Advascale

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a supply chain technology company. We facilitate global trade for businesses by determining and optimizing the preferential origin status of goods. In short, companies can either benefit from a free trade agreement or pay more duties, which is something manufacturing companies don’t want to do.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Advascale?

We focused a lot on developing sophisticated optimization algorithms but didn’t focus on infrastructure as code. However, infrastructure as a service appealed to us because we needed to ensure our data flows aligned with the trade agreements we processed.

Before we worked with Advascale, we did everything ourselves, which wasn’t working. We weren’t doing the stuff we wanted to do to be able to enter a stage of growth. Since we sometimes hit traffic, we needed to do auto-scaling, easy-to-manage infrastructure from our point of view.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we told Advascale what we did, what we needed, and what we envisioned. We left room for innovation so they could come back with ideas.

While we’ve worked with Advascale, we’ve restructured, changed the code base, and changed around some head people. Advascale has remained with us and made some of the changes, so our relationship has deepened. They’ve also become accredited with AWS, so we’re now procuring all our cloud services through them.

Additionally, we’re working on relaunching several aspects of a web app that they helped create.

What is the team composition?

Our first contact was with their CEO and the founder. Then, they assigned a dedicated project manager and an account manager. Since then, they’ve drawn out staff and combined continuity and expert knowledge as needed.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Elias (CEO, Co-Founder) has been absolutely brilliant; he understood what we needed, which was the entryway. Afterward, we got in touch with Dmitry (Project Manager), who has taken care of the project and has been there for us, and Anastasiia (Head of Sales) for what else Advascale can do for us.

Overall, having different people in a dependable sequence has made sense for us. We’re not stuck with a huge company where we don’t know anyone, but we don’t have to bother the only person we know if another person is more suited to answer our question.

How did you come to work with Advascale?

I found them online. I went through recommendations first but was looking for a certain set of competencies. Since we’re based in Europe but working globally, we knew there were companies in Eastern Europe that were great at development. Moreover, it gave me peace of mind legally that they were closer than someone further away.

We tested them and pitched them against another ten companies, and they nailed it. Advascale was different from the other companies we talked to. Others had some templates, and others reinvented the wheel so much that the project wouldn’t be financially viable. Advascale struck a good balance, so we chose to work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2022, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’ve done much more than we initially thought because they’re very capable.

How did Advascale perform from a project management standpoint?

The management team is always very open. Since what we do involves a lot of research with scientists and professors, we’re usually behind. However, Advascale manages it really well. They’re always on budget and on time. If we have issues, they usually solve them swiftly.

They’ve introduced a customer billing dashboard and set up Slack. Whenever we want something in terms of privacy and security, Advascale gets it done. Overall, communication is good and friendly. They’re easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work is absolutely brilliant; they get your costs down and performance up.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re not even expensive. They’re not cheap in terms of what we pay per hour, but they have a high-end delivery quality, which makes them a good deal. Plus: they are razor-sharp focused you don’t overpay on infrastructure.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re seeking a dependable infrastructure as a service company that does as well as you do, you’re in good hands with Advascale.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Reviewer's company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Advascale?

We have a PHP Laravel application. Advascale built an infrastructure for us in AWS. Our team does not have experience with AWS, so we needed an expert to come and help us perform this and explain how to maintain it moving forward.

We wanted to have our setup in AWS using AWS best practices, including a continuous deployment pipeline triggered by GitHub.

SOLUTION

How did you select Advascale and what were the deciding factors?

We were sure about the expertise level as they had many projects implemented with AWS stack. They also have AWS certificates. Advascale manager responded to our inquiry very quickly and arranged a meeting.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We started with an initial audit and moved to an architectural proposal with a graphical diagram. After we agreed on the scope and made a backlog. Advascale team worked on execution. We had demo meetings at the end of each sprint. After the final switch over we had a hot support week.

How many resources from the Advascale team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Apart from the administrative team, the technical team we were interacting with was made of an Architect, Project Manager, Tech Lead, and a DevOps Engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We got a redundant infrastructure, backups are regularly taken. A disposable dev environment that also has a CD setup, triggered by feature branch merge request on GitHub.

And the security aspects are considered - secret keys are securely stored so that users do not have direct access to them and they are only used by the CD setup.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

A very confident and expert Architect picked up our wishes. During the project, we did not have any conflict situations or misunderstandings. They were consistent.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I was impressed by how responsive and involved the team in the workflow. They got our wishes quite agile.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Our project did not face any problems encountered. Do not have any advice for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Managing Partner at DATAFOREST Data Engineering and Web Product Development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Advascale, and what were your goals?

We were working with Advascale on the hybrid integration platform. We did the ETL/reporting part of the project, they built an infrastructure for the non-ETL part — a scalable cluster for a series of microservices and the dev environment using a disposable env approach. The final infrastructure is used instead of the old one, so all the workload has also been migrated by Advascale.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Skillset and technology stack, a pretty big portfolio with famous technologies. We also know some of their clients. The guys are able of acting as sterling technical partners in projects requiring complete commitment.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

After an initial audit and architecting, the team presents the proposal to stakeholders or partners, then makes a task backlog, development, and deployment. Then they perform the load-testing of the ready environment, switch the production traffic on it, and do the hot-support stage, which consists of fine tunes, bug fixing, and, of course, QA sign-off.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Advascale always involves five different roles on the Project:

• an Architect
• a Project Manager
• a Tech Lead
• a QA Engineer
• a DevOps engineer

The number of DevOps may vary depending on the scope of the project. In our case, there were two DevOps guys.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The final infrastructure can handle up to 1M of visitors per day and is a bit cheaper because of the proper usage of Spot instances.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The project managers are very powerful, and they can manage any critical issue. The guys make very close estimations and stick with them. They also fix bugs for free.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They have strict processes and are really involved with their approach.  Any small detail will be realized. They also use a self-developed framework that is audited according to the best SecOps practices and tested under the load.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing caused frustration. They do what they say.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a SaaS company developing a go-to-market scaling platform. I’m a co-founder and the chairman of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Advascale?

They helped us build our cloud infrastructure in AWS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed to build an infrastructure that could handle massive scaling and would be extremely secure. Advascale built the cloud infrastructure our developers work with. Their CTO consulted us on getting the right setup in terms of Kubernetes clusters (a tool to help run applications), load balancers (to monitor server health), integrations with Spot.io (an optimization tool) for cost savings, and so on. They’ve been optimizing and supporting the setup along the way as well. We continue to engage and consult with them regarding our cloud setup.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Elias (Co-Founder & CEO), Olga (Director of Operations), and their CTO, and we have a primary contact for the cloud setup.

How did you come to work with Advascale?

My co-founder researched different companies online. Advascale’s offer was exactly what we needed, and I believe that my co-founder had an initial discussion with Elias about their capabilities. They gave us a great offer, and we could see that Elias, Olga, and everyone else we engaged with were responsive, straight talkers, and extremely competent. They understood our challenge immediately.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost so far is in the $10,000–$20,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Advascale in August or September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve had no downtime and no performance concerns. Whenever something comes up, they fix it. We were looking for competent people to put our infrastructure in place, and Advascale delivered.

How did Advascale perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet deadlines, they’re super responsive, and the communication is straightforward. All in all, it’s very easy to work with them. I’m in touch with their leadership over email, Teams, and Telegram.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Elias and his team are extremely knowledgeable and pragmatic. They know their stuff, and they’re very nice people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing in particular that I could mention. They’re giving me what I need.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be open and honest about their wishes while maintaining an open dialogue.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of an emerging news website in the sport and leisure segment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Advascale, and what were your goals?

We want to prepare for future peaks of visitors and needed a robust platform for our website. The platform should be running on AWS services, autoscale itself regarding of the visitors count and take usage of a load balancer. After local development, changes in code should be easily deployed on a staging instance before pushing to production. We wanted a fast, reliable and robust web app, that is fitted for an increasing count of users and be ready for the future.

SOLUTION

How did you select Advascale and what were the deciding factors?

We were in contact with several companies, but Advascale made the best impression, both in terms of their technical expertise and in a business sense.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Build a WordPress web app on AWS-based Ubuntu server, connecting to Redis and Elasticache, building a load balancer, building deployment procedures with Spot.io, Jenkins and Bitbucket. Moving existing website and domains to this platform.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

At the beginning with two engineers, when needed there were up to five engineers working on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Very robust site, no downtimes and very fast. Deployment of needed code changes can tested very safely and brought up to production in a very easy way.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

After bringing up statement of work with us together, they are working very determined and fast. If they needed something to know, they communicated with us via Slack or Zoom. In the end they keep all timelines.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The team of Advascale is very skilled and equipped with high knowledge. If something went wrong, they quickly found a solution.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There is little room for improvement here. Sometimes the contact persons change, so you have to explain some things twice. But in the end, a high-quality solution always comes out!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Vendigo, a finance broker. We built a platform that let's consumers apply for finance for home improvements, either directly or through a merchant, so it’s both a B2C and a B2B2C business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Advascale?

We needed someone to build our AWS infrastructure, including development, staging and production environments, setup Jenkins pipelines for CI / CD and generally provide DevOps services whenever it was needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They are essentially our DevOps team. We hired them to build the whole AWS infrastructure for us. It’s fully automated using Docker containers and auto-scaling, so there’s very little to no maintenance at all. They continue to work for us on retainer. Every week, they do tasks for us as required.

What was the team composition?

2-3 DevOps engineers as required.

How did you come to work with Advascale?

I have worked with them in the past on several projects at different companies. I'm impressed by the level of expertise that they have, as well as their commitment and response times.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent over $20,000 to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement is ongoing and first started in July 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

One thing I can tell you is we have almost zero issues. Everything is fully automated as we can literally launch environments with the press of a button.

How did Advascale perform from a project management standpoint?

I talk directly to the engineers, so the management happens on our end. They meet deadlines. We communicate via Slack most of the time and occasionally through Telegram.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've been extremely happy with them over the years, which is why I keep using them. I give them five stars. They’re experts at what they do, they are always available and respond quickly, which is extremely rare to find. They are not expensive either, considering the above.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room for improvement but I can’t say that there’s anything major they are lacking. One thing I could potentially suggest is they could contact me immediately when there’s a problem. They do that but essentially, new people that they hire tend to be a little afraid of approaching me directly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them as much information as possible. Be very open about what you want to do. If you have any deadline, explain the context around it; don’t just give them a date. Explain why there is a deadline and why it’s important. From a technology perspective, try to give as much information as possible.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Tech Lead and Product owner at Systems Engineering

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Advascale?

Set up CI/CD, Stage, Demo, and Production environments using scalable, real-time cloud-based AWS services involving Docker, Ruby, NodeJS, Python, and several different database technologies.

What were your goals for this project?

Fast, reliable, robust, and redundant web services that allow serving very large data structures to the users.

SOLUTION

How did you select Advascale?

We had several companies interview for the task, but Advascale seemed like the most robust, knowledgable and skilled company.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a two-day workshop where we discussed the initial setup in detail. Afteward the project has continued to elvolve, and Advascale has continued to deliver solutions for these new challenges.

What was the team composition?

We started with a single engineer, and for a while now we have been running a smaller team of four engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

So far we have managed to build a robust and secure production solution that solves actual problems for actual people.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We talk daily as needed on slack. This works well and simply.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have proven very adaptive as business needs within our company changed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There have been a few challenges with ensuring stability and continuity in the CI/CD environment, but we have always been able to formulare an dexecute a plan and resolve the problems.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Lead Senior Software Engineer of Denison Yachting

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Marketing and sales of super yachts, luxury yacht charters, and crew placement services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Advascale to accomplish?

• Manage our AWS infrastructure

SOLUTION

How did you find Advascale?

Online Search

Why did you select Advascale over others?

High ratings

How many teammates from Advascale were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• They set up a complete CI/CD pipeline for a range of our web applications. 
• They provide management, support, and overall maintenance for our entire AWS environment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• This improved the performance of all our web apps
• Made development easier
• Enhanced security
• Streamlined backups

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They are very organized. Each time, we receive a detailed action plan that they strictly follow. If no unforeseen issues arise, every one of our projects is completed within the established timeframe.

What was your primary form of communication with Advascale?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The professionalism of the entire Advascale team is impressive. They provide quick and easy communication.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Advascale could have done differently?

All such issues are discussed in real-time, and Advascale consistently addresses everything we believe needs improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of software development for a lending company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Advascale?

We needed help with our DevOps. We didn’t have the expertise in-house, but this project had a very particular scope to it. Thus, we decided to look for a partner instead of hiring internal resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Advascale has been helping us with our DevOps efforts, specifically with our CI/CD software development, acting as a consulting partner. The project started with an initial consultation where Advascale gathered our requirements and put together a detailed proposal.

As part of the discovery process, we provided Advascale with documentation explaining the current architecture of our apps. Their proposal detailed how our CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure should be structured, so we took it from there. Throughout the project, there have been a few different considerations that they’ve needed to take into account, and they’ve provided us with their advice on how to address them in the best way.

As for the technology stack, we’ve used AWS as our cloud server, and our apps are hosted in Amazon EC2. Our deployment used to be done via Git, but we’ve now moved to using Bitbucket pipelines and Spot Instances.

What is the team composition?

During the initial consultation and proposal phase, around 3–4 teammates from Advascale were involved in the process. Additionally, we’ve worked with the CEO and a few of their DevOps experts.

How did you come to work with Advascale?

We found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £100,000 (approximately $122,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around July 2022, and our engagement is ongoing. We’ve already completed a couple of the project’s phases, and we’re now working on another phase. We hope to complete that phase by the end of 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We’ve had a few different benefits from working with Advascale. For example, we’ve seen cost savings associated with using Spot Instances instead of using EC2 directly.

Now, we have a better structure, removing some risks from our deployment processes and giving us more control over who can deploy software apps. Additionally, our pipelines have the ability to run validation checks against the deployment before the actual execution, which is also beneficial for us.

Overall, Advascale has exceeded our expectations. Their initial proposal and recommendations on how to structure the project were very helpful and helped us fill a gap in our knowledge. They’ve efficiently recommended best practices and guided us in that way.

How did Advascale perform from a project management standpoint?

Advascale’s communication is very good. Additionally, they’ve delivered on budget and stuck to our schedule. We use Microsoft Teams to communicate and Jira for project management.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I would like to congratulate the whole team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Advascale has a very skilled team of experts who have been able to answer our questions. If they can’t answer immediately, they do some research and come back to us with very helpful and expert advice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our project has gone very smoothly. Obviously, on big projects like ours, there are always different challenges. Still, whenever there have been challenges, Advascale has been very good at solving them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open about what you’re trying to achieve, ask as many questions as possible, and use Advascale’s knowledge to help answer those questions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm co-founder of a crypto trading software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Advascale?

Our cloud infrastructure was struggling with scaling. Advascale helped us and created a new base for our infrastructure to develop further.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Advascale looked very professional from the very beginning, a development proposal was very concrete and looked best among the competitors.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

First, we explained all details about the project. Second, a plan was developed. Third, Advascale done their part and prepare the base. At the same time, we've improved some of our parts. Finally, Stage and Production areas were created. After testing the new infrastructure was released.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had an account manager, 2 developers, 1 senior engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Cloud migration was a great success.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very reliable, professional and well organised.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The team recommended the best solutions that ended up working great.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Don't think so.