Harvard Computer Society modernised its legacy web infrastructure by migrating to Amazon S3 static hosting with Amazon CloudFront CDN, delivering a high-performance, cost-efficient, and globally accessible website experience for its academic and student community.

The Challenge

• Outdated hosting services caused inconsistent performance and high maintenance needs.
• Limited scalability impacted reliability during events and academic peaks.
• Global users faced slow load times due to the lack of optimised content delivery.
• High hosting costs strained the society’s limited student-led budget.

Our Solution

• Migrated legacy websites to Amazon S3 with static site generators and automated builds.
• Deployed CloudFront for global acceleration, intelligent caching, and SSL-secured delivery.
• Optimised S3 storage and lifecycle policies to control costs and streamline management.
• Integrated performance monitoring and simplified content updates for non-technical users.

The Result

The new infrastructure significantly improved performance, reduced costs, and empowered the society to focus on education and community engagement.

• 90% faster load times globally through CloudFront acceleration.
• 99.9% uptime ensured reliability during key academic periods.
• 75% cost savings reallocated to educational and student-led initiatives.
• Near-zero maintenance overhead with automated deployments and simplified workflows.

The post Rambunct Enables Harvard Computer Society’s Scalable Web Modernisation with Amazon S3 & Amazon CloudFront appeared first on Rambunct Consulting.

Background

The Harvard Computer Society (HCS) is the largest computer science organisation at Harvard University, promoting interest in computing and information technology among its members.

The society relies heavily on its online presence to engage with its community and provide valuable resources. However, it faced challenges with managing its AWS infrastructure, leading to higher costs and issues with its primary website.

The Challenge

HCS needed immediate help optimising its AWS costs, including removing unused Amazon EC2 instances and fixing its website, which had SSL issues that disrupted its main online presence.

Additionally, it sought to simplify its Amazon Route 53 configuration by removing unneeded zones and restructuring its website’s hosting to be more efficient and cost-effective.

Our Solution

We provided a comprehensive solution to HCS’s challenges:

• AWS Cost Optimisation: We conducted an in-depth review of HCS’s AWS resources, removing all unused EC2 instances and enabling AWS Cost Explorer for ongoing cost management.
• Website Rehosting: We rehosted HCS’s React website on Amazon S3, in combination with Amazon CloudFront and AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), to ensure SSL functionality and improve performance.
• Route 53 Configuration: We edited the Route 53 zones, removing unneeded entries, simplifying the domain’s management, and ensuring the SSL certificates auto-rotate.
• Website Content Editing: We also assisted with editing the website’s content, ensuring its information was accurate and up to date.

The Result

The new system restored HCS’s website, ensuring secure access and improved performance. Here are the key results:

• Secure Website: The SSL certificate is now enabled and auto-rotates, ensuring secure access to HCS’s website, resolving the previous issues.
• Improved Performance: The combination of CloudFront caching and efficient S3 hosting reduces website latency and saves costs by minimising constant querying from S3.
• Reduced Costs: The comprehensive review and removal of unnecessary AWS resources resulted in a reduction of up to 80% in HCS’s AWS spending, ensuring continued cost management through Cost Explorer.
• Technology Upgrade: Its outdated on-prem infrastructure was replaced with modern cloud technology, eliminating the need for costly hardware replacements.

With its website restored and AWS costs optimised, the Harvard Computer Society can continue promoting interest in computing and information technologies among its members, providing valuable resources through its improved online presence.

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