reInteractive builds creative web apps that connect clients with their customers. Based in Australia, the company is passionate about maximizing the online presence of each client and providing exceptional support. It is proud of the results it has delivered to clients including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, AgenciesHQ, StillAlive.com, Buckets and Spades, Jill Platner and The Music Network.
reInteractive clients have a broad spectrum of requirements, but there is a common thread: maximizing the efficiency of their online operations—including the web adevelopment process, deployment, on-demand scaling, and ongoing maintenance. To achieve those goals, reInteractive consistently turns to Engine Yard. “We recommend Engine Yard Cloud to our clients,” said Glenn Davy, production manager at reInteractive. “We get scalability, reliability, and expert support; and our clients get smooth-running web apthat help them build their businesses.”
reInteractive’s recent success with the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) showcases how Engine Yard helit deliver on even the most challenging requirements. The ABC Commercial business unit wanted to totally rewrite its 7-year-old online shopping site and re-launch it in just a few months, migrating from a Microsoft platform to an agile Ruby on Rails system and deploying on a Platform as a Service (PaaS)—while maintaining integration with its stock fulfillment system and millions of rows of data.
A key goal of the ABC Commercial migration project was flexibility. “They wanted to be able to respond to demand and add or remove services quickly. They wanted development to be continuous, with one-click deployment. And they wanted it all under the control of the business unit,” said Glenn. “Having the back-up of experts at Engine Yard enabled us to meet all of those objectives.”
Specifically, “the built-in Rails expertise of the Engine Yard stack saved the client a lot of time because decisions about components were already made for us by experts,” said Glenn. “And we could provide self-sufficiency to ABC Commercial because with Engine Yard Cloud they can take their own snapshots, download database backups, and scale horizontally—all with the click of a mouse. They can also clone their environments as well as bring up new environments without having to create new configurations. Plus, they can add and delete instances themselves.”
In addition, said Glenn, the collection of Engine Yard chef recipes makes routine operations much easier. “They set everything up for you to create or add a new instance, and if you need to configure something on one instance you can make the changes yourself. So whether it’s our own environment or something we’re managing on behalf of a client, this capability provides flexibility and a degree of independence.”
Glenn also likes the fact that Engine Yard Cloud is integrated with New Relic, so reInteractive and its clients can do performance troubleshooting. “New Relic sends alerts on resource issues—and that’s been a lifesaver,” he said. “We get the metrics we need to monitor performance and fix potential problems before they become actual problems. We can see what’s working and what needs tuning; we get a blow-by-blow breakdown of what’s happening within the apand that saves us days of fishing for root problems. It also makes it easy to communicate among the team because we can see the graphics and annotate quickly.”
Best of all, said Glenn, reInteractive can always count on the Engine Yard support team to complement its own expertise. “The Engine Yard support team is awesome—they’re highly responsive and helpful in solving issues quickly,” he said. “Their expertise and understanding of database issues and architecture has been invaluable. We’ve relied on their experience and knowledge to optimize our applications.”
The net result for reInteractive client ABC Commercial was successful migration from the Microsoft environment to a new Ruby on Rails system in just six months. Other reInteractive clients have had similar success deploying on Engine Yard Cloud, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, AgenciesHQ, StillAlive.com, Buckets and Spades, Jill Platner and The Music Network.
The key benefit is that Engine Yard enables reInteractive clients to focus their time on innovation rather than operations. They can develop and deploy faster than ever, and they can scale their online presence up and down in an instant, painlessly. They can troubleshoot network issues, and they can proactively monitor to make sure potential problems don’t become actual problems. Plus, they can do all of that without having to check in with reInteractive or with Engine Yard. They have the best of both worlds: greater efficiency and self-sufficiency.
In short, according to Glenn, the combination of Engine Yard Cloud and Engine Yard support has been instrumental in enabling reInteractive to meet the needs of its clients. “Engine Yard helus help our clients, so they can connect with their customers more effectively. Everyone can focus on what they do best, so the result for the end customer is a superior experience.”
Industry: Custom web adevelopment, deployment, and maintenance
Location: Sydney, Australia
Opportunity: Help ABC relaunch their 7 year old shopping site on an agile Ruby on Rails platform
Solution: Harness the Engine Yard Cloud to boost operational efficiency and provide flexibility and control
Results:
