Propelis Group
Global operations in 30+ countries
Marketing Services
AWS (Amazon EC2, Amazon VPC, AWS IAM, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Systems Manager), Terraform, infrastructure as code automation, QVDI automation framework
Propelis Group, a global marketing services company with more than 5,000 employees, was running across two very different IT worlds, a heavily manual legacy environment and a modern infrastructure as code landscape. The business needed to retire the legacy stack without disrupting day-to-day operations while scaling a new automated operating model. Avahi was engaged to stabilize and load balance legacy operational tickets, define a target state, and implement Terraform-based automation including QVDI automation. The result was a significant reduction in manual provisioning time, at least 100 hours saved per month, and a clear, scalable path from legacy operations to a modern automated AWS environment.
Propelis Group is a global marketing services organization that supports brands across 30+ countries with large-scale campaign execution, data-driven marketing operations, and digital production. With a workforce of more than 5,000 employees, Propelis depends on reliable, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructure to support internal teams and client-facing operations in a fast-moving, always-on industry.
Propelis was operating in two parallel IT environments. The legacy environment relied on manual workflows, tribal knowledge, and inconsistent documentation. Provisioning, configuration, and change management often took hours, increased operational risk, and put pressure on support teams. In contrast, the newer environment was built on Terraform and infrastructure as code principles, with a goal of automation, repeatability, and high scalability.
The company wanted to fully retire the legacy environment and move all workloads and processes into the new automated landscape. However, this could not happen in a single cutover. Businesscritical systems still ran in the legacy environment, and operational tickets continued to flow into legacy queues every day. Without a structured transition plan, Propelis risked ongoing inefficiencies, rising operational costs, and burnout within support teams.
Propelis needed a partner that could keep the lights on in the legacy environment, reduce ticket load, and at the same time design and implement a scalable modernization framework that moved the organization toward a fully automated, infrastructure as code-driven future.
Propelis chose AWS as the foundation for its modern infrastructure because of AWS global reach, maturity, and strong compatibility with infrastructure as code tooling such as Terraform. AWS provided a robust platform for standardizing environments across regions, implementing automated pipelines, and integrating with security, monitoring, and operations tooling.
By standardizing on AWS, Propelis could use consistent patterns for compute, networking, and identity across all environments. This made it easier to codify infrastructure, build reusable modules, and reduce configuration drift, all of which were critical to moving away from manual, ticket-driven provisioning toward automated, pipeline-driven delivery.
Propelis engaged Avahi because of Avahi deep experience with AWS, DevOps, and infrastructure as code transformations combined with the ability to operate in complex hybrid states. Avahi was comfortable working within a dual environment model, simultaneously managing day-to-day operational tickets whiledesigning and implementing a modern, automated target state.
Avahi brought a structured discovery approach, expertise in Terraform-based automation, and a strong focus on measurable outcomes such as time saved, staff productivity, and risk reduction. The customer also valued Avahi ability to identify and prioritize modernization opportunities so that early wins could be delivered quickly while building toward a sustainable long-term architecture.
– Assessment of legacy and modern environments, including manual processes, dependencies, and gaps
– Target state architecture for an automated AWS and Terraform-based operating model
– Standardized Terraform modules and patterns for repeatable infrastructure provisioning
– QVDI Automation framework capable of spinning up 35 QVDIs in minutes instead of hours
– Dual track model for ongoing legacy ticket management and parallel modernization
– Identification and documentation of six key modernization opportunities
– Standardized operating procedures for version-controlled, peer-reviewed infrastructure changes
By partnering with Avahi, Propelis significantly reduced the operational burden of its legacy environment while building a clear, automated path to the future state. Ticket handling became more efficient, manual provisioning steps were removed or greatly reduced, and teams could focus on modernization instead of repetitive maintenance work.
The QVDI Automation and infrastructure as code framework not only saved time but also lowered risk and improved team morale. With consistent, version-controlled automation in place, Propelis reduced human error, avoided configuration drift, and created a scalable foundation that supports ongoing growth across 30+ countries.
Founder, Bravo Foxtrot
