Case Study: Document Management System Using AWS Services

This case study showcases the implementation of a scalable and secure Document Management System using AWS services, including ECR, ECS, and EFS. The solution addresses challenges like document disorganization, version control, and compliance, ensuring high availability and efficient collaboration.

1/8/20255 min read

Document Management System Using AWS Services

Client Overview: The client faced challenges in managing documents and digital assets across multiple departments, resulting in inefficiencies, version control issues, and compliance risks. Their existing systems lacked organization, scalability, and secure access, leading to disorganized storage, manual workflows, and difficulty tracking document changes. The organization needed a modern, scalable, and secure document management system (DMS) to ensure easy access to the latest documents, streamline collaboration, and maintain compliance with legal requirements.

Problem Statement:

The client struggled with several key issues in managing their documents:

Disorganized Document Storage: Documents were stored across personal devices, file servers, and physical storage, making it difficult to locate important information quickly.
Version Control Issues: Without proper version control, teams shared documents via email or saved them in multiple locations, leading to confusion and errors.
Inefficient Collaboration: Collaboration on documents was inefficient, with multiple people working on separate versions, leading to inconsistent edits and conflicting information.
Compliance and Legal Risks: Increasing regulatory pressures required the client to manage documents according to legal requirements. The lack of a proper system exposed them to non-compliance risks.
Lack of Document Security and Accountability: Without a centralized system, sensitive documents were at risk of unauthorized access, and the absence of audit trails hindered accountability.
Manual and Time-Consuming Processes: Manual document approval and workflows led to delays and human errors, reducing overall efficiency.
Difficulty in Managing the Document Lifecycle: Managing documents from creation to disposal was challenging without an organized system.
Scalability Issues: Existing solutions couldn’t scale effectively to meet the increasing volume of documents as the organization grew.

Solution Overview:

To resolve these issues, the client opted for a solution that leveraged AWS services to build a modern, containerized, and scalable document management system (DMS). This solution used Amazon ECR, ECS, EFS, and Security Groups to ensure a streamlined, secure, and scalable environment for managing documents.

The DMS was deployed using Docker containers, allowing the application to scale dynamically based on demand. Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry) was used for version control, ensuring smooth updates and rollbacks. Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) provided automatic scaling, high availability, and managed orchestration for the containers, while Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) offered centralized, scalable document storage. Security was enhanced by using AWS Security Groups to enforce strict access controls, ensuring that only authorized users could access sensitive documents.

Solution Description:

Amazon ECR for Version Control:

Amazon ECR was used to store the Docker image of the Document Management System in a private repository. ECR allowed for efficient version control by tagging different image versions (e.g., v1.0.0, v2.0.0), facilitating easy management, updates, and rollbacks. This ensured that the client could seamlessly deploy new versions and maintain compatibility across environments.

Amazon ECS for Deployment:

The DMS was deployed using Amazon ECS with Fargate. ECS provided the infrastructure to manage and scale the containers without needing to manage the underlying servers. Fargate, a serverless compute engine, automatically scaled the system based on demand, ensuring that the system remained highly available and responsive during peak times. This automated scaling helped the client avoid the complexities of manual resource management, providing both cost savings and optimal performance.

Amazon EFS for Centralized Storage:

Amazon EFS was used to provide centralized, scalable, and accessible storage for all documents and digital assets. EFS ensured that all ECS instances had consistent access to documents, even during container restarts. This eliminated the problem of scattered document storage and ensured that files were available to the appropriate users and services at all times.

Security Implementation:

The DMS utilized AWS Security Groups to control access to the application, ensuring that only authorized users could interact with the system. In addition, the system’s database credentials were securely stored in AWS Secrets Manager, from where the ECR pulled the credentials during runtime. This added an extra layer of security, ensuring sensitive data remained protected.

Benefits of the Solution:

Scalability:

Using Amazon ECS enabled the DMS to automatically scale based on user demand, ensuring that performance remained optimal during peak times. As the organization grew and document volume increased, the system could handle the additional load without manual intervention.

High Availability:

The use of AWS’s infrastructure ensured high availability for the DMS. ECS with Fargate and EFS provided reliable access to documents at all times, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity.

Centralized Storage:

With Amazon EFS, all documents and digital assets were stored in one centralized location, simplifying access and management. This eliminated issues related to data fragmentation and duplication, allowing teams to work more efficiently and consistently.

Version Control:

Amazon ECR allowed for efficient management of different versions of the DMS, enabling smooth updates and rollbacks. This version control enhanced operational efficiency, ensuring that the system could be updated without disrupting workflows.

Security:

Security was enhanced through the use of AWS Security Groups, ensuring that only authorized users could access sensitive documents. The use of Secrets Manager to store database credentials ensured that sensitive information remained secure and compliant with best practices.

Architecture:

The architecture diagram below shows the components and services used to build the Document Management System.

Architecture Components:

Amazon ECR: Stores the Docker image of the DMS for version control.
Amazon ECS with Fargate: Runs containerized instances of the DMS with automatic scaling.
Amazon EFS: Provides centralized, scalable document storage.
AWS Security Groups: Enforces strict access controls and security policies.
AWS Secrets Manager: Stores credentials securely for accessing services like RDS.
Amazon RDS: Stores database credentials and other sensitive data.

Cost Estimation:

The approximate cost for running the DMS on AWS would depend on several factors, including the scale of the deployment, the number of users, and the resources consumed. The costs would generally include:

Amazon ECR: Cost for storing Docker images and managing repository versions.
Amazon ECS with Fargate: Charges for compute resources and automatic scaling.
Amazon EFS: Costs for storage and data transfer.
AWS Security Groups: Costs associated with managing security and access controls.

Given the dynamic nature of the system and the scalability provided by ECS, the infrastructure cost would likely range from $400 - $1200 per month, depending on usage patterns and resource demands.

Conclusion:

By leveraging AWS services like ECR, ECS, EFS, and Security Groups, the Document Management System was successfully built to address the client’s challenges. This solution ensured high scalability, high availability, centralized storage, and robust security for document management. The integration of version control, automatic scaling, and secure access controls allowed the client to improve collaboration, compliance, and efficiency in managing documents and digital assets.

With AWS’s flexible and scalable infrastructure, the DMS will continue to meet the client’s needs as their organization grows, ensuring that they can manage their documents securely and efficiently while keeping costs manageable.