Tokopedia reliably connects millions
Reaching a global customer base is a challenge for many small and medium businesses today. This is especially true in Indonesia, where fewer than four out of 10 offline merchants stayed in business throughout the pandemic. As an Indonesian technology company with the largest domestic marketplace, Tokopedia currently contributes more than 1 percent of Indonesia’s GDP.
Overview
THE CHALLENGE
To provide a more consistent level of service, Tokopedia began migrating from its locally leased data centers to the public cloud. It adopted a multi-cloud strategy, using Amazon Web Services (AWS) for mission-critical workloads, including payments, as well as storage of millions of product images and database backups on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
THE SOLUTION
Modernization went hand in hand with cloud migration. Ollion first took the time to understand Tokopedia’s IT landscape. Tokopedia was using older versions of operating systems and was in need of upgrading on AWS to comply with inherent platform security features. Ollion set up an AWS landing zone for a multi-account environment.
THE OUTCOME
Tokopedia migrated more than 30 applications across hundreds of virtual machines to AWS over the course of seven months. During this time, their engineers could continue updating features on the e-commerce site. Most importantly, Tokopedia experienced near-zero downtime during the migration. As part of the support package, hundreds of Tokopedia engineers received training on AWS.
The challenge
Serving millions of merchants, and helping to democratize commerce through technology, requires Tokopedia’s platform to be highly available. This is especially important during its monthly online sales event, Waktu Indonesia Belanja (Indonesia shopping time), when merchants concurrently hold sales promotions from the 25th until the last day of the month. However, issues resulting from unreliable network connections and difficulty scaling its IT environment, particularly databases, were negatively impacting uptime on the e-commerce site.
To provide a more consistent level of service, Tokopedia began migrating from its locally leased data centers to the public cloud. It adopted a multi-cloud strategy, using Amazon Web Services (AWS) for mission-critical workloads, including payments, as well as storage of millions of product images and database backups on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
Making an impact
The company engaged AWS partner Ollion and AWS Professional Services to help formulate and execute a migration strategy. During the migration, keeping the Tokopedia site running 24/7 was essential. Tokopedia also wanted to ensure its engineers could pursue ongoing site development work without getting bogged down in the technical details of a large-scale migration.
Ollion first took the time to understand Tokopedia’s IT landscape. We then set up an AWS landing zone for a multi-account environment on AWS. “We worked closely with the AWS Professional Services team to establish a secure foundation and detailed plan for an agile migration from a complex on-premises environment,” says Muadz Abdurrohman, country manager at Ollion.
Modernization went hand in hand with cloud migration. Tokopedia was using older versions of operating systems and needed to upgrade on AWS to comply with inherent platform security features. “We moved to a newer operating system alongside the AWS migration. Our security posture has improved with this upgrade on AWS,” Patil adds.
The outcome
In total, Tokopedia migrated more than 30 applications across hundreds of virtual machines to AWS over the course of seven months. During this time, Tokopedia’s engineers could continue updating features on its e-commerce site. Most importantly, Tokopedia experienced near-zero downtime during the migration.
As part of the process, Tokopedia migrated from multiple self-managed databases to managed database services on AWS, to achieve higher levels of automation and uptime. Its on-premises databases comprised of MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and Redis engines, which were migrated to Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon Aurora and Amazon ElastiCache for Redis.
Scaling up core capabilities with enterprise support
Tokopedia also engaged AWS Enterprise Support to assist with scaling and provide ongoing technical guidance. The company’s dedicated AWS technical account manager (TAM) attends monthly meetings to help prepare Tokopedia’s infrastructure for flash sales events and double-digit sales days the following month. “We never have to worry about how much we can scale on AWS,” says Tahir Hashmi, technical fellow and SVP of growth engineering at Tokopedia.
As part of the support package, hundreds of Tokopedia engineers received training on AWS. Post-migration, Tokopedia’s TAM and AWS solutions architects continue to seek ways to help the company optimize its cloud infrastructure with enhanced security and governance controls. Patil says, “The maturity of the tech stack on AWS gives us confidence to grow our business. We can rely on AWS infrastructure and no longer worry about managing a complex environment.”
"We took advantage of AWS’s managed database services, which are easier to scale and provide high availability."
Vijay Patil, Vice President of Engineering, Tokopedia
