Case studies · Sinclair Customer Metrics
Centralized security and governance across Sinclair's multi-account AWS environment
Sinclair's NetReports platform now runs with continuous threat detection, governed accounts, CI/CD releases and automated patching and backups.
- Client
- Industry
- Customer experience measurement and analytics
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas, United States
- Engagement
- Managed services
What Cypik delivered
- A managed services and cloud-security operations framework across development, pre-production and production accounts
- GuardDuty, Security Hub, AWS Config and CloudTrail enabled in every account
- Governance with AWS Organizations, IAM role segmentation and AWS Resource Access Manager
- Standardized CI/CD pipelines, with automated patching, backup and scheduled operations
Results in brief
- Threat detection, compliance tracking and audit logging running in all accounts
- Deployment timelines reduced through CI/CD automation
- Patching, backup and maintenance automated, which lowers operational overhead and configuration drift
- Internal teams free to focus on product innovation rather than infrastructure
The client
About Sinclair Customer Metrics
Sinclair Customer Metrics is a customer experience measurement and analytics company that helps organizations evaluate and improve service quality, customer satisfaction and operational performance. Its services include mystery shopping across in-person, telephone and digital channels, customer satisfaction surveys, compliance audits, employee morale monitoring and customized reporting. It serves businesses across banking and financial services, retail, grocery, convenience stores and restaurants.
Its proprietary NetReports platform consolidates customer experience findings, audit results and external business data into centralized reports and customized dashboards. Management teams use it to identify service gaps, monitor performance across locations and make informed decisions that improve customer experiences and operational consistency.
Challenge
A hosted platform without the controls to match
NetReports holds enterprise client data in a multi-account SaaS environment, so gaps in visibility and governance are a business risk as well as a technical one.
The platform already ran on AWS, but with limited monitoring, minimal cloud security controls and partially manual deployments. Development, pre-production and production each needed consistent governance.
- 01
Exposure. security visibility and compliance tracking were insufficient for an environment that handles enterprise client data.
- 02
Drift. backups, patching and maintenance were partly manual, which added overhead and the risk of configuration drift between accounts.
- 03
Release risk. deployments were partly manual, so release timelines and consistency varied across environments.
- 04
Scale. the platform's global growth called for centralized governance and infrastructure management that could grow with it.
Solution
What Cypik delivered
Architecture
- We implemented an AWS Managed Services and cloud-security operations framework across Sinclair's multi-account environment, with separate development, pre-production and production workload accounts.
- Each workload account runs application servers, Amazon RDS databases and Amazon S3 storage, behind Elastic Load Balancing.
- AWS WAF and AWS Shield protect the application edge against web exploits and DDoS attacks, and OpenVPN provides secure remote connectivity.
Governance
- AWS Organizations provides multi-account governance, with IAM roles and policies segmented by environment.
- AWS Resource Access Manager shares resources across accounts without duplicating them.
Security
- GuardDuty, Security Hub, AWS Config and CloudTrail with VPC Flow Logs are enabled across all accounts, for centralized threat detection, compliance monitoring and audit visibility.
- Amazon CloudWatch provides metrics, logs and alarms for continuous monitoring of application servers, RDS databases and S3 storage.
Delivery and operations
- We standardized deployment pipelines and release processes with CI/CD practices.
- AWS Systems Manager and AWS Lambda automate patching, configuration management and scheduled operational tasks.
- AWS Backup centralizes backup and disaster recovery, using encrypted snapshots and automated retention policies.
Architecture
How it is built.
Select a diagram to open it at full size.
Outcome
A secure, scalable platform for NetReports
The engagement established a secure, highly available and scalable AWS environment for NetReports, with security, governance and operations handled the same way in every account.
- 01
Continuous monitoring through GuardDuty, Security Hub and AWS Config gives Sinclair one view of threats and compliance across all accounts.
- 02
Deployment timelines were reduced through CI/CD automation and standardized infrastructure management.
- 03
Automated patching, backup, monitoring and governance controls lowered operational overhead and the risk of configuration drift.
- 04
NetReports gained improved performance and scalability while keeping strong compliance and security standards.
- 05
Sinclair's internal teams can focus on product innovation instead of infrastructure management.
Services and technology
What the environment runs on.
Compute, data and storage
- Amazon RDSHighly available managed relational databases with automated maintenance and backups
- Amazon S3Secure object storage with encryption, access controls and lifecycle policies
- Elastic Load BalancingScalable load distribution for application tiers
Operations and automation
- AWS Systems ManagerAutomated patching, configuration management and secure access
- AWS BackupCentralized backup and retention management
- AWS LambdaOperational automation and scheduled tasks
- Amazon CloudWatchMetrics, logs, alarms and monitoring
Security and compliance
- Amazon GuardDutyThreat detection and continuous monitoring
- AWS Security HubCentralized security posture management
- AWS ConfigConfiguration compliance and drift detection
- AWS CloudTrail and VPC Flow LogsLogging, auditing and network visibility
- AWS WAF and AWS ShieldApplication and DDoS protection
Governance and access
- AWS OrganizationsMulti-account governance and SCP enforcement
- AWS Resource Access ManagerSecure cross-account resource sharing
- IAM roles and policiesEnvironment-segmented access control
Other technology
- OpenVPNSecure remote connectivity
- CI/CD pipelinesStandardized build and release across environments
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