Scaling for Growth: How Merlin Cycles Transformed Its E-Commerce Platform with Zen and AWS
- Sector = Online retail
- Use case - Migration & Modernisation
- Zen Product = Well Architected Design Service, Managed Services and Professional Services
Merlin Cycles
This case study details the migration of Merlin Cycles' e-commerce platform from an over-provisioned on-premises infrastructure to a scalable, cost-optimised AWS environment. Zen provided a comprehensive solution using our Well-Architected Design Service, including the design, migration, and ongoing Managed Service, enabling Merlin Cycles to achieve greater agility, resilience, and providing a foundation for future modernisation.
The challenge
Following a sustained period of organic growth, Merlin Cycles, a leading UK bike retailer and part of the Cycle Fusion Group, faced significant IT challenges. Their legacy infrastructure, supporting both their e-commerce site (merlincycles.com) and physical showroom, was over-provisioned and costly. Hosted by a third party, the environment comprised multiple servers and a database cluster across two data centres. Server sizing was based on peak seasonal demand, resulting in significant resource wastage during off-peak periods. Furthermore, a recent acquisition of their hosting provider impacted the quality of technical support, leading to concerns about resolution times and overall platform reliability. This legacy infrastructure hindered agility, scalability, and the ability to effectively support future growth and innovation.
The solution
Using Zen’s Well-Architected Design Service, a Discovery assessment was conducted to review Merlin Cycles' existing environment, as well as their challenges and requirements, which were then used to define a future-state architecture optimised for AWS. Our solution leveraged several key AWS services:
- Compute: Amazon EC2 instances in an auto-scaling configuration to dynamically adjust capacity based on real-time traffic demands.
- Database: Amazon RDS for MySQL, a managed database service, providing high availability and simplified database administration.
- File Storage: Amazon EFS, a scalable file storage service, for centralised file management.
- Caching: Amazon ElastiCache for Redis, improving application performance through in-memory caching.
This decoupled architecture provides Merlin Cycles with greater flexibility and scalability. A robust, automated deployment pipeline was implemented to facilitate rapid and reliable deployments to the dynamic EC2 instance fleet. Zen's Managed Service provides ongoing monitoring and support, ensuring platform stability, performance, and security.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Analysis: A detailed TCO analysis was performed, comparing the costs of the existing on-premises infrastructure with the proposed AWS solution. The analysis considered factors such as compute, storage, networking, licensing, and management overhead. The over-provisioning of the existing environment made a compelling case for the cost-effectiveness of the AWS solution. We worked with Merlin Cycles to balance cost and resilience, optimising the architecture for their specific needs.
The outcomes
The migration to AWS delivered several key benefits:
- Cost Optimisation: The auto-scaling architecture dynamically adjusts resources to match demand, eliminating the significant cost inefficiencies of the previous over-provisioned environment. Right-sizing efforts, based on ongoing utilisation metrics, further contribute to cost savings.
- Enhanced Resilience and Availability: Leveraging AWS managed services provides inherent high availability and disaster recovery capabilities, improving platform uptime and business continuity.
- Foundation for Modernisation: The decoupled architecture and automated deployment pipeline create a solid foundation for future modernisation initiatives. Integration with other AWS services and orchestration platforms is simplified, enabling faster development cycles and reduced risk.
- Improved Support and SLAs: Zen's Managed Service provides proactive support and guaranteed SLAs, giving Merlin Cycles greater confidence in their platform's reliability and performance.
Lessons Learned: This migration was strategically planned as "Phase 1" of Merlin Cycles' modernisation journey. While the initial focus was on a lift-and-shift migration to AWS, some in-flight modernisation activities were incorporated, which impacted the project timeline. For future projects, Zen will emphasise a more disciplined approach to scope management, ensuring that subsequent modernisation phases are clearly defined and executed separately to maintain project momentum and timelines. This phased approach allows for quicker wins and provides a solid foundation for future enhancements.
