Business context
The system was designed as a central operational platform responsible for managing a large number of physical devices deployed across multiple locations.
Key requirements included:
- continuous 24/7 operation,
- resilience to network and device failures,
- independent evolution of system domains,
- support for both end users and internal operational teams.
From the beginning, the platform was treated as a long-living system, expected to evolve over years rather than as a one-off delivery.
Technical challenges
1. Asynchronous physical world
Devices operated under unstable conditions:
- intermittent connectivity,
- network latency,
- power interruptions,
- no guarantee of real-time responses.
The system could not assume that devices were always reachable or responsive.
2. Scaling without a single point of failure
As the number of devices and operations grew, the architecture had to avoid any central bottleneck or coordinator.
3. Operability
This was not just an API platform. It was used daily by:
- operational teams,
- technical staff,
- customer support.
This required full observability, auditability, and production-grade diagnostics.
Architecture approach
The system was built using a microservices architecture with clear responsibility boundaries.
Key principles:
- no monolith,
- asynchronous communication where appropriate,
- API-first design for frontend and external integrations,
- event-driven workflows for business processes.
The system consisted of:
- edge-level device software,
- communication and gateway layers,
- backend microservices,
- operational and user-facing interfaces.
Event-driven communication
At the core of the platform was event-driven communication.
Events:
- represented business facts,
- were safe to reprocess,
- enabled reconstruction of system state over time.
The solution used:
- message queues and brokers,
- retry and idempotency mechanisms,
- separation of write and read paths where beneficial.
This allowed the system to:
- tolerate delays,
- survive partial failures,
- evolve without global rewrites.
Deployment and infrastructure
From day one: Docker for development, Kubernetes for production.
Environments:
- local,
- staging,
- production
were kept as close as possible, reducing environment-specific issues.
Deployments were:
- automated,
- repeatable,
- reversible.
Observability and maintenance
The platform was designed for long-term maintenance.
Implemented features included:
- centralized logging,
- metrics and alerting,
- traceability of event flows.
This enabled teams to:
- diagnose issues faster,
- understand system behavior,
- introduce changes safely.
Outcome
The result was a stable production-grade system that:
- ran continuously 24/7,
- evolved iteratively over time,
- supported real business operations,
- successfully connected cloud services with the physical world.
The architecture enabled:
- further functional growth,
- scaling alongside the business,
- gradual replacement of components without downtime.