Distributed, high-load backends
We build the backend services that carry your product's traffic: APIs, background workers and real-time pipelines designed to run as many instances as the load requires, and to keep working when one of them fails.
What we do
- APIs and services for high-traffic products Stateless services behind a load balancer, so adding capacity means adding instances, not redesigning.
- Background processing with message queues Work that does not need an immediate answer is queued and handled by workers, so traffic spikes never slow down the user-facing path.
- Real-time processing of live data Feeds, events and measurements processed as they arrive, with change detection, aggregation and delivery to the systems that need them.
- Caching and data stores chosen for the load Relational databases, read replicas, caches and search indexes, each used for what it does well.
- Integrations with the systems around you Partner APIs, payment and messaging providers, and your internal systems. More under data flows and integrations.
When you need this
- A launch where traffic could be ten times what your prototype handles.
- An existing backend that falls over on peak days, or only keeps up with ever bigger servers.
- A data-heavy feature the current backend was never designed for: live feeds, high-volume measurements, uploads from a large field team.
- A web and mobile product that must share one set of APIs.
How an engagement works
- Assess We study your product, expected load and any existing code, then agree on what the system must handle.
- Design We design the services, data model and failure handling, and write each decision down for your review.
- Build We build in short cycles, with load tests and demos of working software along the way, and code review on every change.
- Launch and run We launch with monitoring and runbooks in place, then support and extend the system, or hand it over to your team.
What you get
- Services and APIs with documented contracts
- Load test results showing how the system behaves at the traffic you expect, and where its limits are
- Deployment pipeline and environments, defined as code
- Monitoring, alerting and runbooks in place before launch
- Code in your repositories, reviewed on every change
Related work
Common questions
Which backend technologies do you use?
Established technology that fits your load, your team and your budget, and usually the stack your team already has. Our work covers distributed services, event-driven design, message queues, caching, relational and NoSQL databases and containers.
Can you take over a backend built by another team?
Yes. We start by reading the code and measuring how it behaves under load, then agree with you what to stabilize first. An Architecture Review is often the first step.
How do you make sure the backend handles the load?
We agree a target with you at the start, such as requests per second, concurrent users or data volume, design for it, and load-test against it before launch. The measurements are part of the delivery, so you know the limits as well as the capacity.
Do you build the frontend and mobile apps too?
Yes. The same team builds web apps, back offices and cross-platform mobile apps on the APIs we design, so the backend and the apps are planned together.