Go4GST: Easing GST

Solution Requirement

Seeing the complexity of whole GST requirement, Go4GST had the following problems associated with it that needed to be addressed:

1) Since it was a SaaS (Software as a Service) based application which means multiple customers were going to use it. Each will be filing their returns on a timely basis and at the same time. So infra had to be capable enough of handling that much amount of load.

2) It had to be highly available and scalable enough in the sense that if anyone of cloud component gets down then another machine with the same configuration and data should be available to accept the load demand.

3) In case of any mishappening, there should be a backup mechanism that will allow us to restore.

4) The cost was one of the major decision driven factor.

5) Apart from cost, the mandate requirement for this infrastructure was that all the Infra component should be placed in India only.

Solution deployment

After considering all the problems and mandates that were associated with the required system, then Go4GST found Microsoft Azure as the one-stop solution for all;

1) Auto Scalable - To handle and meet load demand Microsoft Azure has a component like VMSS (Virtual machine Scale Set) where we can run instance under Auto scaling mode i.e. it automatically Scale-In and Scale-Out as per requirement.

2) Highly Available - For highly available Infra, Azure has specified SLA that meets the customer requirement that mostly meets >= 99.99% availability.

3) Auto Backup - Azure has backup service that constantly take backup of respective components as per predefined schedule.

4) Cost Effective - One of the major deciding factors for any customer is Cost for which Microsoft Azure has one of the best and competitive price if we compared with other public cloud providers.

Solution Benefits

Following are the major benefits that Go4GST get by choosing Microsoft Azure public cloud:

1) Cloud component cost in Microsoft Azure is comparatively less from another public cloud provider. For example, if we choose WAF for security perspective than highly available Barracuda WAF cost around INR 2 lac if we purchase from the marketplace. And if we chose native Azure WAF than it will be around INR 10,000 (with meeting SLA of 99.99%). So, such a huge cost difference will obviously lead us to choose Azure.

2) Since the requirement of deploying Infra in India only plus has to meet compliance, so by choosing Azure we are provided with both the solutions. As they have 4 data centres to choose in India itself. Each one them is compliant as per requirement.