Scaling Event Ticketing with AWS for Seamless Customer Experiences

An emerging technology provider, specializing in retail and loyalty solutions, needed to rapidly launch a new event ticketing system to handle unpredictable, high-volume traffic. Referred by AWS for its trusted technical capability, Galactic Network delivered a robust cloud solution using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon ElastiCache and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).

The deployment enabled the platform to scale seamlessly for seasonal spikes, manage large volumes of event images with automated archiving, and ensure a smooth, reliable customer experience from day one.

Founded in 2019, the customer is a fast-growing technology provider focused on delivering digital solutions for the retail and loyalty industry. Their team of engineers and innovators develops platforms that enhance customer engagement and streamline operations, supporting both large enterprises and growing businesses.

With a reputation for bringing modern solutions to market quickly, the company emphasizes scalability, user experience, and technological agility, ensuring its platforms meet the demands of today's fast-evolving digital economy.

The company faced a tight deadline to launch a new event ticketing application. The platform needed to reliably support unpredictable spikes in user traffic, particularly during ticket releases and live events. Performance and availability were critical, as any downtime would directly affect revenue and customer satisfaction.

In addition to traffic management, the system needed to process and store thousands of high-resolution event photos. These files, which could quickly grow to terabytes in size, required a cost-effective way to be stored, accessed, and archived once events concluded. The company needed a solution that was scalable, resilient, and efficient, while allowing its lean IT team to remain focused on driving business value rather than firefighting infrastructure issues.

Galactic Network designed and implemented a scalable AWS architecture tailored for high-demand event management. The application was deployed on Amazon EC2 for flexible compute capacity, supported by Amazon RDS for fully managed database management and Amazon ElastiCache for improving application performance and reducing database load.

To handle the sudden spike of traffic, Amazon ElastiCache provides a fast, in-memory data store which significantly speeds up response times for user actions and queries, while also reducing the load on backend databases. Large event static images were stored on Amazon S3, with lifecycle policies automating the archiving of large image files once events ended. This approach reduced storage costs while maintaining easy access for organizers and attendees.

By leveraging AWS's elasticity, automation, and global reliability, the company was able to launch on schedule with a production-ready platform capable of supporting unpredictable demand.

The event ticketing system successfully went live on time, managing high-volume traffic with zero downtime and no performance issues.

Amazon ElastiCache delivers data with extremely low latency, measured in microseconds, which is crucial for real-time applications and user experiences. By caching frequently accessed data in ElastiCache's in-memory store, applications can retrieve information much faster and without repeatedly querying the underlying database. This reduces the load on the database, allowing for smaller, less expensive database instances for cost reduction by 30%.

By implementing Amazon S3 lifecycle policies, the company reduced storage costs by up to 30% while securely archiving thousands of large event photos. 99.9% uptime was achieved across workloads, backed by AWS's resilient infrastructure. Operational efficiency also improved significantly, with the IT team saving more than 20 hours per month previously spent on manual traffic and storage management. These gains allowed the company to shift its focus to innovation and customer experience enhancements.

With the event ticketing platform stabilized and scaling effectively, the company plans to expand its use of AWS to power additional retail and loyalty applications. Future initiatives include adopting serverless technologies for cost efficiency, leveraging advanced analytics to gain deeper customer insights, and expanding automation for compliance and archiving. Backed by AWS's scalability and Galactic Network's deployment expertise, the organization is well-positioned to continue delivering seamless, innovative digital experiences for its growing customer base.