Hotel software provider ibelsa achieves better scalability and enhanced security with Skaylink on AWS
Overview
ibelsa, a German cloud-based hotel management software provider, wanted to modernize its infrastructure and address scalability challenges caused by regular traffic peaks. While already operating in the cloud, ibelsa’s previous environment lacked the elasticity required to handle fluctuating demand efficiently. Working with AWS Partner Skaylink, ibelsa migrated to a scalable architecture on Amazon Web Services (AWS) designed for reliability, automation, and cost optimization. The modernized environment enables ibelsa to better support its users during business-critical periods, while providing a secure and resilient foundation to support ongoing growth and innovation.
Opportunity
ibelsa was experiencing increasing pressure on its cloud-based property management system (PMS) as usage and customer demand grew. The company’s PMS platform underpins the hotel operations of customers , with a focus on the DACH region, and supports critical processes such as reservations, check-in and check-out, pricing, reporting, and integrations with third-party systems. This means that system performance and reliability are essential.
The company was an early adopter of cloud solutions in the hotel industry. “I come from a family of hoteliers, so I grew up in the hotel business,” says Philipp Berchtold, managing director at ibelsa. “In 2010, I realized that cloud solutions could bring hotels into the digital age.” ibelsa had a clear understanding that cloud infrastructure was the future of the hotel business—especially for a company that acts in part as a data hub, which makes scalability essential. In addition, ibelsa’s customer base had grown by around 35–40 percent per year since the COVID-19 pandemic, which put even more strain on the system.
ibelsa’s spikes include daily check-in and check-out times, as well as reporting and invoicing milestones. The infrastructure lacked elasticity, so scaling up or down was manual and slow. This affected the user experience as the system was slow, resulting in periods of sub-optimal performance. In addition, the company was paying for extra capacity to cope with peak traffic even when it wasn’t using it. Knowing it could get more out of the cloud’s capabilities, ibelsa began to look for a way to modernize and optimize its platform.
“You have to come together and trust each other to come to the best technical solution, and we have this with Skaylink.”
Solution
ibelsa needed a partner, so it approached Skaylink, an AWS Partner with extensive experience of AWS Managed Services. Skaylink and ibelsa began to plan a migration to a scalable cloud. ibelsa was also looking to hand over more of the technical aspects of managing the software solution. After detailed discussions, Skaylink understood the business needs and identified the infrastructure its team could take over as a managed service. “You have to come together and trust each other to come to the best technical solution, and we have this trust with Skaylink,” says Berchtold. Running its infrastructure as a managed service meant ibelsa could focus on developing its features for its customers.
To improve performance, Skaylink built a multi-cluster architecture, with discrete, dedicated clusters for front-end, API, and background processing workloads. Skaylink used Amazon EC2 Autoscaling to provide predictive and automatic scaling for daily peaks and elastic scaling for monthly invoicing and reporting workloads. It also introduced load balancers to distribute network traffic across multiple servers and cache systems to reduce the load on backend databases.
As ibelsa had also been experiencing some cyberattacks, Skaylink took steps to strengthen platform security. This included multi-layer DDoS prevention, implementing a web application firewall (AWS WAF), better protection against SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS), and options to increase resilience during key business times.
Benefits
- Improved reliability during peak check‑in and check‑out periods
- Elastic scalability that automatically adjusts to changing demand
- Lower infrastructure costs
- 24/7 monitoring and management, reducing operational risk
- Stronger security posture with AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Outcome
ibelsa has significantly improved the performance and reliability of its platform, directly addressing the limitations of its previous infrastructure. Its modernized AWS infrastructure provides a stable foundation and delivers consistent performance during both peak and off-peak periods. This has enabled ibelsa to better support its customers’ day-to-day operations, particularly during business-critical moments such as hotel check-in and check-out, when system availability and responsiveness are essential.
The new architecture’s improved scalability is also more cost efficient. By moving away from static capacity provisioning and adopting an elastic approach, ibelsa can now scale resources in line with actual demand rather than overprovisioning for short-lived peaks. This has reduced unnecessary infrastructure costs while providing the flexibility required to support ongoing growth. During this period, ibelsa has expanded to a team of 50 people, supported by a platform designed to grow alongside the business without introducing additional operational complexity. As a next step, the two companies will explore the possibility of future modernization by migrating to a containerized environment, provisioning for shortlived peaks.
Operational oversight and security were also improved as part of the engagement. Skaylink provides 24/7 monitoring and management of the AWS environment, which gives ibelsa continuous oversight of its infrastructure and faster response to potential issues. Together, these improvements have given ibelsa a scalable, secure, and dependable cloud platform that allows its team to focus on innovation and delivering value to customers.
Hotel software provider ibelsa achieves better scalability and enhanced security with Skaylink on AWS
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