🔄 The Key to Success is Constant Evolution Link to heading

The fixes and insights from our firefighting phase weren’t the end — they were just the beginning.

We quickly realized that stabilizing a system is one thing, but keeping it healthy, fast, and maintainable over the long term requires ongoing, strategic evolution.

So we created a plan on what to enhance and just started working. And we are still at it.

What We Did Link to heading

• Replaced manual scripts (kept locally per system) with centrally run PowerShell modules
• Introduced Azure DevOps for central Release activities
• Introduced enhanced load-tests for all kinds of services
• Automated the interfaces to other teams as far as possible
• Introduced configuration templates for infrastructure settings, to have all systems setup identically
• Regularly updated third-party software to be “at the edge”
• Improved logging and telemetry
• Analyzed net.tcp and WCF behavior
• Introduced diagnostics and moved logic from web to app tier
• Improved authentication (Kerberos) and scaled infrastructure to 6 web + 8 app servers

Outcome Link to heading

• Traceable, fixable errors
• Better performance
• Prioritized development work by business impact

Lessons Learned Link to heading

• Yesterday’s best fix is today’s new constraint — don’t treat any implementation as permanent.
• Architecture is not a phase — it’s an ongoing responsibility.
• Tooling must evolve with the people who use it — otherwise it becomes a liability.

Our work didn’t end with solving today’s problems — it evolved into preparing the platform for tomorrow’s. In future posts, I’ll go deeper into how specific tools and automation strategies grew with the system.