The client

Rubies is one of the world’s largest designers and manufacturers of licensed and generic costumes, with a standout portfolio featuring major brands like Marvel, Disney, DC Comics and more. Their UK division plays a key role in delivering costumes to retailers and customers across the region, especially during seasonal peaks like Halloween and World Book Day.

The challenge

Rubies needed to modernise its legacy infrastructure and align with the technical and compliance requirements of Sage X3, their chosen ERP platform. The project involved integrating existing on-premises systems with a new cloud-native setup on AWS – a technically demanding process made more complex by the involvement of several third-party vendors and a critical need to avoid any downtime.

Because some legacy systems couldn’t be migrated, the solution had to maintain secure and reliable connectivity between AWS and Rubies’ on-premises infrastructure. A full “lift-and-shift” wasn’t feasible, so a phased migration approach was chosen to preserve business continuity and minimise risk.

The solution

Just After Midnight was brought on board as Rubies’ trusted AWS partner, delivering both technical execution and ongoing support. Our role was to:

• Design and deploy a modern cloud infrastructure tailored to Sage X3’s specifications, with room to scale and improve performance
• Manage the phased migration of legacy systems to AWS, ensuring business continuity throughout
• Provide 24/7 support to monitor performance, maintain security and handle incidents

To do this, we deployed key AWS components, including:

• EC2, EBS, and RDS for core compute and database needs
• S3 for scalable storage
• VPCs, VPC peering and VPN for secure networking
• AWS Directory Service to support identity management and integration between cloud and on-prem environments
• Application Load Balancers for routing and availability
• CloudWatch for observability and performance monitoring

Security and compliance were baked in from the start, with OS patching, vulnerability management, and access control handled through automated, best-practice processes. Monitoring and support were available 24/7/365, giving Rubies the peace of mind they needed to focus on their core business.

The results

Rubies now benefits from a highly available, secure, and expertly maintained cloud environment that supports their business-critical Sage X3 system.

We got their production environment live ahead of schedule, giving them a head start on Sage X3 integration and a faster path to operational improvements.

By taking a phased migration approach, we moved each part of their legacy setup to AWS with zero disruption. The result was a smooth transition, no surprises and a modern infrastructure that’s more scalable, resilient, and easier to manage.

Today, Rubies has full visibility and control over their cloud operations, supported by a team that’s always on. With Just After Midnight managing patching, monitoring and incident response, their internal teams can focus on what they do best.

And with support from AWS funding, Rubies reduced upfront costs and accelerated their cloud transformation without added financial pressure.

This partnership has equipped Rubies with the infrastructure stability they need to keep leading the costume industry, supported by a reliable, responsive cloud platform and a team they can count on around the clock.

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