DevOps Consulting Services

With applications that continue to run for years, servers eventually need updates and maintenance. We recently updated and reconfigured some of the cloud infrastructure for our long-time client SpotCrime, a location-specific crime aggregator. SpotCrime has evolved since 2008 into a polyglot system, using many languages, unified through DevOps. For the most recent update, we created server configuration playbooks with Ansible, and reconfigured some of the application servers to separate responsibilities for high volume low frequency tasks, improving performance and infrastructure maintainability.

Our first engagement with Brookes Publishing in 2011 consisted in part of taking on and stabilizing the infrastructure deployment architecture and DevOps configuration for their new Online Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ Online). The app is a developmental and social-emotional screening tool for children, and as such the data is subject to HIPAA medical data privacy security rules; the application is currently deployed to a Private Cloud on Rackspace.

We’ve been working with FolioCollaborative, a professional growth platform for educators, since 2011. The server infrastructure for their application has evolved over time to support growth from an initial 3 schools at launch to over 165 schools around the world today. In order to prepare for additional growth, we recently migrated Folio to AWS, using Terraform to define infrastructure, Ansible for server configuration, and Capistrano for deployment. These tools allow us to not only automate deployment, but also to document configuration; infrastructure as defined by code allows for much easier troubleshooting and further development.

We recently created a more robust server and application infrastructure for DinnerTime, a personalized meal planning service. The new setup includes a workflow that leverages GitHub for version control and continuous integration code testing that when successful automatically builds Docker images, which can then be deployed with Ansible. The team at DinnerTime wanted to keep manual control over deployment, and this configuration allows them to do that while also leveraging the latest in deployment technologies.

Starting in 2019, we’ve worked with SimpleBet, a modern sports betting platform, specifically on DevOps support for their cutting-edge architecture. Real-time data is a critical component of their application, which comes along with demanding reliability and uptime requirements. Our team worked with SimpleBet to transition their cloud resources to the container orchestration system Kubernetes, integrated with Vault, a permission and encryption manager, and set up lifecycle management for their cloud resources, including dev, testing, and production environments, alongside continuous integration for automated testing. The systems we designed and configured for SimpleBet form a foundation for their continued growth and scale; their infrastructure is much more manageable and their team now has the tools and configuration needed to support their high performance and quick growth requirements.