Migrating a Legacy Shipping Platform to AWS for Optimization

Overview

Our client is the industry leader in sustainable bulk liquids storage and shipping, servicing the energy and other industries by managing inventory, storage, and transportation across the United States and Canada. With over a dozen port terminals and an annual handling capacity exceeding 420 million barrels, the company needed a strategic partner to modernize its core business systems. JBS Dev was selected to lead this initiative, which focused on replacing their legacy application, improving reporting capabilities, and enhancing the customer experience through a new portal.

Challenge

The client had been operating a homegrown system for over 5 years. Their legacy application tracked voyages, pricing, destinations, and rentals while providing a reporting interface and an admin panel. However, it had several limitations:

• Reports were manually generated, creating bottlenecks and increasing operational costs.
• Historical data was stored in Excel sheets, leading to errors due to manual data entry.
• The system lacked internal auditing capabilities and visibility into financial transactions linked to specific vessels and invoices.
• Optimizing shipments was inefficient, as the platform did not support customized reporting or provide insights on vessel utilization.

Solution

JBS Dev partnered with the client to modernize their platform by leveraging AWS cloud infrastructure and implementing a scalable, cost-effective solution.

Key initiatives included:

• Cloud Migration: The core business system was migrated to AWS, ensuring scalability, high availability, and cost efficiency.
• Technology Stack: The application was rewritten using Python and Django, providing a modern and maintainable codebase.
• Advanced Reporting: JBS Dev replaced the legacy reporting system with a new, self-service interface using Tableau. This provided users with more customization options for accessing and managing reports, reducing turnaround time and eliminating reconciliation efforts.
• Automated Data Transformation: An automated tool was implemented to retrieve, transform, and migrate historical data from the legacy system to the new platform.

AWS Services:

• Lambda: Serverless functions were used to execute backend operations efficiently, minimizing costs by only running when needed.
• Relational Database Service (RDS): A fully managed, secure, and scalable database solution was used to support the platform. RDS provided automated backups, software patching, and built-in read-replica support for reporting.

Results

The impact of this modernization was immediate and transformative. With the new reporting system in place, reports now provide better filtering and sorting options for users, ensuring more reliable data and improving overall efficiency. Automation improves data accuracy and simplifies the process of retrieving and analyzing historical data. Shipment optimization became a reality, as employees can now search by route number and track vessel utilization with ease, leading to better fleet management.

The transition to AWS infrastructure brought considerable cost savings. By leveraging Lambda, the company only pays for what it is using, eliminating unnecessary expenses associated with running a server 24/7. RDS provides a secure, fully managed database solution that simplifies operations and ensures system reliability.

Better insights into shipments and vessel capacity enhance transparency and improve decision-making. The modernization effort, supported by a carefully structured transition phase, ensured a seamless migration from the legacy system. With JBS Dev’s expertise, the client successfully modernized its technology, positioning itself for future scalability and innovation. The next phase of the modernization project will focus on building the customer portal, further enhancing the user experience with real-time shipment insights, vessel utilization tracking, and expanded custom reporting capabilities.