About Apollo 24|7

Apollo 24|7 is India's largest omni-channel digital healthcare platform. It blends Apollo Hospitals' clinical expertise with advanced technology to make healthcare accessible to all.

Offering services like doctor consultations, online pharmacy, and diagnostic tests, Apollo 24|7 ensures fast, reliable delivery across 19,000+ pin codes. Key features include 15-minute video consultations, quick medicine delivery in 19 minutes, and home sample collection. Users enjoy exclusive health perks and priority doctor access with the CIRCLE membership program.

Apollo 24|7 is dedicated to transforming healthcare in India, ensuring quality and convenience for millions.

This case study explores how Apollo 24|7 partnered with ImageKit to scale media delivery, enhance user experience, and drive operational efficiency.

Challenges faced by Apollo 24|7

Before partnering with ImageKit, Apollo 24|7 relied on a global CDN solution for its media delivery processes on its website and apps, which presented several challenges with business scalability:

• Escalating costs: The CDN's pricing model, which included charges for usage traffic and midgress bandwidth, became increasingly concerning as Apollo scaled. Rising subscription fees and the need to purchase add-ons for essential features like geographic restrictions further drove up costs, making the setup unsustainable.
• Limited analytics: As Apollo’s usage increased, they wanted to get insights regarding their bandwidth consumption patterns but the dashboard analytics weren’t of any use.
• Need for better support: While the CDN solution partner offered 24x7 L1 support across time zones, Apollo's developers often required specialized technical expertise to address their media optimization queries. This resulted in prolonged delays, with the team usually waiting hours to resolve their critical issues effectively.
• Multiple system, no unified solution: Apollo 24|7 used AWS S3 for media storage and the global CDN for media delivery, adding unnecessary complexity as the business scaled. This fragmented approach limited their ability to maximize the potential of their tools, leading to inefficiencies and operational challenges.

While the team explored alternative solutions, they faced a significant hurdle—the existing setup had been deeply integrated into their website and app over several years. Migrating from it, especially in older app versions, was complex and had to be executed seamlessly to avoid downtime.

ImageKit's solution

ImageKit is a trusted partner for leading global brands across industries. Apollo 24|7 discovered ImageKit’s innovative URL-based approach to image optimization and transformation, making it the ideal solution to eliminate their manual image optimization processes.

Here's how ImageKit addressed their needs:

• Unified platform: ImageKit provided an all-in-one solution for media storage, optimization, transformation, and delivery, eliminating costly multi-vendor setups and manual processes. This streamlined Apollo 24|7's operations and reduced costs.
• Magento 2 integration: ImageKit's seamless compatibility with Magento 2 allowed Apollo 24|7 to integrate media management without disrupting existing workflows.
• URL-based transformations: Apollo 24|7 could quickly resize, crop, and adjust its media assets for different use-cases with URL-based transformations. This removed the manual processes that were in use.

• Automatic format conversion: ImageKit's auto-format and quality optimization features enabled Apollo 24|7 to deliver media assets in optimized sizes and modern formats across browsers.
• All-inclusive plan with transparent pricing: ImageKit's pay-as-you-go model included critical features like geo-restriction without additional costs, enhancing both affordability and functionality.
• Actionable analytics: A clear analytics dashboard with performance insights helped Apollo 24|7 monitor usage and further optimize their media assets, ensuring top-tier web performance across devices.
• Dedicated priority support: With customized SLAs, direct access to support engineers, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager, Apollo 24|7 gained prompt expert support and enabling faster resolutions.

Through ImageKit, Apollo 24|7 achieved operational efficiency, cost savings, and scalable media delivery, paving the way for seamless growth.

Implementation and results

Migrating Apollo 24|7's media delivery to ImageKit—impacting millions of users—required meticulous testing to ensure seamless functionality and top-tier performance. During the pilot phase, Apollo 24|7 rigorously evaluated ImageKit’s capabilities with real app users, consistently exceeding critical performance benchmarks.

Apollo 24|7 relied on AWS S3 (external cloud storage) to store its media assets and wanted to continue using it. They seamlessly connected their existing S3 bucket to ImageKit with just a few simple steps. With support from the ImageKit team, they quickly implemented URL-based transformations to resize, adapt, and optimize media in real-time for various use cases, fully automating previously manual processes.

Reflecting on the integration, Prabhat Sharma, AVP of Engineering at Apollo 24|7, shared:

Switching to ImageKit was a pivotal decision for Apollo 24|7, given the scale of our operations and user base. ImageKit not only exceeded our expectations but also ensured a seamless transition without requiring changes to our storage from AWS S3 or domain name. By enabling faster load times and delivering optimized media at 50% cost savings, ImageKit has become an indispensable part of our tech stack.

Since transitioning to ImageKit in May 2023, Apollo 24|7 has achieved an impressive 180% increase in overall traffic. ImageKit's robust infrastructure ensured seamless handling of this massive surge, ensuring uninterrupted media delivery for Apollo 24|7.

Today, ImageKit efficiently manages approximately 2.4 billion monthly requests, a number that continues to grow.

Here's how ImageKit has helped unlock significant value for Apollo 24|7:

• Cost savings and efficiency: By optimizing delivery bandwidth, Apollo 24|7 reduced their media delivery costs by 50%, achieving remarkable savings and enhanced operational efficiency.
• Actionable insights: With ImageKit's intuitive analytics, their team gained deep visibility into delivery patterns, optimization opportunities, and error identification, enabling data-driven decisions.
• Seamless integration: Apollo leverages Drupal (CMS) and Magento (e-commerce) with media storage on AWS S3 for their online business. ImageKit’s integration with their existing tools have ensured high-performance visual experiences without disrupting established media-related processes.
• Better image optimization and transformations: With ImageKit's automatic media optimization, format conversion, and URL-based transformations, the Apollo 24|7 team can seamlessly adjust images to fit various screen sizes and resolutions, which helps them reduce bandwidth usage and significantly improve load times.

ImageKit has simplified Apollo 24|7's media operations and unlocked measurable gains in performance, efficiency, and cost savings, making it an invaluable part of their tech infrastructure.

Conclusion

Partnering with ImageKit allowed Apollo 24|7 to overcome critical media delivery challenges, achieving enhanced user experience, streamlined operations, and significant cost savings. This collaboration underscores the value of selecting the right technology partner to drive growth and innovation in a continuously evolving market.

If your business faces similar media delivery and management challenges, contact us at support@imagekit.io for a consultation, or try our product by creating a free account here.