LifeSet Wellbeing – Scalable Mobile App on AWS ECS

LifeSet Wellbeing is a modern mobile application designed to help users build healthy habits and improve lifestyle management. The challenge was to deploy a scalable, secure, and cost-efficient backend infrastructure capable of handling growing user traffic, frequent updates, and reliable mobile app performance.

Objective

To design and deploy a fully automated AWS-based infrastructure for a React Native mobile application using containerized services, CI/CD pipelines, and managed cloud services ensuring high availability, scalability, and security.

Architecture Overview

The application was deployed using AWS ECS Fargate within a secure VPC environment for serverless container orchestration. Amazon RDS (MySQL) was configured with Multi-AZ for high availability and automated backups. S3 and CloudFront were used for storage and fast content delivery. GitLab CI/CD pipelines automated Docker builds and deployments. IAM roles and security groups enforced strict access control and private networking for secure infrastructure design.

Tools & Technologies Used

AWS ECS Fargate, RDS MySQL, S3, CloudFront, Docker, GitLab CI/CD, React Native, Expo, IAM, Security Groups, VPC

Implementation Steps

• Deployed React Native backend services using AWS ECS Fargate for serverless container management.
• Configured Amazon RDS MySQL with Multi-AZ architecture and automated backups.
• Implemented GitLab CI/CD pipelines for automated Docker image builds and deployments.
• Used Expo to streamline React Native app build and deployment process.
• Set up S3 for media/storage handling and CloudFront for global content delivery.
• Configured custom MySQL parameter groups for improved query handling and data consistency.
• Enforced secure networking using IAM roles, VPC isolation, and Security Groups.

Challenges Faced

• Managing scalability during peak user traffic.
• Ensuring database reliability and zero data loss.
• Maintaining fast deployment cycles for frequent app updates.
• Balancing cost optimization with high availability requirements.

Troubleshooting & Solutions

Implemented ECS auto-scaling policies to handle dynamic traffic loads efficiently. Used CloudWatch monitoring and alerts to detect performance issues early. Optimized RDS configuration with Multi-AZ deployment for failover protection. Strengthened security using IAM roles instead of hardcoded credentials and ensured Docker-based deployments were consistent across environments.

Outcome

• Fully scalable mobile backend deployed on AWS ECS.
• High availability database with Multi-AZ RDS configuration.
• Automated CI/CD pipeline reducing deployment time significantly.
• Improved application performance with CloudFront CDN.
• Secure, production-ready infrastructure with strong fault tolerance.

Key Learnings

This project strengthened experience in serverless container orchestration, mobile backend architecture, CI/CD automation, and designing scalable cloud infrastructure for real-world applications.

Live Project Screenshots