Hello, I am Oleg

B2C

Behind every successful startup with exponential user growth, there are immense efforts from system architects and senior specialists. Undoubtedly, the project management triangle - Time, Quality, and Cost - has the most significant impact on such projects.

Initially, it is crucial to validate the project's idea as quickly as possible by implementing core features within budget and time constraints. Once the main idea is confirmed and the project secures funding, the product needs to be enriched with additional options to cater to the growing number of users and their demands. The development team will require additional specialists to implement necessary functionalities based on the existing software and hardware architecture, resulting in a rapid increase in code volume. Subsequently, the project will face the need for hardware expansion, and in certain cases, geographical hardware distribution may be necessary. At this stage, previously made architecture decisions (which were correct and matched to the old requirements and limitations) may need to be revisited. However, the desire to change the architecture will be opposite to the task of modernizing the existing code, ensuring the growth of product functionality, and maintaining operational stability.

Drawing from my experience in both the B2B and B2C sectors, it is worth noting that there are two main streams of technology exchange between these two sectors. Let's refer to the first stream as "backend." This stream is driven by the R&D efforts of global corporations. The results initially reach the corporate sector, and it takes some time to simplify and reduce maintenance costs, eventually making them available for widespread public use in specific products or as standalone technologies. A prime example of this process is seen in Docker, RabbitMQ, REST, Typescript, Redis, and others. This predictable and lengthy lifecycle process facilitates the search for successful architectural solutions that provide core stability for new products. On the other hand, the counterflow, which I will term "front end," is influenced by the diverse needs of end-users. This stream is driven by market leaders, associations, developer communities, and enthusiasts, such as Enzyme from Airbnb, React from Facebook, Redux, jQuery, Vue, numerous frameworks, bootstrap libraries, transpilers, and an endless list of others. Modern frameworks, tools, and libraries help stay at the forefront of trends while often reducing development costs and providing effective solutions. However, the pursuit of cutting-edge technology is accompanied by challenges like rapid interface/API changes, outdated documentation, compatibility issues, and potential problems with third-party support. One of the main risks in this scenario is the emergence of competing technologies that can diminish funding and support for the chosen technology stack.

B2B and cross-industry experience

The most interesting experience I've gained from working on B2B projects is the exchange of cross-industry knowledge. For instance, learning about the energy industry can be highly beneficial. This industry involves a complex system that handles real-time signals from geographically distributed hardware, enabling the transfer of electricity across the country. Interestingly, this task shares similarities with handling user requests on the World Wide Web. Many interesting patterns of concurrent signal processing, already employed in the electricity industry, can be applied in B2C projects. Similarly, high-end user interfaces from B2C projects can be implemented in the corporate sector to create more appealing interfaces or lightweight API interfaces that can be successfully integrated using REST, thereby reducing costs and deployment time for non-high availability processes.

Another noteworthy experience I'd like to mention relates to custom application development. This activity requires well-organized team management with clearly defined roles. Delving into the customer's business processes compels IT engineers to acquire skills in swiftly estimating infrastructure and legacy systems. This demands a broad knowledge base across various IT domains. It's essential to develop applications within the designated time and budget, while also ensuring good documentation and successful implementation within existing IT and business environments.

Throughout the years, I have participated in projects spanning multiple industries, including banking, telecommunications, construction and design, electricity, oil, light industry, logistics and warehouses, courts, as well as various government organizations.

High-load solutions

Development evolution is teaching us to transition from the specific to the general through multilayer abstractions, which helps create sophisticated products with a large number of developers involved. However, high-load projects follow a different path. To achieve maximum performance, it is necessary to move from the general to the specific.

It took me a considerable amount of time on research and development, code refactoring, and profiling. I learned to pay attention to the physical structures of data storage, process compiler-specific code, and "to hurry slow". The latter is particularly important when working on, for example, a countrywide unified payment system that serves millions of money transfers, as a small mistake can result in significant losses.

The operational stability of high-load projects is as important as performance. This necessitates being cautious with third-party updates, preparing comprehensive test coverage with staging environments, and studying the impact of different parts of the code on each other.

Lastly, I want to mention that high-load (sub)projects provide an excellent opportunity to enhance professionalism and cultivate a thirst for new knowledge.