Amazon Web Services Case Studies Firefly Boosts Student and Teacher Experiences in the AWS Cloud

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	Firefly Boosts Student and Teacher Experiences in the AWS Cloud Amazon Web Services

Firefly Boosts Student and Teacher Experiences in the AWS Cloud

Amazon Web Services

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Databases
Applicable Industries	Education
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Sales & Marketing
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services Data Science Services
Challenge	Firefly Learning, an online tool for teachers, students, and parents, was initially deployed by installing its software on Windows servers locally at each school. This setup presented numerous challenges, as supporting schools largely consisted of solving problems with their underlying infrastructure, such as dealing with backup issues and domain name system failures. As more schools adopted Firefly, the issues multiplied. The software was installed on hundreds of servers, and the task of supporting them all became overwhelming. Firefly needed a solution that would help join up the learning experience and allow for easier and more efficient support and management. Read More
About Customer	Firefly Learning is an online tool for teachers, students, and parents. It aims to create better outcomes through more flexible learning, allowing teachers to set work, students to access resources, and parents to track their children’s progress. The co-founders of Firefly Learning, Joe Mathewson and Simon Hay, developed the first version of their learning management software when they were high school students. They saw a way of bringing together teachers, students, and parents to make learning more effective. Today, hundreds of leading schools around the world, like Eton College in the UK, Dulwich College in Singapore, and Caulfield Grammar School in Australia, all use Firefly. Read More
Solution	Firefly started looking at cloud technology from the beginning, with a view to eventually delivering its software as a service. They found that Amazon Web Services (AWS) had the most mature offering, and by 2013 Firefly was launching its software in the cloud—starting with small schools that didn’t have the IT capacity to run on-premises installations. For example, whereas before the Firefly team used to run and backup SQL servers, now they automate the process using Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). As a result, the infrastructure team hasn’t had to expand even as the client base has grown rapidly. Firefly now serves customers around the world through AWS Regions in Dublin, Sydney, Singapore, and the US. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Databases

Applicable Industries

Education

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Sales & Marketing

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Data Science Services

Challenge

Firefly Learning, an online tool for teachers, students, and parents, was initially deployed by installing its software on Windows servers locally at each school. This setup presented numerous challenges, as supporting schools largely consisted of solving problems with their underlying infrastructure, such as dealing with backup issues and domain name system failures. As more schools adopted Firefly, the issues multiplied. The software was installed on hundreds of servers, and the task of supporting them all became overwhelming. Firefly needed a solution that would help join up the learning experience and allow for easier and more efficient support and management.

About Customer

Firefly Learning is an online tool for teachers, students, and parents. It aims to create better outcomes through more flexible learning, allowing teachers to set work, students to access resources, and parents to track their children’s progress. The co-founders of Firefly Learning, Joe Mathewson and Simon Hay, developed the first version of their learning management software when they were high school students. They saw a way of bringing together teachers, students, and parents to make learning more effective. Today, hundreds of leading schools around the world, like Eton College in the UK, Dulwich College in Singapore, and Caulfield Grammar School in Australia, all use Firefly.

Solution

Firefly started looking at cloud technology from the beginning, with a view to eventually delivering its software as a service. They found that Amazon Web Services (AWS) had the most mature offering, and by 2013 Firefly was launching its software in the cloud—starting with small schools that didn’t have the IT capacity to run on-premises installations. For example, whereas before the Firefly team used to run and backup SQL servers, now they automate the process using Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). As a result, the infrastructure team hasn’t had to expand even as the client base has grown rapidly. Firefly now serves customers around the world through AWS Regions in Dublin, Sydney, Singapore, and the US.

Impact #1	Firefly can now work in whatever regions their customers are based, ensuring that performance is never an issue and that they can grow on a global scale without any limits.
Impact #2	The infrastructure team hasn’t had to expand even as the client base has grown rapidly.
Impact #3	Firefly can now onboard schools in one day rather than weeks, helping students benefit from flexible learning faster.

Impact #1

Firefly can now work in whatever regions their customers are based, ensuring that performance is never an issue and that they can grow on a global scale without any limits.

Impact #2

The infrastructure team hasn’t had to expand even as the client base has grown rapidly.

Impact #3

Firefly can now onboard schools in one day rather than weeks, helping students benefit from flexible learning faster.

Benefit #1	99.99% uptime in the cloud
Benefit #2	13% higher teacher satisfaction
Benefit #3	Same-day school onboarding

Benefit #1

99.99% uptime in the cloud

Benefit #2

13% higher teacher satisfaction

Benefit #3

Same-day school onboarding

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Overview

Firefly Boosts Student and Teacher Experiences in the AWS Cloud

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit