Elastycloud: Supporting Magento 2 e-commerce with auto-scaling platform powered by Google Cloud

About elastycloud

elastycloud was founded in 2017 by some of the world’s leading experts in cloud engineering and Magento development. It provides a solution for automating the deployment of Magento 2 e-commerce instances on Google Cloud, with scalable hosting and a fully operational development system.

Industries: Technology
Location: Sweden

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elastycloud provides a powerful e-commerce platform by abstracting and containerizing Magento 2 functions using Google Cloud to provide a seamless solution that runs reliably at scale.

Google Cloud results

  • Launches Magento 2 instances in under 60 seconds
  • Automatically scales in line with demand from e-commerce customers
  • Eliminates the need for on-premises infrastructure for both Elastycloud and its partners
  • Empowers rapid growth with 50+ new e-commerce partners onboarded within just two years

Saves more than 100 hours for each Magento 2 shop launch

How we shop has changed radically in recent times. E-commerce has become the new normal for many, a trend that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. Founded in Malmö in 2017, elastycloud is a service for e-commerce professionals who use Magento as their platform of choice. Using Google Cloud, elastycloud is able to provide managed installation of Magento 2 in an auto-scaling environment through a control panel and control scripts.

"Elastycloud was formed to eliminate the boundaries between developers and their hosting provider, to make everybody work together in one centralized system," explains Sebastian Lockwood, Lead Backend Developer at elastycloud. "We wanted to enable developers to provision their own services and solve their own problems, so we take on the burdens of hosting for them. And, of course, scalability is the ‘elastic’ part of elastycloud, which wouldn’t be possible without Google Cloud."

That’s an attractive proposition for e-commerce sites, enabling them to launch their Magento 2 installations in under 60 seconds. It also frees them from the challenges of setting up and optimizing Magento themselves, a process that saves more than 100 hours for each Magento 2 shop launch, elastycloud says. That’s not to mention the cost saved in hosting, with customers only paying for the CPU and bandwidth they use. And that’s all made possible by Google Cloud, according to Lockwood.

"We wanted to enable developers to provision their own services and solve their own problems, so we take on the burdens of hosting for them. And, of course, scalability is the ‘elastic’ part of elastycloud, which wouldn’t be possible without Google Cloud."

Sebastian Lockwood, Lead Backend Developer, elastycloud

Scaling to meet demand with Google Cloud

"Scalability is one of the big potential bottlenecks for any e-commerce hosting provider. If a company such as elastycloud was using traditional on-premises server racks to offer its services, it would be virtually impossible to deploy them to new customers at speed," says Lockwood. Instead, it would have to ‘drip feed’ them out over time.

With Google Cloud, elastycloud is now able to quickly take on new customers. That’s evidenced by the company’s rapid success, which grew to support 50 e-commerce partner sites within its first two years in business. "We needed a partner who could provide us with a massive scale of resources at short notice," Lockwood adds, "We looked at alternatives, but Google Cloud was uniquely positioned to provide us with the scalability we needed."

Setting up a new, auto-scaling Magento instance is now quick and simple for elastycloud e-commerce partners, using the Google Cloud-powered elastycloud console. Initially, Cloud SQL is used to provision MySQL instances, and a production environment is created with Google Kubernetes Engine. This is then used to run Docker container images equipped with key components of the elastycloud infrastructure. During the upstart of these containers, Magento recognizes that it is awaiting a database, and requests Cloud SQL to provide one. Relevant data is then pushed to Firestore using RabbitMQ. The new Magento instance then springs to life.

"Since Magento can be abstracted down to its constituent parts, we can host and scale them separately," Lockwood adds. "We took Magento and packaged it perfectly in Google Kubernetes Engine. That means our partner’s CPU usage automatically scales up and down according to customer demand. That’s so useful for their customers, particularly those who run seasonal businesses. They can run a ‘mom and pop’ shop for 50 weeks of the year, and a major retailer for two. And they don’t have to invest in costly hosting throughout their quieter periods."

"We took Magento and packaged it perfectly in Google Kubernetes Engine. That means our partner’s CPU usage automatically scales up and down according to customer demand. That’s so useful for their customers, particularly those who run seasonal businesses."

Sebastian Lockwood, Lead Backend Developer, elastycloud

Providing a reliable service to partners

Reliability is another factor that Elastycloud says it values in its partnership with Google Cloud. It provides peace of mind for Lockwood, the self-described ‘house elf’ of elastycloud responsible for troubleshooting. "Google Cloud has a good pedigree and, once we started using it, it has never failed us," he says. "We’ve become more and more comfortable using it as time’s gone on. When I’m given ‘on-call’ duty, I don’t have to worry about our infrastructure. I know that if a server breaks or there’s some other low-level hardware issues, Google Cloud technicians are on hand to fix it and I can solve things from the comfort of home."

This reliability is extended to elastycloud’s e-commerce partners as well. "Developers can go in and deploy a sample package, we create a new server for the new client and it will be up and running within a few minutes," Lockwood adds. "And it centralizes version control so that there is continuous integration. Developers work in their own Git repositories and build their own code, publish their own packages that can be reused and deterministically tested in staging. Plus, they can be sure that when they deploy this package on the live site, it will work in exactly the same way that it was deployed in testing. So there’s a degree of certainty and confidence that nothing will break once you go live. There’s none of this buying new hardware and provisioning stuff in a dusty old computer hall."

In fact, some developers have given Elastycloud rave reviews, calling it "a huge time and effort saver," as well as praising it for "giving a sense of security," and saying that they "would seriously look for another e-commerce platform" if Elastycloud was not available.

Looking to the future

"Google Cloud is likely to remain a key component of elastycloud well into the future, for a number of reasons," Lockwood says. "Among them is the range of tools on offer, as well as the level of service elastycloud enjoys by partnering with Google Cloud." Next, elastycloud hopes to explore the options available to the company by further leveraging Google Cloud. That includes moving beyond Magento installations, as well as incorporating new functionality and features as they become available. One potential example is providing a one-click feature to allow e-commerce partners to set up a whole Cloud CDN instance.

"We wouldn’t be able to run our business without Google Cloud," Lockwood adds. "And we want to continue to be reactive to change and use the best tools out there. Google Cloud offers a creative palette of services and has a tendency to adopt new technologies very quickly, which we really value. The fact that it offers a lot of open source solutions, and that we’re technologically free to move should we choose to is also something we like. We choose to stay with Google Cloud because it’s so nice to have a specific person who we can call directly and speak to if we need anything."

"We wouldn’t be able to run our business without Google Cloud. And we want to continue to be reactive to change and use the best tools out there. Google Cloud offers a creative palette of services and has a tendency to adopt new technologies very quickly, which we really value."

Sebastian Lockwood, Lead Backend Developer, elastycloud

Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.

Contact us

About elastycloud

elastycloud was founded in 2017 by some of the world’s leading experts in cloud engineering and Magento development. It provides a solution for automating the deployment of Magento 2 e-commerce instances on Google Cloud, with scalable hosting and a fully operational development system.

Industries: Technology
Location: Sweden