became commonplace, and because the infrastructure was tightly tied to VMware, any issue with these servers could disrupt the entire platform.
Scaling also proved difficult. To respond to spikes in demand, Nubridge Publishing’s team either had to scale up existing virtual machines or build entirely new ones, both of which were time-consuming and error prone. With no audit logging, monitoring, or performance metrics in place, the team lacked the visibility needed to diagnose problems effectively. Administrative tasks were performed over the public internet, introducing potential security risks that could have been mitigated with more secure access methods.
These challenges were not abstract technical issues; inconsistent configurations between servers meant that the user experience could vary. With education at the heart of its mission, Nubridge Publishing recognised that modernising its infrastructure was essential to maintaining service quality and enabling future growth.
Solution
Cloudscaler was engaged to design and deliver a secure, resilient, and cloud-native platform on AWS. The engagement began with a collaborative discovery workshop, where requirements, dependencies, and priorities were captured with stakeholders. This session gave Cloudscaler a clear understanding of the current environment while setting expectations for what the future state should deliver in terms of stability, scalability, and operational efficiency.
Building on this foundation, Cloudscaler developed a proof of concept using one of Nubridge Publishing’s dynamic sites. Containerising the application and deploying it to a test environment demonstrated Docker-based builds, CI/CD automation, ECS deployments, and integration with a MariaDB backend. This early success provided reassurance that the proposed approach was viable and established confidence for the full migration.
The migration itself was phased to minimise risk. Lower-risk platforms such as Glurbs and Nubridge Publishing’s static websites were moved first, enabling both teams to refine the process and build momentum. These early migrations paved the way for the transition of more business-critical dynamic web platforms, including the CPD Hub and Language Angels, where any disruption would have had greater impact. At each stage, lessons learned were applied, ensuring the process became smoother and more predictable as the project progressed.
The new environment introduced several important improvements:
· VMware virtual machines were replaced with containerised web servers running on ECS with Fargate, removing the need for manual server maintenance and ensuring consistent, reliable deployments.
· Separate production and development environments were created, allowing code to be tested safely before being promoted to live.
· A global content delivery network was established with Amazon S3 and CloudFront with Origin Access Control, improving performance and security for static content.
· Docker images are stored in Amazon ECR, with automated CI/CD pipelines managing builds, vulnerability scans, and deployments. This provided scalability across multiple Availability Zones and ensured safe, repeatable releases.
· Application log streaming was enabled to CloudWatch, giving teams visibility into system and application performance.
· Databases were migrated into multi-AZ RDS instances, ensuring high availability and automatic failover.
· All infrastructure was codified using Terraform, giving Nubridge Publishing a consistent, auditable, and repeatable setup.
· Security was further strengthened with a Web Application Firewall, AWS Certificate Manager, and centralised monitoring through CloudWatch.
Together, these changes transformed Nubridge Publishing’s hosting environment from fragile and reactive to modern, automated, and secure.
Benefits
The impact of the migration was immediate. The outages and points of failure that had previously disrupted access were eliminated, replaced with an architecture designed to stay resilient even if an Availability Zone failed. Teachers and learners can now rely on uninterrupted access to the platforms during school hours, restoring trust in the services.
At the same time, Nubridge Publishing gained a far clearer view of its operating costs. Through CloudCheckr and CloudWatch Insights, supported by Cloudscaler’s monthly service reports, the business could see exactly how resources were being consumed and where optimisation opportunities lay.
This visibility extended to database performance, allowing teams to identify and optimise inefficient queries, improving both speed and efficiency. Autoscaling of containers and databases ensured that resources matched demand in real time, preventing waste while maintaining performance during peaks.
The new platform also unlocked future opportunities. With automated ECS deployments and CI/CD pipelines in place, new code changes can be rolled out with zero downtime, allowing Nubridge Publishing’s developers to release updates confidently and at speed.
The containerised approach means new applications can be added quickly, while automated certificate renewals and managed services reduce operational overhead. The business is now free to focus on innovation, knowing that the underlying infrastructure is stable, secure, and adaptable to growth.
Value
Cloudscaler’s role went beyond simply executing a migration. The solution was designed around best practices for secure, resilient, and scalable cloud environments and built using proprietary Terraform modules to guarantee consistency between environments. Security was embedded throughout, with strong secrets management, WAF configuration, and AWS Inspector scanning.
Cloudscaler delivered additional value beyond the original scope. Automated Inspector scanning was integrated into the CI/CD pipeline to check every build for vulnerabilities before deployment. Developers were given new levels of visibility, with direct access to performance metrics, database insights, application performance data, and logs in the AWS console.
Automated pipelines ensured that tested code and Docker images were first deployed into development before being promoted to production, giving developers confidence that changes would be reliable.
Through this engagement, Nubridge Publishing’s legacy VMware-based infrastructure was fully modernised into a cloud-native, automated, and observable platform. The new environment is not only more resilient and scalable but also simpler to manage and evolve —enabling Nubridge’s internal teams to operate with greater agility, security, and insight.
This combination of technical rigour and close stakeholder engagement built strong trust between the two teams. Nubridge Publishing not only received a resilient platform but also gained the tools, processes, and confidence needed to manage and evolve it.
The foundations are now in place for further innovation, such as migrating educational video hosting to AWS, consolidating DNS management, and exploring serverless databases.
Lessons Learned
For Cloudscaler, the project reinforced the benefits of containerisation and Infrastructure as Code. Packaging applications with Docker and deploying them through ECS helped eliminate discrepancies between development and production environments. Promoting tested images through automated pipelines reduced the risk of configuration drift and created a repeatable and reliable release process.
The phased migration approach also proved invaluable. By starting with lower-risk platforms, Cloudscaler and Nubridge Publishing were able to realise early successes and apply lessons learned before tackling more critical systems.
This built momentum and confidence while reducing the risk of disruption. These insights will continue to shape Cloudscaler’s methodology and deliver value for future clients facing similar challenges.
Testimonials
Paolo Pini, CEO of Nubridge Publishing:
“This migration has been a turning point for Nubridge Publishing. We now have full visibility of our costs, the ability to scale seamlessly with demand, and complete confidence in the resilience of our platforms. Cloudscaler not only delivered a technical solution but worked alongside us as trusted partners, empowering our team and enabling us to plan with confidence for the future.”
Andy Astley, CTO of Cloudscaler: