Case Study: Agora Dance

Agora Dance (hereafter referred to as “the company”) is a forthcoming mobile application designed to aggregate, list, and facilitate access to dance events and gatherings across select regions. The application stack comprises a mobile frontend, a backend, and a database—all running on minimal cloud infrastructure.

Initially, the company engaged a contractor based in Pakistan (hereafter referred to as “the contractor”) to handle both the mobile application and backend development. Although the collaboration began smoothly—yielding fast progress and a workable product—the engagement gradually revealed gaps in infrastructure management. Below is an overview of the issues encountered and the steps taken by Crow Tech to address them.

 

Observations and Challenges

1. App Store and Play Store Issues:

   • While the Google Play Store listing eventually went live, the application faced numerous warnings and issues flagged by both Google and Apple.
   •  

2. Lack of Data Management Tools:

   • The backend had no built-in interface for populating data about establishments or events.
   • Diego (CEO of Agora Dance) required an admin panel for straightforward data entry.
   • The provided timeline to build this admin panel was well beyond the intended release date for the app.
   •  

3. Insufficient Infrastructure Practices:

   • The database was co-located with the backend on a single free-tier t2.micro EC2 instance. Potentially acceptable for a minimal MVP but risky without proper backups or disaster recovery.
   • No automated backups existed, and the virtual machine (VM) had no active EBS snapshots, no AMI for quick redeployment, and termination protection was disabled.
   •  

4. Minimal Visibility and Control:

   • The contractor never guided the company on accessing or managing the AWS environment.
   • The contractor did not even initially have knowledge of which region their developers used to deploy the infrastructure.
   •  

5. Performance Concerns:

   • The compute capacity available for the application was minimal, causing sluggish performance even with minimal traffic.
   •  

6. Security Concerns:

   • The compute instance hosting the database (which contains user PII) had an excessively open security group configuration, opening the instance to potential attacks.
   •  

7. Unusual choices:

   • Some unusual choices were made during deployment, some examples include:
     • Using a very old version of PostreSQL.
     • Recommending the company to purchase a second domain name to host the backend instead of just using a subdomain.
     • Using registrar that charged for services the company wouldn't need or use.
     • Images that the application displayed were split fetched between two sources, the application bundle and the backend (instead of a CDN)

 

Transition and Initial Improvements

As these infrastructure gaps became apparent, Diego approached Crow Tech to address the most urgent issues:

1. Admin Panel for Data Entry:

   • Crow Tech developed and deployed a fully functional admin panel in under one week, allowing the company to populate its database with establishments and events.
   •  

2. Automated Database Backups:

   • To mitigate data loss risk, Crow Tech enabled daily backups during off-hours.
   • The VM now benefits from automated cloud provider backups on compute instances as well, ensuring rapid recovery options in case of an incident.
   •  

3. Infrastructure Hardening:

   • Essential configurations such as block storage backups, machine image creation, and termination protection were implemented.
   • This guarantees the environment can be quickly redeployed if the compute instance is inadvertently terminated.
   •  

4. Performance Tuning:

   • Crow Tech migrated the backend and database to a slightly more capable environment, all while keeping monthly costs below $8.
   • After this migration, performance-related complaints ceased, indicating a substantially improved end-user experience.

 

Crow Tech Enters the Picture

While the contractor continued to address front-facing mobile issues (particularly for the Apple App Store), Crow Tech took over critical infrastructure and backend-related responsibilities:

• Access & Control: We worked closely with Diego to ensure that the company—rather than the contractor—has primary administrative control over the new infrastructure.
• Documentation & Knowledge Transfer: We provided clear documentation detailing how to access, maintain, and scale the environment, rectifying the lack of visibility that was previously an issue.
• Best Practices: We implemented security measures, backup schedules, automatic VM configuration, and resource scaling strategies to keep operations both cost-effective and resilient.

 

Results and Impact

1. Stable Infrastructure : By separating the backend and database as needed, establishing automated backups, and enabling termination protection, the company now has a more reliable environment.
2. Lower Costs : Despite upgrading from a free-tier instance to a modestly more robust environment, monthly bills remain below $8—a negligible expense given the performance gains.
3. Faster Development Cycle: Having an admin panel allows for quick content updates without requiring developer intervention. This boosts agility, letting the team focus on marketing and user engagement rather than direct SQL inserts.
4. Reduced Risk of Data Loss: With routine backups and snapshots, the company has peace of mind knowing it can recover from potential failures or accidental deletions.
5. Enhanced Ownership and Transparency: Agora Dance now retains complete administrative access to its environment. The reliance on any single external party for fundamental tasks has been significantly reduced.

 

Conclusion

Agora Dance successfully tackled its infrastructure roadblocks by partnering with Crow Tech. From building an admin panel to instituting backups and stable hosting, we addressed the immediate barriers preventing the app from scaling. The improved performance, minimal costs, and robust fail-safes allow the Agora Dance team to focus on its core mission: connecting dance enthusiasts with the best events and gatherings available.

Moving forward, Crow Tech will continue providing guidance and on-demand support, ensuring Agora Dance remains resilient and cost-effective as it refines its application and expands its reach.