Heroku → AWS ECS9 Applicationsus-east-1CI/CD · Auto-Scaling
Case Study

HAZERCLOUD powers seamless migration from Heroku to AWS ECS

The client hosted multiple applications on Heroku but faced increasing limitations in scalability, deployment control, and cost efficiency. HAZERCLOUD migrated the entire application stack to AWS ECS, establishing a scalable and automated containerized infrastructure.

Client Profile
SaaS Scale-up
PlatformHeroku → AWS ECS
Applications9 production apps
AWS RegionUS East (N. Virginia)
EngagementMigration + CI/CD
9
Applications migrated
100%
CI/CD automated
0
Disruption during migration
Auto-scaling enabled
The Challenges

Heroku had become the constraint.

The client hosted multiple applications on Heroku but faced increasing limitations in scalability, deployment control, and cost efficiency. The platform that once enabled rapid delivery was now holding the team back.

Challenges

Platform limitations across the board

  • Heroku restricted infrastructure customization, limiting control over networking, observability, and environment configuration
  • Frequent build failures occurred due to missing requirements.txt files, broken Dockerfiles, and inconsistent configurations
  • The platform lacked efficient autoscaling and required significant manual effort to manage dependencies and environment consistency
  • Insufficient IAM controls and network isolation hindered the enforcement of security and compliance requirements
Goal

Scalable, automated, and secure on AWS

  • Migrate all 9 applications to AWS ECS without disruption
  • Fix all Dockerfile and build configuration issues
  • Establish automated CI/CD pipelines for every application
  • Enable auto-scaling and efficient traffic routing
  • Implement IAM controls and network isolation for security
  • Centralize logging, monitoring, and alerting
The Solution

From Heroku to AWS ECS. Containerized, automated, scalable.

HAZERCLOUD migrated the client's application stack from Heroku to AWS ECS, establishing a scalable and automated containerized infrastructure with full CI/CD automation.

ECS Cluster Setup

Dedicated ECS cluster provisioned in AWS

A dedicated ECS cluster was provisioned in AWS US East (N. Virginia) to host all nine applications, providing the foundation for a containerized, scalable infrastructure.

Containerization

Dockerfiles reviewed and corrected

Dockerfiles were reviewed and corrected to resolve build errors, missing dependencies, and environment inconsistencies across all applications.

CI/CD Pipeline

Automated builds, tests, and deployments

AWS CodePipeline and CodeBuild were configured for automated builds, tests, ECR storage, and ECS deployments — enabling reliable, repeatable releases.

Service Management

Container lifecycle and scaling configured

ECS task definitions and services were configured to manage container lifecycle, environment variables, and scaling policies for each application.

Traffic Routing

ALB with port-based listeners

Application Load Balancers with port-based listeners routed traffic efficiently to ECS tasks across all applications.

Observability

Centralized logging, monitoring, and alerting

Amazon CloudWatch was configured for centralized logging, performance monitoring, and alerting across the entire platform.

Architecture

The AWS ECS architecture, post-migration.

The target architecture running all nine applications on AWS ECS with CodePipeline CI/CD, ALB traffic routing, ECR container storage, CloudWatch observability, and IAM-controlled access.

AWS ECS architecture diagram showing ECS Cluster with services, CodePipeline, ECR, ALB, Route 53, CloudWatch, Certificate Manager, and Secrets Manager
Compute
  • ECS9 services, auto-scaling
  • ECRContainer image registry
Networking
  • ALBPort-based routing
  • Route 53DNS management
  • WAFWeb application firewall
Operations
  • CodePipelineCI/CD automation
  • CloudWatchLogging & monitoring
  • Secrets MgrCredential management
The Results

What the migration delivered.

The migration to AWS ECS enhanced deployment speed, scalability, and operational efficiency across the board.

Complete migration

All nine applications, including the customer personality endpoint and web resume upload, were successfully migrated to ECS without disruption.

9 apps migrated

Faster releases

CI/CD pipelines with CodePipeline and CodeBuild reduced errors and enabled quicker, more reliable deployments across all applications.

100% automated

Auto-scaling

ECS with ALBs allowed services to scale with demand, resolving prior performance issues that plagued the Heroku deployment.

Elastic scaling

Reduced ops load

AWS-managed infrastructure freed the team to focus on development rather than managing platform dependencies and environment consistency.

Dev-focused
$

Cost optimization

Pay-as-you-go pricing with auto-scaling improved cost efficiency significantly over Heroku's fixed pricing plans.

Pay-as-you-go
🛡

Improved security

IAM controls, network isolation, and compliance features strengthened security posture and access control across the platform.

IAM + isolation
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AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner · ISO 27001:2022 · ISO 9001:2015 · 5× AWS-Certified Founder