Since 2013, Fatture in Cloud users have created 7 million documents, of which 4.8 million have been generated between January and September 2017. “We’re doubling our user base and revenue every year. We couldn’t have handled this rate of growth before, but using AWS, we can do so easily and without a heavy management burden,” says Ratti. “It means we’re ready to capture our share of the rapidly growing number of newly registered businesses in Italy - a segment that has expanded by five million in the last 10 years. Most of these companies are smaller organizations and individuals that can benefit greatly from the invoicing service we offer. It’s nice to know we have the capacity to welcome them aboard.”

Although user traffic for the company varies, its pattern is largely predictable: Low during evenings, weekends, and holidays; high during the day, on the first day of each month, and approaching certain deadlines such as the end of the tax year. For Fatture in Cloud, automating compute resources to handle the range of traffic has made a significant difference to its operations and its bottom line. “Auto Scaling is awesome,” says Ratti. “Using it we’ve reduced our costs by 50 percent, and performance is 100 percent better than before.”

Both with its old infrastructure and its previous cloud solution, Fatture in Cloud experienced frequent service disruptions. Now that is no longer the case. “Using AWS, we have zero downtime,” says Ratti. “The reliability and security of services such as Amazon S3 and Amazon Aurora help us prevent data loss and give us peace of mind.” This is crucial for the company because its customers rely on consistent service availability. “If clients can’t generate the document they need, or access data in time for a tax return deadline, for instance, that is a major issue for them - and reflects really badly on us.”

Using AWS also helps Fatture in Cloud maximize the time its team can spend on R&D. As a result, it’s able to launch new features, functionality, and services to customers. One such example is Dipendenti in Cloud, a payroll service that is due for release in 2018. Ratti says, “IT is no longer a barrier to innovation. We are a trendsetter in online invoicing in Italy, and now that our infrastructure is on AWS, we have the confidence to diversify and expand.”