Verasia - AWS Infrastructure for Language Learning Portals

In early 2018, Verasia approached me with a challenge that would evolve into a 6-year strategic partnership: transforming and managing the cloud infrastructure for their network of language learning e-commerce portals, including aprendechinohoy.com (Learn Chinese Today), aprendejaponeshoy.com (Learn Japanese Today), and aprendecoreanohoy.com (Learn Korean Today), among others across European markets.

What began as a migration project quickly revealed itself as an opportunity for complete infrastructure modernization. The journey encompassed AWS migration, critical performance debugging, security hardening, CDN implementation, and continuous operational support spanning over six years of reliable service.

The Challenge

Verasia’s infrastructure needed modernization to support continued growth. Five PrestaShop 1.6 sites and multiple WordPress properties ran on a single AWS server, presenting opportunities for performance optimization, security enhancement, and operational improvements.

The infrastructure needed comprehensive modernization to support reliable, scalable business operations.

Strategic Infrastructure Transformation

AWS Migration and Modernization

The first priority was strategic region optimization, reducing costs while improving latency to Verasia’s primary European markets. But the real transformation happened in how the infrastructure was rebuilt from the ground up.

I replaced the Apache prefork configuration with a modern worker mode + PHP-FPM architecture. This technical change transformed performance: instead of spawning heavy, memory-intensive processes for each request, the new setup handled concurrent connections efficiently through lightweight threads, dramatically improving response times under load.

The infrastructure was redesigned with proper security foundations: a complete IAM structure with individual users, MFA protection on the root account, role-based access control, and audit capabilities. The days of shared credentials and untracked changes were over.

Critical Performance Debugging

Shortly after the migration, users on one of the portals started reporting session management issues: logout failures and cart inconsistencies. The bug was intermittent and difficult to reproduce, making it particularly challenging to diagnose.

After extensive investigation, I discovered the culprit: a conflict between Apache’s HTTP caching headers and PrestaShop’s session cookie management. Apache was aggressively caching responses that included session state, causing browsers to reuse stale authentication data. The fix required surgical precision in cache configuration, setting appropriate expiration times for static assets while preventing any caching of dynamic session-dependent content.

ERP Integration Challenge

Verasia’s business operations depended on a critical ERP system that needed secure connectivity to synchronize inventory and orders across all portals.

I implemented a secure file transfer solution carefully balancing security requirements with ERP compatibility constraints. The solution ensured reliable connectivity while maintaining proper access controls and encryption standards.

Global Content Delivery

To improve performance for Verasia’s international audience, I implemented AWS CloudFront CDN for static asset distribution. I created custom CNAME records for each portal, provisioned SSL certificates through AWS Certificate Manager, and configured intelligent caching rules that balanced performance with content freshness, maintaining SEO equity and proper SSL protection while distributing content globally.

Long-Term Evolution and Support

Beyond the initial migration and optimization, I provided continuous operational support spanning over six years. This involved managing infrastructure expansions, implementing security updates, and responding to urgent incidents with rapid resolution.

Metric	Achievement
Uptime maintained	99.9% over 6 years
Response time	Rapid incident resolution, often within hours
Security incidents	Zero successful breaches
Cost optimization	Reduced infrastructure costs through strategic region selection and resource sizing
Portals managed	5+ PrestaShop sites, multiple WordPress properties

Results and Impact

This project exemplifies the value of strategic infrastructure partnerships where initial architecture excellence combines with responsive long-term support. The infrastructure I built and maintained for Verasia has been quietly reliable, allowing the business to focus on serving language learners rather than worrying about technical operations.

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