“DevPanel is like training wheels for AWS.”
That’s how the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) describes their journey from vendor lock-in to total cloud freedom—without needing to learn the intricacies of cloud infrastructure.

If your team has ever wanted to move to AWS but felt overwhelmed by the complexity, this case study is for you.

From Overwhelmed to Empowered

The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) is more than just a hobbyist group; it is the largest model aviation organization in the United States, supporting a vast network of clubs, educational programs, and competitions. However, as their membership and digital footprint expanded, so did the complexity of their technical infrastructure.

AMA wasn’t just managing a single corporate website. They were juggling a sprawling portfolio of over 30 distinct properties, built on a heterogeneous mix of Drupal, Backdrop, and WordPress. This fragmentation created a massive operational burden.

Under their previous legacy hosting model, the team found themselves trapped in a cycle of manual maintenance and vendor dependency. Even routine tasks—like spinning up a staging environment to test a new feature—became multi-day ordeals requiring coordination with third-party support teams. Critical infrastructure needs, such as managing SSL certificates, configuring load balancers, and applying security patches, were either outsourced at a high cost or handled manually, consuming valuable time that the team simply didn’t have.

AMA’s leadership knew they needed to modernize. They recognized that moving to the public cloud, specifically AWS, would provide the scalability, reliability, and speed they desperately needed. However, like many organizations with lean IT teams, they faced a daunting barrier: the Cloud Skills Gap. They lacked the internal DevOps expertise to architect, secure, and manage a complex AWS environment from scratch. They needed the power of the cloud without the complexity of managing it—and that is exactly when they discovered DevPanel.

DevPanel: AWS Without the Learning Curve

AMA turned to DevPanel, a cloud development and hosting platform purpose-built to make AWS accessible to everyone, not just cloud engineers.

What makes DevPanel unique is that it abstracts the complexity of AWS—no need to know how to configure EKS, RDS, S3, or handle VPC networking, SSL certificates, or Kubernetes clusters. DevPanel handles all of that for you behind the scenes.

With DevPanel, AMA was able to:

• Migrate 30+ sites to AWS without learning cloud infrastructure
  
• Reduce their team size from several people to just one person managing all web operations
  
• Create dev, test, and staging environments on-demand, without waiting on a hosting company
  
• Secure and automate their stack, from CI/CD to backups and patches
  
• Standardize site management across CMS platforms, all from a single dashboard
  

One Platform. All the Control.

Before DevPanel, AMA’s developers were often stuck waiting for hosting vendors to complete tasks. Want to test a change in a new environment? Submit a ticket. Need a dev copy of a site? Wait days or weeks. Want consistent backups or updates? Add more overhead or outsource it.

Now, all of that is self-service. A single person can spin up secure, scalable infrastructure on AWS in minutes—and manage 30+ sites as easily as one.

Whether it’s a Drupal site for club memberships or a WordPress blog for educational content, it’s all managed through DevPanel’s dashboard. No custom scripts, no shell access, no cloud certification needed.

Security, Simplified

Security was another area where AMA saw a huge benefit.

Previously, SSL certificates, infrastructure hardening, and system updates had to be manually handled or contracted out. This increased risk and created blind spots.

With DevPanel, security is baked in. Certificates are issued and renewed automatically. Infrastructure and software are patched without developer intervention. DevPanel even builds CI/CD pipelines with built-in security controls—so teams can push confidently without introducing vulnerabilities.

AMA didn’t need to worry about compliance, networking rules, or IAM roles. DevPanel took care of it all.

Quantifiable Wins

Here’s how AMA’s transformation looks side by side:

Metric	Before DevPanel	After DevPanel
Sites Managed	~30	30+
People Required	Multiple team members	Just one person
CMS Types Supported	Drupal, WordPress, Backdrop	Same — now unified in one dashboard
AWS Knowledge Needed	Extensive	None
Dev/Test/Stage Setup	Manual via vendor	Fully automated and self-service
Security Configuration	Manual or outsourced	Fully automated
Infrastructure Cost	Higher	Lower (via AWS resource optimization)

A Voice from the AMA Team

“DevPanel is like training wheels for AWS. It lets us take full advantage of the cloud without the complexity. One person on our team now manages over 30 websites without needing to know AWS at all.”
— AMA Web Team

This testimonial speaks to a broader reality in tech today: organizations want cloud benefits without cloud complexity. With DevPanel, that’s possible.

Why This Matters for You

If you are leading web operations—particularly within nonprofits, government agencies, or educational institutions—you likely face a common dilemma: your portfolio of websites is growing, but your team size and budget are not. You want the raw power, security, and flexibility of AWS, but you cannot afford the steep learning curve or the operational overhead required to manage it manually.

This is exactly where DevPanel bridges the gap. It hands you the keys to enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure without requiring you or your team to become AWS certified architects.

We see this operational transformation take many forms. For AMA, it meant managing 30+ sites with a single person. For other organizations, it means recovering stalled timelines like BCT Partners, where we helped turn months of manual struggle into a 17-minute automated deployment. It can even lead to massive financial efficiency, such as the U.S. Government Agency that unlocked 75% in hosting savings by optimizing their high-traffic stack.

Ready to See It in Action?

The full case study below outlines AMA’s journey in detail, including the specific technical shifts that allowed them to scale their operations so efficiently. It is a must-read if you are evaluating your own path to AWS.S.

📄 Download the Full AMA Case Study →
📩 Need help with a similar project? Contact us

Don’t let infrastructure slow your team down.
If one person can manage 30+ sites on AWS, so can you—with DevPanel.