Case Study
Bethune-Cookman University
Bethune-Cookman University is a Historically Black College and University in Daytona Beach, Florida, founded in 1904 by Mary McLeod Bethune. Their public-facing website on cookman.edu had outgrown legacy hosting that was originally built for static content. eWay designed and deployed a modern AWS hosting environment built on Security by Design principles, with Multi-AZ resilience, Auto Scaling, AWS WAF, Bastion-host controlled access, and Lambda-triggered automated deployments.
- Industry
- Higher Education
- Platform
- Cascade Website Hosting on AWS
- Services
- Managed WebOps + Cloud Operations
- Engagement
- Ongoing
Client Snapshot
About Bethune-Cookman University
- Founded
- 1904
- Scale
- Historically Black College and University in Daytona Beach, Florida, serving thousands of students, faculty, and alumni
- Website
- www.cookman.edu
Bethune-Cookman University is a private Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Daytona Beach, Florida, founded in 1904 by Mary McLeod Bethune. The institution is affiliated with The United Methodist Church and operates from a campus on Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard, the street named for the university's founder.
The university's stated mission is to educate a diverse community of learners to become responsible, productive citizens and solution seekers through the promotion of faith, scholarship, creative endeavors, leadership, and service. The institutional motto, "Enter to Learn. Depart to Serve," carries the orientation that has shaped graduates of the university across more than a century.
The cookman.edu website is the digital front door for the university's audience: prospective students, current students, faculty, alumni, parents, and the broader community connected to the institution's HBCU mission. Its availability, performance, and security posture have direct enrollment and engagement consequences.
The Challenge
Legacy hosting that could not keep up with what the website had become.
Bethune-Cookman's website is the institution's digital gateway for thousands of students, faculty, and alumni. As an educational institution in a competitive market, the university's market position relies on its digital reputation and the ability to provide seamless access to educational resources.
Like many academic institutions, the university had relied on fragmented internal servers and legacy hosting environments that were originally designed for basic, static websites. Over time, as digital needs expanded to include student portals, integrations, high traffic volumes, and third-party systems, these older infrastructures struggled to keep pace.
Such environments often face limitations in scalability, performance, security, and compliance with modern web standards including mobile responsiveness and accessibility. Transitioning to a more centralized, scalable, and secure cloud hosting solution had become essential to support evolving institutional and user expectations.
Why the legacy environment had to change
Static-era hosting carrying dynamic platforms and integrations
Limited scalability for admissions cycles and traffic-driven peak periods
Performance bottlenecks during high-engagement events
Security and compliance gaps relative to modern web standards
Difficulty meeting accessibility and mobile responsiveness requirements
The Solution
A modern AWS hosting environment built on Security by Design.
eWay designed and deployed a modern, resilient, and secure hosting environment on AWS for cookman.edu, built with a strong emphasis on the Security by Design principle. Security is embedded at every layer rather than treated as an afterthought. The solution balances AWS best practices with the project's specific operational requirements, including high availability through Multi-AZ deployment, dynamic capacity through Auto Scaling, and controlled administrative access through a Bastion-host pattern.
Multi-AZ AWS deployment for high availability and zone-level redundancy
Auto Scaling for dynamic capacity during admissions cycles and traffic-driven peak periods
Identity and Access Management (IAM) with strict role-based access control aligned to the Principle of Least Privilege
AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) with OWASP Top 10 rule set and custom rules to protect against common and application-specific threats
Bastion-host architecture for controlled administrative access, with Lambda-triggered CodeDeploy automation for consistent instance provisioning
Security assessment program covering both Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), with detailed vulnerability reporting and remediation prior to production deployment
Deployment pipeline support configured for Cascade CMS to streamline content publishing workflows
SEO optimization and Google Tag Manager configuration to enhance search visibility, analytics tracking, and overall digital performance
Cost-optimized hosting architecture balancing performance and reliability with the budget realities of an HBCU
Architecture
A glimpse of the stack
Application
Cascade Website Hosting (Cascade CMS publish target on AWS)
Cloud Infrastructure
AWS Multi-AZ with Auto Scaling for dynamic capacity
Security
AWS WAF with OWASP Top 10, IAM with Principle of Least Privilege, Bastion-host administrative access
Automation
Lambda-triggered CodeDeploy for instance provisioning, deployment pipeline support for Cascade CMS
The Outcome
A high-performance digital front door for the HBCU mission.
Resilient through admissions and peak-traffic periods
Multi-AZ deployment provides redundancy across availability zones. Auto Scaling adjusts capacity dynamically during admissions cycles, major announcements, and event-driven surges, keeping the site responsive without manual operator intervention.
Hardened by design
Security is embedded at every layer of the architecture. AWS WAF blocks the OWASP Top 10 plus application-specific threats. IAM enforces role-based access. The Bastion-host pattern controls administrative access. SAST and DAST security assessments validate the application before each production deployment.
Cost-efficient at HBCU scale
The architecture was sized to deliver enterprise-grade availability, security, and performance within the budget realities of an HBCU. Auto Scaling means the institution does not pay for capacity it does not need, and the Multi-AZ pattern delivers resilience without the cost profile of a fully-redundant active-active deployment.
Faster, more findable
Backend optimization and refined caching strategies improved server response times across the cookman.edu domain. SEO and Google Tag Manager configuration support search visibility and analytics that the institution's marketing and admissions teams use to inform their work.
Bethune-Cookman's web presence now runs on a modern AWS hosting environment built specifically to support an HBCU's mission and audience. The Multi-AZ deployment, Auto Scaling, AWS WAF, Bastion-host architecture, and SAST/DAST security assessment program form a coherent platform that eWay continues to operate end to end.
Common questions about this engagement
What buyers ask before engaging us on a project like Bethune-Cookman University
Why AWS specifically for an HBCU's website?
AWS provides the scalability, security, and managed services that university websites need without the operational burden of running infrastructure on premises. The combination of Multi-AZ deployment, Auto Scaling, AWS WAF, IAM, and CodeDeploy gives an HBCU enterprise-grade infrastructure within a cost profile that fits the institution. eWay's experience operating Cascade CMS publish targets on AWS made the partnership a natural fit for cookman.edu.
What is Security by Design and why does it matter?
Security by Design means security is embedded at every layer of the infrastructure rather than added as a separate review pass. IAM enforces role-based access control with the Principle of Least Privilege from the start. AWS WAF blocks application-layer threats. The Bastion host controls administrative access. SAST and DAST testing validate the application before production deployment. Each layer reinforces the others rather than relying on a single perimeter defense.
What does the Bastion-host pattern give you?
A Bastion host is a hardened, monitored entry point through which administrators reach the rest of the AWS environment. It limits the exposed attack surface, centralizes auditing of administrative activity, and gives the security and operations teams a single point of control for who can access what. Combined with IAM and the Principle of Least Privilege, it produces a much smaller blast radius if an administrative credential is ever compromised.
How does Auto Scaling handle admissions traffic?
Auto Scaling brings additional EC2 capacity online automatically as traffic increases and removes capacity when traffic returns to baseline. During admissions deadlines, major announcements, and other event-driven peaks, the platform scales up to handle the load without manual intervention. When traffic drops, capacity scales back down so the institution does not pay for capacity it does not need.
What does eWay actually own day-to-day?
eWay owns the AWS hosting environment end to end including infrastructure provisioning, security monitoring, WAF rule maintenance, SAST and DAST testing cycles, deployment pipeline operations, and incident response. Cookman's editorial and marketing teams continue to author and publish content from Cascade CMS through the deployment pipeline that eWay operates. The institutional IT team focuses on strategic priorities rather than the day-to-day operations of the web platform.
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