Zee5X

1.Name of the customer — Zee5X

Zee5X is a one stop destination for the consumption of entertainment on digital platforms which was launched by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL), Zee5X offers viewers a completely integrated entertainment offering with both on-demand and live TV. It comes packed with 100,000 hours of on-demand content, including exclusive originals, Indian and international movies and TV shows, music and health and lifestyle videos across languages.  

2.Customer challenge — Zee5X aimed to leverage Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) methodologies to address the challenge of modernizing its existing system architecture. At the time, Zee5X’s microservices were hosted on ECS (Elastic Container Service), and the organization envisioned migrating to EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) for improved scalability, flexibility, and manageability. However, transitioning from ECS to EKS posed several complexities, including the need to redesign deployment pipelines, refactor infrastructure configurations, and ensure seamless integration of microservices into the Kubernetes environment.

3. Proposed solution and How AWS was used as part of the solution — We proposed the following solution to our client using AWS services:

In our endeavor to optimize the migration journey from ECS to EKS clusters for Zee5X’s microservices, we recognized the pivotal role of refining the Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) process. With a keen focus on integrating and enhancing tools such as Argo CD, Argo Rollouts, and leveraging Kubernetes features like Karpenter autoscaling, we aimed to streamline every aspect of our deployment pipeline. Within our meticulously designed CI/CD pipeline, we employed Dockerfiles to meticulously craft microservice images, ensuring consistency and reliability across builds. These images were seamlessly pushed to GitHub Container Registry (GHCR) upon successful completion of build processes, enabling efficient version control and distribution. Argo CD emerged as the cornerstone of our deployment strategy, orchestrating continuous delivery on the Applications cluster with automated updates facilitated by Argo CD Image Updater, alongside advanced deployment strategies enabled by Argo Rollouts. To effectively manage our infrastructure, the Rancher cluster served as a bastion, offering a centralized platform for implementing Kubernetes-level changes such as updating provisioner files. Furthermore, Karpenter played a pivotal role in dynamically scaling our clusters based on fluctuating application loads, thanks to its utilization of launch templates and nodeselector configurations. Additionally, our forward-thinking approach encompassed the integration of Ingress controllers and plans for future integration with Istio, aimed at enhancing traffic routing and service mesh capabilities for greater resilience and flexibility. Through meticulous implementation of Argo Rollouts for Canary Deployment, we ensured meticulously controlled rollouts with readiness probes and automated rollback mechanisms, thereby safeguarding stability and reliability throughout the migration process. By meticulously integrating Argo CD, Argo Rollouts, and Karpenter with our CI/CD processes, we achieved a resilient, automated deployment pipeline that facilitated a seamless transition of microservices to EKS clusters, all while enhancing efficiency, reliability, and scalability.  

4.Third party applications or solutions used —- Yes in the proposed solution we have used various third-party solutions such as Terraform, Argo CD, Karpenter, GitHub.  

Terraform was employed for provisioning infrastructure resources through declarative configurations, ensuring consistency across diverse environments. Argo CD automated application deployments onto Kubernetes clusters by synchronizing the desired state from a Git repository. In parallel, Karpenter dynamically scaled node resources within the Kubernetes environment, optimizing resource utilization based on workload demands. GitHub served as the collaborative platform, enabling version-controlled code management, issue tracking, and team collaboration. This amalgamation streamlined the development lifecycle, from infrastructure setup to automated deployment and scaling, fostering reliability, consistency, and scalability throughout the system’s previous iteration.  

5.AWS Services used: AWS services in our proposed solution: 

  • Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud 
  • Amazon Virtual Private Cloud 
  • AWS Secrets Manager 
  • Amazon Relational Database Service 
  • Amazon Simple Storage Service 
  • Amazon Elastic Block Store 
  • Amazon Elastic Container Service 
  • Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service 
  • AWS Lambda 
  • Amazon Interactive Video Service 
  • Amazon Simple Notification Service 
  • Amazon Simple Email Service 
  • Amazon Route 53 
  • Auto Scaling 
  • Elastic Load Balancing 
  • Amazon CloudFront 
  • Amazon Managed Streaming for Kafka 
  • Amazon Elastic MapReduce

6.Outcome(s)/results:  

The implementation of robust CI/CD practices, integrated with Argo CD, Argo Rollouts, and Karpenter, streamlined microservice migration to EKS clusters. Dockerfiles and GHCR enabled seamless image distribution, while Argo CD automated deployments on the Applications cluster. Argo Rollouts facilitated controlled updates with rollback capabilities. Karpenter optimized cluster resources, and Rancher centralized management. Ingress controllers managed traffic, with plans for Istio integration for advanced features. The outcome is a reliable, scalable, and efficient deployment pipeline for microservices on EKS clusters. 

About ACC 

ACC is an AWS Advance Partner with AWS Mobility Competency. Awarded The Best BFSI industry Consulting Partner for the year 2019, ACC has had several successful cloud migration and application development projects to its credit. Our business offerings include Digitalisation, Cloud Services, Product Engineering, Big Data & Analytics and Cloud Security. ACC has developed several products to its credit. These include Ottohm – Enterprise Video and OTT Platform, Atlas API – API Management and Development Platform, Atlas CLM – Cloud Life Cycle Management, Atlas HCM – HR Digital Onboarding and Employee Management, Atlas ITSM – Vendor Onboarding and Service Management and Smart Contracts – Contract Automation and ManagementÂ