Case Studies
Large Government Agency Modernizes Campaign Finance E-Filing System on AWS for Improved Performance and Cost Efficiency
About the Client
A large government agency is responsible for administering and enforcing federal campaign finance laws for national elections. Its key functions include collecting, analyzing, storing, and disclosing financial reports and data from political committees and candidates; enforcing contribution limits; and overseeing public funding of presidential elections. This work is crucial for ensuring transparency and reliability in the electoral process.
The Challenge
To fulfill its critical responsibilities, the agency relies heavily on its technological infrastructure, particularly its e-filing system for campaign finance reports. As political fundraising practices evolve and the volume of financial data grows, maintaining an efficient and transparent system becomes increasingly challenging. The agency faced a hurdle in managing its campaign finance filing system, with the existing infrastructure reaching its limits in efficiently processing the growing volume of filings, especially from certain political action committees during peak periods.
Recognizing the need for modernization, the agency aimed to enhance its ability to process and analyze campaign finance data, ensure compliance with federal laws, and provide timely, accurate information to the public. This initiative coincided with a broader technological shift as the agency migrated its IT infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and phased out on-premises data centers.
The Solution
Rhythmic implemented a comprehensive strategy, first modernizing the systems in a private cloud to boost transaction handling and slash processing times from a month to mere hours. The subsequent AWS migration, completed in just six months, brought significant enhancements: the front-end filing portal and back-end database were moved to AWS, historical filings were stored as PDFs in Amazon S3 (replacing the outdated microfiche process), an automated e-filing to PDF conversion was implemented, and Amazon CloudFront with AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) was added for improved performance and security. The migration also enabled micro-segmentation and enhanced monitoring through Amazon GuardDuty and AWS Config. Post-migration, the system’s cost efficiency improved through elastic scaling, adeptly managing filing activity spikes on peak days without constant high-capacity infrastructure.
AWS Services Used
|
|
The Results
Since going live on AWS, the agency’s new e-filing system has demonstrated remarkable stability and efficiency, with no major issues or outages reported. The migration, completed under budget and at cost parity with the previous data center, has significantly reduced operational risks while showcasing the agency’s fiscal responsibility. The AWS environment has enabled substantial improvements, including faster access to filings via Amazon CloudFront, optimized cost management through dynamic scaling (particularly beneficial as 95% of filings occur in just 18 days annually), and enhanced security measures such as micro-segmentation and Amazon GuardDuty monitoring. Notably, the system now handles 1,000 times more transactions annually, with processing times slashed from one month to mere hours. Looking ahead, the agency plans to implement full elasticity in the filing process and backend, migrate its database to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, and leverage AWS Glue for data migration, promising additional performance and cost benefits.