Aurora Solutions

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CTO of Stakater, and our mission is to provide professional tools and services to help customers create and manage their Kubernetes-based infrastructure effortlessly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To build a top-grade set of tools and open source initiatives for the DevSecOps community and manage multiple server environments for different teams and audiences, configuration, and environment management. We needed a team of professionals to bootstrap infrastructure automation to deliver fundamentally top services to our customers.

SOLUTION

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

We did our research, and there were not many agencies that were working in this domain. Then we got in touch with Aurora Solutions & their open source work in the field helped us make the decision.

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

We provided the team with the initial roadmap, which included managing multiple server environments for different groups and audiences, configuration building various automated tools and controllers, and environment management. Initially, the team created small but functional open source solutions that any company could plug and play in their workflow.

Currently, the team at Aurora Solutions provides built-in support for various cloud vendors and DevOps tools to cater to the particular needs of any development or Ops team that uses it.

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

We have eight full-time engineers working with us from Aurora Solutions. They range from junior DevOps engineers to senior Platform Engineers. We are also looking to add an Engineering Manager to the team from Aurora Solutions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Starting with a few open source solutions, we are now successfully helping enterprises in Kubernetes infrastructure management with our services models. The enormous credit goes to Aurora Solutions. We have partnered with clients large and small across the globe, and we are continuously growing, making our mark in the DevOps Industry.

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

We had bi-weekly standups with the project manager, who communicated with the rest of the team. The deliverables were very well-planned, keeping in mind the timeline. I want to highlight how honestly they used to inform us about any delays beforehand. The team was quick to learn new technologies, which ultimately led to our products’ success.

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

The aptitude with which they cater to modifications and ensure that their engineers are well aware of the new tech makes them stand out from other organizations.

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

This is probably not something that Aurora Solutions could directly improve, but it has been challenging to hire skilled resources. It is perhaps down to the fact that the latest technologies we work on and the domain make the resource pool small.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product owner for Score. We work with digital sports networks, helping them be more commercial.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aurora Solutions?

We were looking for software development to be done more cost-effectively.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided the requirements, and features we wanted, as well as some of our design ideas. Aurora Solutions then developed the cross-platform software and did some of the design. They used React and Java.

What is the team composition?

We work with two developers and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Aurora Solutions?

They were recommended by a personal connection.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Feedback from customers has been good. They find the solution easy to understand and use.

How did Aurora Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They have improved a lot from the beginning of the engagement. Overall, they do well with communication and meeting deadlines. They provide daily feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The developers put themselves into the project, taking care of it as their own.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Transparency and speed of communication around updates could be a little better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be involved in the process. Test the product to ensure it meets your expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former senior director of engineering for a billing platform in Java.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aurora Solutions?

We needed a team to help us extend our platform and support various clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had several features and integrations with other systems to add. They did both feature development and implementation work and were involved in the full length of the life cycle. We have more than one location, and each area had ownership in their own requirement gathering, design, implementation, tests, and the deployment and integration with customers. If we had a big deployment to a large customer, we had prompts to support those clients, so they helped with a few projects.

What is the team composition?

So we had a project manager and two team leads. Each team lead managed a team of two developers and a QA specialist. We interacted mostly with the project manager and the two leads.

How did you come to work with Aurora Solutions?

They started working with the company before I did.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $300,000–$400,000 a year on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from about March 2013–September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of their leads managed a large customer for us, which represented about 25% of our revenue. They did the initial implementation, followed by a long set of improvements and enhancements and support.

How did Aurora Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We had three project managers throughout our relationship. They were very professional, thorough, and proactive in identifying risks and matching customers. They had the right personality for our tougher customers and kept everyone happy. We used Jira for tracking issues and had a chart overlay with weekly status reports.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We could trust them to complete the tasks as we wanted them. They took control of the work but always came to us with any questions. They stayed on track and were much easier to manage than some of my other vendors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any areas of improvement for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This is fairly generic, but make sure your projects are self-contained. Let them have ownership of their work; that will save you time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO/Founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Digitize football so that all children and young people have the same opportunities

SOLUTION

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

Our chairman of the board, who works as CEO of sigma technology, tipped us off about this team

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

Digitize football training

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

• 3-4 - tech lead
• 3 - developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were satisfied with the result, so we decided to build the product further into a gamification model.

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

We have a good dialogue with a pow meeting on Mondays and then we follow up all sprints via jirra board. Ali takes the lead in consultation with our product manager

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

Great people

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

no - we learn from our mistakes and have chosen to work on as a team. We have a good dialogue