AUDITED MANAGED
SERVICE PROVIDER

June 12, 2023

CHALLENGE

ECS performs engineering design work for marine ships and components in support of commercial marine engineering projects.   Beginning during the COVID-19 pandemic, hardware logistics issues hindered availability of specialized graphics desktop hardware needed by ECS engineers to complete their engineering design tasks.  ECS’ remote workforce were limited by their ability to access on-premises hosted compute infrastructure.  Since then, the remote work paradigm has remained in place at ECS and elevated our agility and scale to deliver on projects.  How could ECS engineering design teams meet the client’s objectives on time and do so from disperse locations?

WHY AWS?

AWS Workspaces is a service that provides user desktops on demand in the Cloud.  AWS Workspaces offers various desktop configurations including several configured to support graphics-intense applications, such as Computer Aided Design (CAD).   AWS Cloud offers the ability for clients to provision cloud resources in minutes, that can then be securely accessed remotely.

SOLUTION

The ECS teams’ approach to solving this challenge was to design an AWS Workspaces and application environment in the cloud that would support engineers to complete required design tasks from their remote locations.

The initial environment was deployed using “Infrastructure as Code” (IAC) to quickly create the VPC, network, security, and other resources supporting the design application. Desktops were then built and provisioned to meet the client application software requirements.  Engineers can remotely access their desktops and produce marine engineering designs in the Cloud.  They can collaborate on designs from various locations, and successfully meet the client’s deadline for deliverables.

BENEFITS

Flexibility and Scalability
As ECS design teams leveraged the AWS Workspaces environment, they quickly found other applications that could be deployed in the same way.  Teams could leverage the environment to meet other client needs and goals not originally planned for the AWS environment.  Subsequently, additional desktops and infrastructure were added to support other workloads.  Marine engineers are also able to share their designs generated in the AWS Cloud with clients interactively, providing additional visibility and gather feedback in a way that was not possible before.

Agility and Cost Control
Since the original Workspaces was scripted, it could be torn down, and recreated quickly to meet the needs of other initiatives as they arose.  This allowed the team to control costs while still being agile and quick to respond to project demands.  The ECS team was able to “right-size” the original desktop configuration used for graphics intense applications, reducing Cloud cost by approximately 10x over original estimates.  ECS Cloud Managed services help reduce the overall support costs for the project by freeing up the Marine Engineering team to focus on strictly design tasks instead of care and feeding of the infrastructure.

May 15, 2022

CHALLENGE

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program requires a next-generation managed services partner to develop, operate and maintain cloud solutions and capabilities in support of its mission to provide situational awareness of the Federal Government’s overall cybersecurity posture and enable management of critical vulnerabilities.

SOLUTION

ECS Federal has developed and delivered an approach to cloud managed services that takes advantage of AWS GovCloud native services and employs DevSecOps processes to optimize cost, improve security and modernize operations. ECS Federal has implemented serverless automation, infrastructure-as-code, configuration-as-code and efficient operational processes to deliver capabilities such as security monitoring, backups, upgrade management and continuous integration/continuous deployment.

BENEFITS

ECS Federal maintains and operates a secure, compliant cloud environment in support of the CDM program. Cost reduction, operational efficiency and increased adoption of cloud native technologies have been achieved through ECS Federal’s modern approach to managed services in the cloud.

May 15, 2022

CHALLENGE

As the United States Marine Corps (USMC) adopts modern cloud technology and capabilities, it requires a next-generation managed services partner to develop and maintain secure, reliable, and flexible cloud managed solutions in support of its warfighting mission.

SOLUTION

ECS Federal partnered with USMC Manpower & Reserve Affairs (M&RA) to deliver a modernized approach to cloud managed services. This approach leverages the native services and capabilities of AWS GovCloud coupled DevSecOps approaches and modern cybersecurity solutions to deliver secure, reliable, and flexible managed services to meet M&RA’s evolving requirements.

ECS Federal has deployed reusable templates and automation to create consistent, compliant, and efficient operational capabilities – including monitoring, backups, patching, and configuration management – required by M&RA.

BENEFITS

Through its partnership with ECS Federal, USMC M&RA has developed and maintained a cloud enclave to support its technology requirements. Managed services provided by ECS Federal drive reduced costs through operational efficiencies, increased reliability through adoption of modern cloud services, and improved cybersecurity capabilities to defend M&RA’s infrastructure.