Energy leader future-proofs platform, unlocks scalability and security

Our client brings electricity and essential hardware, including lights and fans, to people and businesses in remote African areas currently without power. The company empowers individuals, businesses, and communities with reliable solar energy solutions, delivering clean, affordable power tailored to every need. Through off-grid, pay-as-you-go solar and mini-grid solutions, they have already impacted millions of lives across Africa, with growing footprints in Europe and Asia.

Their mission is to open access to sustainable energy, providing affordable solar power that drives economic growth and improves quality of life in underserved communities.

As they continued to grow and onboard new clients, the organization recognized the strategic need to ensure that its technology environment was built to support future scale, security, and performance demands. An external audit was commissioned not only to validate internal assessments with expert insights but also to expand capacity, enabling the internal team to advance future-proofing initiatives alongside their existing roadmap.

With rapid and evolving customer needs, their infrastructure was due for modernization. The technology stack had developed organically over time, and while it had supported previous expansion, it now required a more scalable and resilient foundation. The audit confirmed the opportunity to evolve beyond legacy data center patterns towards a cloud-native, automated environment designed for long-term flexibility and operational efficiency.

The company operates in a complex hybrid environment, with assets distributed across AWS, private hosting, and bare metal servers. The diversity of systems, each with varying configurations, highlighted the need for a more unified and proactive approach to security. By aligning automation with hands-on strategies, the company sought to elevate its security posture and ensure long-term resilience across all environments.

With data playing an increasingly strategic role, performance consistency and accessibility were identified as key areas for future investment. While current systems supported essential operations, scaling data capabilities would require a more integrated platform, enabling faster insights and smoother collaboration across teams. This initiative was particularly important given the limited bandwidth of the internal team and the absence of dedicated data engineering resources.

The company also recognized the need to improve the scalability and responsiveness of its customer support operations. With support being handled entirely manually, increasing volumes posed a challenge to service quality and agent workload, especially in regions with low bandwidth and connectivity.

Together with the client, we chose a low-disruption, phased approach to modernize the company’s infrastructure so that critical business operations could continue uninterrupted during the transition. By migrating to cloud-native platforms, we enabled the infrastructure to scale dynamically, eliminating bottlenecks and preparing the company for future growth without service downtime.

To improve system reliability and support modern workloads, we refactored or rewrote key software components and upgraded legacy infrastructure. This approach allowed us to enhance performance while avoiding a complete system overhaul.

We strengthened their security posture through automation so remediation could be executed efficiently across a complex mix of cloud, bare metal, and containerized environments without compromising stability or speed.

In parallel, we helped expand the company’s self-service capabilities by integrating AI-powered automation into customer support, beginning with the development of a WhatsApp-based chatbot built to serve customers in connectivity-constrained regions.

By focusing on performance continuity throughout, we ensured that even as systems were split, migrated, or upgraded, the company maintained consistent service levels. This approach ultimately delivered a secure, scalable, and future-ready platform that supports rapid development and long-term operational agility.

To modernize their infrastructure and support long-term scalability, Lumenalta led a comprehensive migration from legacy virtualization systems to a cloud-native environment on AWS. This transition enabled dynamic scaling and significantly reduced operational overhead. Key components of the software delivery lifecycle were modernized, standardized naming conventions and pull request practices were introduced to improve code quality and team collaboration.

By adopting agile best practices, the team shifted from a weekly to a daily release cadence, allowing for faster and more reliable deployments. We also migrated the company’s self-hosted GitLab instance to a managed solution, enhancing CI/CD reliability while reducing internal maintenance. Additionally, an outdated network file storage system was replaced with a secure, scalable AWS-based solution, eliminating infrastructure bottlenecks.

The company’s infrastructure was distributed across AWS, a private host, and bare metal environments. Each with its own unique operating system and configuration. We created tailored remediation strategies for each platform, balancing automated and manual fixes to address vulnerabilities effectively. Many of the issues were OS-level, including outdated Docker-like LXC containers that required upgrades. By carefully coordinating updates across over 100 machines, we significantly improved the overall security posture without disrupting critical services.

To resolve data performance issues, we brought in query optimization expertise and conducted a full assessment of the existing databases. We removed instance-level bottlenecks and optimized SQL and MongoDB queries. Our team worked closely with internal staff to implement recommendations, while also migrating complex pipelines and training teams to handle future migrations independently. This resulted in faster query performance, improved data reliability, and a more scalable analytics environment. 

To support scalable self-service in low-connectivity environments, we developed and deployed a WhatsApp chatbot integrated with the company’s platform. This AI-powered solution transformed support operations from 100% manual handling to an automated first-line response system. The chatbot uses large language models and connects to a dynamic, document-based knowledge platform that enables real-time content updates without engineering involvement.

Key features include seamless human handoff and ticketing integration for complex issues, and real-time analytics that track engagement, resolution rates, and escalation percentages. The solution significantly reduces agent workload while maintaining high-quality support, making it ideal for a distributed customer base with limited internet access.