Transforming Maritime Operations with DevOps & Cloud Expertise

Solution Overview

Successive Digital initiated a structured transformation to address legacy system fragmentation and operational inefficiencies. After an extensive evaluation of existing workflows and system bottlenecks, the project team created a clear roadmap that focused on a cloud-first strategy and robust automation using a comprehensive DevOps framework. This approach not only ensured seamless data flow and real-time analytics but also bolstered security and compliance, setting a new benchmark in maritime digital excellence.

DevOps Implementation 

A robust DevOps strategy was implemented to automate software deployment cycles to meet the go-to-market strategy while improving system reliability:

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC):
  • To automate infrastructure provisioning and gain full control over remote resources, we leveraged Terraform. This approach allowed us to define infrastructure as code, ensuring consistency, repeatability, and version control. By using Terraform, we significantly reduced deployment times, minimized manual errors, and streamlined infrastructure management, making scaling and modifications more efficient.
• Containerization & Orchestration:
  • To support early testing within the StratumFive environment, we initially implemented Amazon ECS (Fargate), creating a cluster, task definitions, and deploying a demo application. However, as the platform evolved through a strategic merger and integration of backend systems, the architecture grew significantly in complexity. Recognizing the need for a more scalable and resilient infrastructure to support this transformation, we made a calculated shift to Amazon EKS. This decision enabled better orchestration of over 100 microservices,  cost optimization, and efficiency.
• CI/CD Pipelines:
  • To enhance development velocity and deployment reliability, we implemented a robust Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline using GitHub Actions and ArgoCD. GitHub Actions was configured to automate the build and testing stages, ensuring each code commit initiated a consistent and reliable pipeline execution. Docker images were built, versioned, and securely pushed to Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), enabling traceable and environment-specific image management.
  • During the initial phases within the StratumFive environment, Amazon ECS (Fargate) was utilized to validate our containerized workloads and CI/CD flow. This included the creation of an ECS Fargate cluster, associated task definitions, a dedicated ECR repository, and deployment of a demo application service. The setup provided a serverless and low-maintenance container orchestration environment well-suited for early-stage testing and validation.
  • Following a comprehensive evaluation of workload complexity and deployment scale—coupled with mergers and acquisitions, we transitioned to Amazon EKS. Given StratumFive’s architecture, which consists of over 100 interconnected microservices, EKS offered enhanced scalability, flexibility, and operational control aligned with long-term platform objectives. To ensure cost optimization and eliminate unused resources, all ECS-related components were subsequently decommissioned.
  • With EKS as the foundation, ArgoCD was adopted to enable a GitOps-based deployment model. This approach ensured declarative, automated delivery of containerized applications to the Amazon EKS cluster, supporting real-time synchronization between GitHub repositories and Kubernetes environments. The setup provided improved transparency, repeatability, and rollback capabilities across deployment pipelines.

• Content Delivery Optimization with Amazon CloudFront

To ensure global content availability with low latency and high availability, we integrated Amazon CloudFront for secure and accelerated content delivery across all application environments. As StratumFive collects voyage data from different sea points and ships traveling over the ocean, the implementation supported a range of use cases tailored to the maritime industry’s operational requirements:

• Static File Distribution via S3 Origins:

Distributions like historical-positional-data and offline-submission-form were configured to serve large volumes of static content, including archival tracking datasets and submission forms, directly from Amazon S3.

• Multi-Environment UI Hosting:

UI builds for the voyage application were deployed via versioned paths in S3 buckets and served across development, staging, and production through dedicated CloudFront distributions, enabling rapid version rollouts and testing.

• Download Portal for FBB Tracking Software:

A custom-domain CloudFront distribution was deployed to manage secure software downloads for vessel-side installations.

• Hybrid Origin Architecture (S3 + ELB):

Acquired applications leveraged hybrid origins, enabling intelligent routing between S3 (for static assets) and ELB (for dynamic backend services).

• Environment-Specific Distribution Management:

Clean environment separation was achieved through named CloudFront distributions for each stage of SDLC, including development and staging, simplifying deployment governance, and version tracking.

This strategic use of CloudFront significantly improved platform responsiveness for global users while supporting scalability, version control, and real-time updates—critical to the dynamic needs of maritime operations.

• Monitoring:
  • For proactive monitoring and observability, we integrated Amazon CloudWatch to continuously track infrastructure and application performance. This helped us detect anomalies, analyze logs, and resolve issues promptly. Additionally, we deployed Grafana and Prometheus for in-depth monitoring at the EKS level, providing real-time metrics, dashboards, and alerting mechanisms to enhance visibility and performance tracking.

Enhanced Security & Compliance

Meeting maritime regulatory standards and protecting critical data were top priorities. Advanced security measures were integrated across the platform:

• Encryption & Secure Access:
  • We used AWS Key Management Service (KMS) that managed encryption keys for robust data protection.
  • AWS Certificate Manager and Route 53 were used to provide secure domain management and SSL certifications.
• Access Control & Kubernetes Security:
  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) was implemented within Amazon EKS to ensure granular permissions.
  • Kubernetes Secrets were used to manage sensitive applications securely within the EKS environment.
• Compliance-Driven Disaster Recovery:
  • AWS Backup and Velero facilitated secure backups and regulatory compliance.
  • Velero was implemented in EKS to back up configurations and persistent volume claims (PVCs), ensuring enhanced data recovery capabilities for the applications. 

Mobile Application Development for On-the-Go Access

To meet the demand for mobile accessibility among fleet operators, we also developed a cross-platform mobile application:

• Technology Stack:
  • Our team used React Native, TypeScript, and Vue.js to develop a cross-platform application. The amalgamation of top technologies helped bring the desired performance for the application and that is delivering a seamless cross-platform experience.
• Key Features:
  • Real-time ship tracking and performance metrics.
  • Predictive maintenance alerts to preempt disruptions.
  • Weather routing and fuel consumption analytics for cost optimization.

This mobile solution empowered users with instantaneous access to critical data, enhancing operational efficiency and responsiveness.