Case Study
iCivics Modernizes Digital Learning and Marketing with a Serverless AWS Platform
About iCivics
iCivics is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civic learning by providing educators and students with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to embrace and engage in civic life together. They empower educators and lead the movement to make civic education a nationwide priority, so all young people have the confidence to shape the world around them and believe in our country’s future. Learn more at icivics.org.
Challenge
iCivics' Key Business Objectives
iCivics needed a production-grade learning management system (LMS) and redesigned marketing landing pages on AWS, delivered before a summer deadline. The existing setup relied on manual processes, disconnected UI components, and static content, which created operational inefficiency, marketing bottlenecks tied to engineering releases, an outdated UI/UX across the platform, and limits on how far the system could scale.
Their key goals included:
Key Amazon Web Services Used
- Amazon API Gateway (HTTP API V2)
- AWS Lambda
- Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL (Aurora Serverless v2), accessed via the RDS Data API
- Amazon S3
- Amazon CloudFront
- AWS Secrets Manager
- Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon SNS
- AWS CloudFormation
Third-Party Tools
- React, TypeScript, Vite, and TanStack, built from Figma designs
- Docker, with a local RDS Data API proxy for local development
- Bitbucket Pipelines (iCivics-managed) for CI/CD
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4) with UTM instrumentation for landing-page attribution
Solution
How Cloudelligent Accelerated iCivics' Objectives
Cloudelligent designed and implemented a serverless, API-driven platform on AWS, modernizing the LMS while making website content easier to manage.
1
A Serverless LMS for Teachers and Students
The React LMS pages for teachers and students were built on Node.js Lambda services covering classes, assignments, student progress, roster sync with Google Classroom and Clever, favorites, achievements, and the activity feed. The frontend was built with React, TypeScript, Vite, and TanStack, following Figma designs, on top of a fully serverless backend.
2
Marketing Content Decoupled from Code Deployments
Landing-page content was moved from the codebase to S3 JSON delivered through CloudFront, so the marketing team can update content without a code deployment. GA4 and UTM instrumentation were added on top of this to track landing-page attribution.
3
Infrastructure as Code and Repeatable Deployments
The backend was codified in plain CloudFormation as two coordinated stacks per environment, deployed through iCivics-managed Bitbucket Pipelines on branch push. For local development, Docker and a local RDS Data API proxy let engineers work against the same data access pattern used in production.
Results & Benefits
The Value of Our Cloud-Native Solutions
Cloudelligent delivered a serverless LMS and content platform that gives iCivics a scalable foundation ahead of its summer deadline. Key outcomes include:
A Usage-Based, Lower-Cost Compute Model
The platform runs on a usage-based, serverless cost model with no always-on compute, so cost scales with actual usage rather than provisioned capacity. Migrating from API Gateway V1 (REST) to API Gateway V2 (HTTP API) also reduced per-request pricing from roughly $3.50 to roughly $1.00 per million requests, lowering the cost of every API call the platform makes.
Marketing Independence from Engineering Releases
With landing-page content served as S3/CloudFront JSON, the marketing team can now publish updates on its own schedule instead of waiting on an engineering deployment. This removes a bottleneck that previously tied every content change to a release cycle.
A Tested, Repeatable Platform Built to Scale
The build includes 48 API endpoint handlers plus an authorizer, 49 Lambda functions in total, alongside the React LMS pages, deployed through versioned CloudFormation stacks across complete QA environments. Backend unit tests cover 96% of the codebase against a 90% enforced threshold, giving iCivics a well-tested foundation. Because the architecture is serverless, the platform can absorb higher usage without a re-architecture.
Why Amazon Web Services?
Why Cloudelligent?
Cloudelligent is an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner that helps businesses architect, build, migrate, and manage their workloads to accelerate their journey to the agile cloud. We support organizations to achieve the desired outcomes and reach new emerging global markets with a diverse team of AWS-Certified Solution Architects and Engineers.
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