Executive Summary

As a leading financial services provider specializing in investment management and trading solutions, our client processes thousands of transactions daily, managing billions in assets across North America and Europe. The Matoffo team developed a fully automated CI/CD platform leveraging AWS services that enables the client to streamline their software delivery pipeline while maintaining strict security and compliance requirements.

About the Customer

A leading financial services provider specializing in investment management and trading solutions. Their platform handles critical trading operations and portfolio management for institutional clients, processing thousands of transactions daily and managing billions in assets. The company serves major financial institutions across North America and Europe.

Customer Challenge

A financial analytics SaaS provider with 120+ enterprise clients faced a critical challenge with their deployment process that threatened their market position. Each production release required a 6-hour maintenance window, forcing the company to limit deployments to weekends. This restriction created several business problems:

• New features took 3-4 weeks to reach customers due to the limited deployment windows, allowing competitors to consistently beat them to market

Why AWS

AWS offers a comprehensive suite of DevOps services that perfectly align with modern software delivery requirements. The platform provides fully managed services for continuous integration and continuous deployment, enabling automated workflows while maintaining security and compliance.

Why Matoffo

When seeking a partner for critical DevOps transformation, organizations need expertise in both technical implementation and process optimization. Matoffo brings extensive experience in AWS DevOps practices and financial services requirements.

Our team’s proven track record in implementing secure, compliant CI/CD pipelines for financial institutions, combined with our deep understanding of AWS services, enables successful modernization initiatives. We focus on delivering solutions that enhance development efficiency while maintaining the highest security standards.

Matoffo Solution

Matoffo implemented a streamlined CI/CD pipeline using a combination of industry-standard tools and AWS services, designed specifically to eliminate maintenance windows:

1. Local Development Improvements:
   • Implemented pre-commit hooks to catch formatting and security issues earlier
   • Created standardized container-based local testing environments matching production configurations
   • Established baseline performance tests to run locally before code submission
2. Automated Quality Gates:
   • Configured Dependabot security scans on all pull requests to identify vulnerabilities
   • Implemented ESLint for code style enforcement to ensure maintainable code
   • Added Jest unit tests with minimum 80% code coverage requirement
   • Created automated smoke tests to validate core functionality
3. Containerized Deployment Pipeline:
   • Containerized application components using Docker with standardized base images
   • Implemented image tagging and versioning for reliable rollbacks
   • Created deployment specifications for container orchestration
   • Set up blue/green deployment pattern in ECS to eliminate downtime
4. Environment-Specific Deployment Stages:
   • Established progressive deployment across Dev, Stage, and Production environments
   • Implemented automated integration tests at each stage with appropriate data sets
   • Added load testing with Locust to validate performance under stress before production
   • Created post-deployment validation with CloudWatch alerts and logs
5. Production Safeguards:
   • Implemented manual approval gate before production deployment for change management
   • Added automated rollback triggers based on error rates and response times
   • Created real-time monitoring dashboard for deployment status visibility
   • Established automated post-deployment verification of critical business functions

The entire pipeline was built with a focus on maintaining continuous operation throughout the deployment process, with no maintenance windows required.

High-level solution diagram

High-level deployment diagram

CI/CD diagram

Business Value

The new CI/CD pipeline delivered measurable business results:

• Deployment Windows: Eliminated entirely – the company now deploys during business hours with zero downtime
• Deployment Duration: Reduced from 6 hours to 30 minutes
• Deployment Frequency: Increased from bi-weekly (weekends only) to daily as needed

We conducted a detailed TCO analysis comparing costs before and after implementing the new deployment pipeline:

• Infrastructure Costs:
  • Previous static infrastructure: $14,200/month for permanently provisioned servers
  • New containerized solution: $8,700/month with auto-scaling during deployments
  • Annual savings: $66,000 (39% reduction)

Client's Feedback

“Matoffo’s expertise in AWS and DevOps practices has transformed our software delivery process. The automated CI/CD pipeline they implemented significantly improved our deployment reliability and speed while maintaining our strict security and compliance requirements. Zero-downtime deployments have been a game-changer for our trading operations, ensuring seamless updates and uninterrupted service to our clients.”– Chief Technology Officer