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Project Overview
We delivered production-grade AWS infrastructure and Docker enablement for London Medical Laboratory, a clinical diagnostics provider. The engagement covered VPC architecture, containerisation best practices, secure VPN connectivity between AWS and on-premise systems, and CI/CD pipeline implementation—enabling the lab to run their Symfony application confidently in production.
Client and Product Context
London Medical Laboratory is a clinical and medical laboratory offering diagnostic services to patients across the UK. Their platform is built on Symfony with Docker, managing databases in AWS. The lab needed to move from a development-oriented setup to a production-ready environment that could support their growing operations.
- Clinical laboratory providing diagnostic testing services
- Symfony-based application with Docker containerisation
- Managed databases already running in AWS
- Goal: production-grade infrastructure with secure office connectivity
The Challenge
The existing AWS infrastructure was not production-grade. Docker was used for development but not yet hardened for production workloads. The Symfony application required architectural review, networking was unclear, and there was no VPN connection between AWS and the office network. CI automation was missing, making deployments inconsistent and manual.
- AWS environment not architected for production reliability
- Docker setup lacked production hardening
- No secure connectivity between cloud and on-premise systems
- Symfony application needed configuration review
- No CI/CD pipeline for repeatable deployments
What We Did
We conducted a comprehensive AWS environment audit, documented the current state, and designed a production-ready architecture. This included proper VPC design with public/private subnet segmentation, security groups and network ACLs appropriate for a medical application, and high availability goals aligned with managed services.
- Designed VPC with proper subnet segmentation (public/private)
- Configured security groups and network ACLs for healthcare compliance
- Hardened Docker setup for production with best practices
- Implemented ECR for container image storage and management
- Established site-to-site VPN between AWS and office network
- Terraform for Infrastructure as Code, codifying VPC, security groups, and compute resources for repeatable provisioning
- Built CI/CD workflow with automated builds and deployments
- Hands-on implementation, testing, and rollout
Solution Architecture
The final architecture leverages AWS managed services for reliability and security. The Symfony application runs in Docker containers with proper health checks, logging, and resource limits. VPN connectivity enables secure access between the office and cloud environments.
- Application: Symfony running in Docker containers
- Compute: EC2 instances within a properly segmented VPC
- Database: RDS managed databases for reliability
- Container Registry: ECR for Docker image storage
- Networking: Site-to-site VPN for office connectivity
- CI/CD: Automated pipelines for staging and production
- Monitoring: CloudWatch for logs and metrics
Technical Highlights
The engagement delivered genuine improvements across infrastructure, security, and operations. The VPC design follows AWS best practices with proper subnetting and secure access patterns. Docker containers are production-ready with health checks, logging, and resource limits. The VPN connection ensures secure communication between environments.
- VPC design with public/private subnet segmentation
- Docker production readiness: health checks, logging, resource limits
- Secure VPN establishment between on-premise and AWS
- CI/CD automation enabling reproducible builds and deployments
- Symfony-specific considerations: cache, sessions, environment config
Security and Reliability
Security was paramount given the healthcare context. The architecture implements multiple layers of protection including network isolation, secure VPN connectivity, and container security best practices.
- VPC security groups and network ACLs for isolation
- Site-to-site VPN with clear routing configuration
- Least-privilege IAM principles for access control
- Container isolation and image validation
- CI/CD gating and environment promotion controls
Outcomes
- AWS infrastructure moved to production-grade configuration
- Docker used confidently for both development and production
- VPN connection established between office and cloud environments
- CI/CD pipeline in place reducing deployment risk
- Clear documentation for ongoing maintenance
- Foundation for future scaling and monitoring enhancements
Why It Matters
London Medical Laboratory now operates on a production-grade AWS infrastructure with Docker containerisation, secure VPN connectivity, and automated CI/CD pipelines. The architecture provides a solid foundation for their clinical operations, with clear paths for enhanced monitoring, auto-scaling, and disaster recovery planning as the platform grows.
Services Behind This Project
The same senior teams that delivered this work:
"Excellent contractor with great AWS knowledge."