Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, announced that upGrad, a global higher education technology (EdTech) provider, has gone all-in on AWS. To deliver online learning to individuals in more than 100 countries, upGrad has shifted the vast bulk of its information technology (IT) infrastructure to the world’s leading cloud.
upGrad takes advantage of the breadth and depth of AWS capabilities, such as analytics, security, and computation, to assist individuals in advancing their careers through upskilling, which helps promote economic growth through a competent and productive workforce. UpGrad quickly scaled its learning experience with AWS to meet the demand for online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. In just eight months, the company doubled its learner base to over two million learners and increased learners’ time spent on the platform for upskilling by four times compared to the previous equal period.
UpGrad needs to scale its services globally and deliver a seamless, reliable user experience, especially during peak periods like course registrations and assignment submissions, to fulfil the growing demand for online learning. To drive learner success, the organization needed a robust set of analytics capabilities to assess learner data, such as demographics and course uptakes, and deliver targeted career services.
UpGrad can identify and fulfil new learner needs, help learners discover and enrol in their preferred courses, and then assist learners in growing their professions through novel digital services after graduation by developing a configurable and immersive learning system on AWS.
UpGrad leverages Amazon Redshift, a cloud data warehouse service, to evaluate learners’ usage patterns, preferences, personal information, coursework, job applications, and career progression to understand them better and provide quality and customized learning content. UpGrad may use this information to recommend relevant courses and job openings, match learners’ training journeys to upskilling possibilities, and create personalized learning experiences and customized career paths.
Furthermore, using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), AWS’s service that delivers compute power for nearly any application, and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), AWS’s object storage service, upGrad rapidly adjusts its workloads to match surges in demand. AWS Enterprise Support also assisted upGrad with cost optimization approaches such as Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances, Amazon EC2 Spot Instances, and cloud architecture evaluations, which helped reduce its cloud infrastructure costs by 28%.
Additionally, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), which enables fine-grained access control throughout AWS, aids upGrad in improving its security posture and complying with data encryption requirements mandated by its partner education institutions.
AWS Marketplace, a digital catalogue allowing companies to test, purchase, install, and manage third-party software, will be used by upGrad to procure software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for the company and its subsidiaries. UpGrad may pay for its software subscriptions through its AWS account by acquiring third-party software through AWS Marketplace and deploying these solutions on AWS in as little as one click. This eliminates the need to manage suppliers and billing processes separately.
“AWS is integral to our ability to onboard learners, experiment and iterate, and provide the best possible learning experience to help people accelerate their careers,” said Rohit Dhar, President of Product at upGrad. “With AWS, we can use data to personalize education for learners around the world as we strengthen our position as a leading global EdTech brand. As the demand for quality online learning content grows, we can easily scale our workloads on AWS to reliably and securely deliver rich and uninterrupted educational content, even during very busy periods.”
“upGrad builds on AWS to deliver innovative and flexible online learning solutions that help bridge the higher education needs of learners and drive development of the future workforce,” said Sunil PP, Lead—Education, Space, and Nonprofits, Amazon Internet Services Private Limited, AWS India and South Asia. “Going all-in on AWS allows upGrad to meet the rapid growth of their learner base as it scales to more than 100 countries, and provides a secure and personalized experience to learners online as they access upGrad for curriculum, mentoring, and career services.”
