Dutch EdTech’s journey to GDPR compliance and scalability

Client

LearnWise, an Amsterdam-based educational technology company, is known for its AI-powered campus assistant, Aiden, designed to democratize university support. With a focus on making learning accessible and engaging, LearnWise has established itself as a leader in EdTech innovation.

LearnWise was committed to achieving GDPR compliance and ensuring data security on their SaaS platform. Their main objective was to adhere rigorously to GDPR regulations while leveraging AWS for a scalable and secure infrastructure.

Challenge

To meet their goals, LearnWise partnered with Smidige for setting up an AWS Landing Zone, aligning with industry best practices through AWS Control Tower and AWS Landing Zone Accelerator. The collaboration began with Smidige conducting thorough discussions to understand LearnWise’s business aims, technical needs, and the specific challenges of managing sensitive data. LearnWise’s focus was on a secure, scalable, GDPR-compliant SaaS platform suitable for a varied clientele, including different-sized corporate clients.

Solution

With an understanding of LearnWise’s objectives and GDPR mandates, Smidige developed an AWS Landing Zone solution, optimizing AWS’s security, scalability, and compliance features. Key implementations included data encryption, access controls, audit trails, and a centralized logging and monitoring system with AWS CloudWatch Logs and AWS CloudTrail. This system enabled real-time detection of security issues, ensuring GDPR compliance.

LearnWise’s AWS setup included a central network account to manage centralized egress through AWS Transit Gateway,
complemented by the use of redundant NAT Gateways for enhanced network efficiency and reliability.

Smidige also established multi-tier access controls and encryption for data-at-rest and in-transit. A centralized audit account was set up for security services like Security Hub, GuardDuty, Macie, and Audit Manager.

To support LearnWise’s expansion, Smidige designed a scalable Landing Zone with AWS Transit Gateway and redundant NAT Gateways. They utilized AWS Landing Zone Accelerator for easy scalability and management. Additionally, Smidige provided comprehensive AWS Landing Zone training for LearnWise’s teams, focusing on best practices and empowering them to maintain and grow their platform confidently.

Achievements

Through the partnership with Smidige, LearnWise accomplished several key achievements:

1. In just three weeks, a long-term, multi-account AWS Landing Zone was established using AWS best practices, Landing Zone Accelerator, and Control Tower.
2. Identity Center was utilized for Single Sign-On (SSO) to enforce robust security policies, including password regulations and multi-factor authentication, reducing onboarding costs and bolstering the security of their platform.
3. Adopting a centralized egress/decentralized ingress pattern, LearnWise achieved secure network traffic management for their workload, leading to a cost reduction of approximately 30% in AWS VPC components.
4. Transitioning to CloudFormation, including upskilling LearnWise’s development team, for faster deployment and market responsiveness.
5. The Landing Zone setup was tailored to fully comply with GDPR, fostering trust among corporate clients. The scalable design facilitated seamless handling of growing demands, supporting LearnWise’s rapid expansion.

Impact

By collaborating with Smidige, LearnWise has taken a significant step in transforming educational support through a GDPR-compliant AWS framework. Smidige’s expertise in AWS solutions, GDPR compliance, and data security was pivotal in developing a robust, scalable solution tailored to LearnWise’s needs.

As LearnWise continues to innovate in the EdTech space, their secure and compliant AWS setup is a solid foundation for fostering innovation and building enduring relationships with their clients.

Technology

The technological solution for LearnWise’s GDPR-compliant AWS setup was comprehensive, involving the integration of Landing Zone Accelerator and Control Tower for efficient multi-account management.

Identity Center was implemented for Single Sign-On and security standard enforcement.

Centralized logging and monitoring were achieved through CloudWatch Logs and CloudTrail.

To ensure data security, services like Security Hub, GuardDuty, Macie, and Audit Manager were centralized in a dedicated Audit Account.

The network was streamlined using Transit Gateway and NAT Gateways, and infrastructure modernization was facilitated with CloudFormation for rapid deployment and scalability.

About the Partner

Smidige, an AWS Select Tier Services Partner and a Cloud Services Provider, is distinguished by its commitment to an open, collaborative approach. With a global network of skilled AWS professionals, Smidige excels in addressing complex cloud challenges. Their partnership with LearnWise showcased their proficiency in developing innovative, scalable, and efficient AWS Landing Zone solutions, highlighting their capability in the realm of AWS-based infrastructures.