User-centric on the surface, rock-solid under the hood: Transforming the student accommodation system

Ivana Roksandic Categories: Business Insights, Case Studies Date 17-Apr-2025 4 minutes to read

It all started with a mission to create a website and mobile app that would provide fully digitised experiences for students and simplify student management for the client. Over time, our collaboration evolved into a high-stakes infrastructure transformation – separating AWS environments while ensuring uninterrupted service.

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The challenge: Website, app, and infrastructure overhaul

Purpose-built accommodation. Student-first experiences.

The client operates accommodation solutions across more than 20 cities and partners with top universities. Their services attract students from around the world – that's why they needed a reliable and user-friendly app to simplify everything, from booking to support.

No more long queues or clunky check-in experiences. The goal? An intuitive app that empowers students to manage accommodation with just a few taps – check-in/check-out, book a room, get support – all without lifting more than a finger

Then came the AWS challenge

The client's infrastructure was running on a single AWS account hosting all three environments: development, UIT, and production. That meant shared resources, entangled configurations, and a lack of isolation between environments – a ticking time bomb for any fast-scaling company.

They needed to decouple everything into separate AWS accounts. Without downtime. Without disruption. That’s where we came in.

Scaling the team – and the impact

We started small – just three developers working on the mobile app. As trust grew and the scope expanded to include website development, so did the team.

By the time we were in full swing, our crew had grown to 21, with mobile engineers, React developers, DevOps engineers, QA automation engineers, manual QA engineers, and software engineers.

On the infrastructure side, we brought in a dedicated DevOps engineer and a project manager to lead the AWS lift-and-shift project.

The solution: Innovation, teamwork, and tech expertise

An evolved digital experience

The app and website weren’t just built — they were reimagined.

Functionality was added. Stability was boosted. User-friendliness was prioritised.

Six months into the collaboration, we shifted gears to refactor the website. The focus: personalisation, usability, and engagement.

We made some impactful upgrades, such as:

Group booking: Students can now book flats with friends.
Hyper-personalisation: From room sizes to furniture layouts, students can tailor their living experience.
Floor plans and maps: Students get a visual layout of rooms and can easily assess the distance to nearby universities.
Gamification: Students can join contests and win rewards, increasing engagement and excitement.

… and overcame numerous challenges along the way

For example, in some countries, including the United Arab Emirates, such in-app contests are considered gambling. Consequently, the client’s app couldn't be deployed.
To address the problem, we came up with a creative solution. We created a feature flag that could be turned on or off depending on the requirements of the specific market. And, to do that, we needed to build a new microservice.

Decoupling AWS environments: From one account to three

This was not just an infrastructure task – it was a strategic move. Decoupling environments meant more security, better resource management, and faster scalability. But it had to be done without disrupting the service.

We helped them shift the entire end-to-end processing flow from one account to three separate accounts:

Copying all S3 data across the three new environments
Migrating Lambda functions and EC2 instances
Deploying Talend on EC2
Replicating the Redshift cluster across accounts

All of this was automated using Terraform — our tool of choice for Infrastructure as Code — ensuring reproducibility, transparency, and total control.

The result: Big improvements. Zero downtime.

Enhanced performance and security with AWS lift and shift

Using Terraform, an Infrastructure as Code tool, we successfully decoupled the client’s AWS accounts. That way, we helped them enhance overall security, improve resource management, and ensure the utmost flexibility and scalability.

Most importantly, we executed the entire process with zero downtime on the new accounts.

Boosted user experience with the app and the website

With the new website and mobile app, we’ve enabled the client to foster a sense of community, making it easier for students to transition to university life. Additionally, the personalisation options now make it easier for students to find living spaces that perfectly suit their needs.

For the client, these improvements translate into increased user satisfaction and retention, as well as a strong brand reputation – all of which are vital for driving growth and success.