Scaling search and speed: modernizing a travel platform with solr cloud and kubernetes - Eastern Enterprise

Scaling search and speed: modernizing a travel platform with solr cloud and kubernetes

Client / ACSI

Project Challenge

ACSI, a European leader in campsite bookings and travel services, was running critical publishing and search systems on a legacy, on-premise infrastructure. As customer traffic surged especially during peak travel seasons, the old setup could no longer keep up with the demands of modern digital users.

Key challenges included

 Escalating Infrastructure Costs

The existing compute model relied heavily on fixed resources, driving up costs without matching utilization. This was unsustainable as traffic patterns fluctuated across global time zones.

 Search System Bottlenecks

The Solr-based search engine, central to campsite discovery, frequently slowed down or crashed under heavy load. This led to poor user experience and dissatisfied customers.

 Monolithic Application Architecture

A large monolithic system slowed down development cycles, made scaling inefficient, and increased the blast radius of failures.

 Performance Issues in Applications

PHP-FPM misconfigurations and server bottlenecks limited response times, causing pages to load slowly during traffic surges.

 Operational Inefficiencies

Troubleshooting critical services like RabbitMQ was reactive and time-intensive, often extending downtimes and delaying fixes.

 Manual & Slow Delivery Pipelines

Limited automation in deployments restricted agility, causing delays in rolling out new features or bug fixes.

ACSI required a strategic IT transformation that could modernize their infrastructure, migrate critical services to the cloud, improve the speed and reliability of search, and enable a scalable, secure, and fault-tolerant environment capable of supporting future growth.

Our Solution

Eastern Enterprise led a strategic migration to the cloud and re-architected ACSI’s systems to ensure reliability, scalability, and agility.

Key actions included

  • Cloud Migration: Transitioned on-premise servers to cloud infrastructure, enabling fault tolerance and high availability.
  • Solr Cloud Modernization: Migrated Solr from a fragile single-node setup to a cloud-based master-slave cluster, drastically improving resilience and query performance.
  • Microservices & Kubernetes: Broke down monolithic applications into Kubernetes-based microservices, enabling independent scaling, isolation of failures, and faster feature rollouts.
  • CI/CD Transformation: Implemented GitHub Actions pipelines, reducing build failures, accelerating release cycles, and enabling faster iterations.
  • Performance Optimization: Fine-tuned PHP-FPM settings to improve response times and overall server efficiency.
  • RabbitMQ Stability: Identified and resolved connection issues to ensure uninterrupted booking flows.
  • Secure Access: Enabled Keycloak-based authentication to enforce secure and centralized access management for all traffic.

Eastern Enterprise partnered with the client to design and implement a cloud-native, DevOps-first infrastructure that transformed their operations.

Technology Stack

Eastern Enterprise proposed the following technology to easily reach the requested functions

Cloud Infrastructure (Azure)
Kubernetes & Microservices
Solr Cloud (master-slave setup)
GitHub Actions CI/CD
RabbitMQ
PHP-FPM optimization
PHP-FPM optimization

Key Benefits

Improved Search Reliability – Solr cloud cluster scaled effortlessly to handle peak holiday traffic.

Higher Business Continuity – Reduced downtime safeguarded revenue during booking surges.

Accelerated Development – CI/CD improvements shortened release cycles and reduced build failures.

Scalability & Flexibility – Microservices allowed independent scaling and faster innovation.

Performance Gains – Optimized servers handled significantly higher loads.

Stronger Security – Centralized authentication improved compliance and reduced access risks.

End Result

With Eastern Enterprise’s IT transformation, ACSI evolved into a cloud-native, resilient, and scalable booking platform.Downtime was significantly reduced, ensuring smooth global order processing.

  • Their Solr-powered search became faster, reliable, and highly available.
  • The migration reduced downtime that previously led to direct revenue loss.
  • Developers enjoyed a streamlined CI/CD process and faster innovation cycles.
  • Travelers benefited from a smoother booking experience, even during peak seasons.

Eastern Enterprise empowered ACSI to deliver a robust and future-proof digital platform, strengthening its position as Europe’s trusted campsite booking specialist.

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