We Replatformed a Two-Sided Micro-Internship Marketplace using Fly.io, Terraform, and AWS

Supplementing application development with DevOps Infrastructure Work

Parker Dewey has seen incredible growth over the last several years. But the application had outpaced its technical foundation, necessitating a strategic overhaul of its infrastructure to connect even more students with employers.

Results

Gained insight into application and database performance and load Went from 70 -> 206 TPS using similar resources Fixed problematic SQL queries, reducing some from 30 seconds to 1.5 seconds Containerization for Fly.io application allows for easy scalability AWS environment managed through IaC
"Launch Scout transformed our technology stack, boosting both performance and reliability. Our users immediately noticed faster load times and backend processes became more efficient and responsive."

Jordan Goldberg,

Director of Operations

Source: Parker Dewey

The Challenge

Elixir application struggles to accommodate growth without scalable infrastructure

Parker Dewey is powered by an Elixir and Phoenix web application. While a robust language and framework, the application and database were hosted on a platform that significantly limited application load and performance visibility. With the addition of new analytics functionality, the Postgres database showed areas of slow performance. Some customers started noticing sluggish load times and periods of application downtime, so we decided a complete re-platform was the right step for the application and database.

The Solution

Technologies Utilized

Elixir
  • Migrated to Fly.io for application hosting
  • Upgraded to AWS RDS for robust, scalable PostgreSQL instances
  • Implemented Metabase on AWS RDS for powerful, real-time business insights
  • Comprehensive uptime monitoring with Site24x7
  • Modernized CI/CD with GitHub Actions for automated deployments
  • Transitioned to Elixir mix.release from build pack release
  • Wrote IaC terraform scripts for AWS environments (RDS, VPC, Internet gateway, security groups)
  • Engineered custom CloudWatch dashboards for real-time infrastructure insights

About Parker Dewey

Parker Dewey is a platform that addresses the challenges associated with college-to-career transitions. Parker Dewey provides Career Launchers (college / grad students and recent graduates) the opportunity to work on Micro-Internships. These professional, paid, short-term assignments allow Career Launchers to demonstrate their skills and grit, explore careers, and develop their networks as they seek internships and full-time roles. These authentic, experiential learning opportunities complement in-class instruction, thereby improving academic performance and driving completion.

Using data from these projects, Parker Dewey provides insights to college and university faculty so that they can better align curriculum with job skills demanded by companies. Academic institutions can more effectively engage alumni and professors as mentors, counsel students on career options, and support existing and prospective corporate recruiters.

Redefining Career Paths

Talk with our experts

We’re passionate about solving big business problems and unlocking value using technology. Let’s chat.

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