In today’s fast-paced digital environment, businesses are constantly seeking ways to enhance their technological infrastructure.
The INRIX journey of transforming monolithic services for traffic speeds is a testament to the power of modern technologies in optimizing performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency. Learn below how INRIX transitioned from using legacy .NET Framework and massive Windows Servers, coupled with a sprawling SQL Enterprise server, to adopting .NET 9, lightweight Redis instances, and advanced CI/CD pipelines, all running seamlessly on Amazon Kubernetes Service.
Challenges with the Legacy System
At INRIX, the legacy system was built using .NET Framework and relied on massive Windows Servers. Some servers hosted a large SQL Enterprise server with over 40 separate databases, making the infrastructure bulky and expensive to maintain. The processing of traffic speeds was efficient but came at the cost of high overheads and limited scalability.
The primary challenges with this setup included:
- High Maintenance Costs: The Windows Servers and SQL Enterprise server required significant resources for upkeep.
- Scalability Issues: Scaling the monolithic architecture to meet growing demands was cumbersome and complex.
- Deployment Inefficiencies: The lack of modern CI/CD pipelines meant slower deployment cycles and higher chances of errors during updates.
The Transition to Modern Technologies
To address these challenges, INRIX embarked on a comprehensive modernization journey. The goal was to leverage cutting-edge technologies to optimize processing, improve scalability, and reduce costs dramatically. INRIX adopted several stages for this transformation.
Embracing .NET 9
The first step in the modernization process was migrating from the legacy .NET Framework to .NET 9. To do this INRIX wrote completely new services, referring to the existing code, as required. The benefits included:
- Improved Performance: .NET 9 offers significantly better performance and more efficient memory management compared to the older framework.
- Cross-Platform Compatibility: Unlike.NET Framework, .NET 9 is designed to work seamlessly across different platforms, enabling INRIX to run the services on Linux.
- High Quality Codebase: Utilizing the latest language features and implementing comprehensive unit and integration tests, it provided INRIX with a codebase that is adaptable for future changes along with the confidence to deploy to production at any time.
Adopting Modern CI/CD Pipelines
To streamline the deployment processes, INRIX implemented modern CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions. This approach allowed INRIX to automate the build and deployment workflows, significantly reducing the time and effort required for updates. The key benefits of this transition included:
- Automated Testing: With GitHub Actions, adding automated testing at various stages of the pipeline ensures the code is always production-ready.
- Speedier Deployments: Automated workflows enable faster deployments, with no downtime and improving overall efficiency.
- Consistency: The automated pipelines ensure consistent deployment processes, with zero chance of human error.
Containerization with Linux
Moving away from bulky Windows Servers, INRIX embraced containerization using Linux. Using Linux Containers on Amazon Kubernetes Service (EKS), provided INRIX with several advantages:
- Scalability: EKS allowed INRIX to scale the services effortlessly based on demand, ensuring optimal performance at all times.
- Resource Efficiency: Containers are lightweight and consume fewer resources compared to traditional VMs, resulting in cost savings.
- Enhanced Security: Containers provide a level of isolation separating them from other systems, limiting the attack surface.
Transitioning to Redis
Another significant change in the modernization journey was moving away from the large and expensive SQL Enterprise databases to lightweight Redis instances. This offered numerous benefits:
- High Performance: Redis’s in-memory nature ensured rapid data access and processing speeds.
- Simplified Architecture: Redis’s lightweight structure significantly simplified the data architecture, reducing complexity.
- Cost Efficiency: Redis instances are considerably cheaper to maintain compared to traditional SQL databases.
Optimizing Processing and Data
As part of the modernization initiative, INRIX also optimized the processing and data management techniques, dramatically reducing the latency of the data processing. This was accomplished by:
- Reducing the layers and services that the data went through.
- Storing and transferring the data in optimized binary formats to reduce network bandwidth.
- Enhanced logging so INRIX could measure the impact of all the improvements.
Transforming Legacy Systems into Scalable, Secure Solutions
The journey of modernizing monolithic services for traffic speed processing showcases the transformative power of modern technologies. By transitioning to .NET 9, adopting GitHub Actions for CI/CD pipelines, containerizing our services on Kubernetes, and leveraging Redis, INRIX achieved remarkable improvements in performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency along with ensuring we’re always running with the very latest security updates.
This modernization not only optimized the infrastructure but also positioned us for future growth and innovation. As INRIX continues to evolve, we remain committed to leveraging the latest technologies to deliver exceptional value to our customers and our users. Learn more at inrix.com.