Hybrid Kubernetes Infrastructure for a Global Integration Platform

Summary

A publicly traded global software company required a hybrid Kubernetes infrastructure to support the deployment of their flagship integration platform. This deployment was both on-premises through Windows and Linux and across AWS and Azure environments. Arystech delivered the container orchestration architecture, including cluster provisioning, high-availability services, CI/CD automation, and observability. The engagement resulted in benefits including:

65% faster deployment cycles
99.95% measured uptime
30% reduction in infrastructure costs.

Challenges

The client operates a widely adopted integration platform that enables enterprises to connect business systems through cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments using a code-free, low-maintenance approach. The platform serves thousands of customers in over 50 countries.

As customer adoption grew, so did the diversity of deployment environments. The client's end customers required the platform to run on Windows, Linux, private data centers, and public cloud (AWS and Azure) —often simultaneously. The existing deployment model lacked the consistency, automation, and resilience required to support this demand at scale.

Specifically, the client needed:

A Kubernetes-based deployment architecture supporting both Windows and Linux
Single-node and multi-node cluster configurations with minimal manual intervention
High availability across all critical services, including caching, database, and traffic management layers
Seamless operation across on-premises, AWS, and Azure environments
Automated CI/CD pipelines to replace manual deployment processes
Unified monitoring and observability across all clusters and environments

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The Arystech Solution

Arystech built a hybrid container orchestration architecture that provided the client full control over critical services in on-premises environments while leveraging managed Kubernetes services for cloud workloads.

The architecture uses MicroK8s for self-managed Kubernetes clusters on Windows and Linux, chosen for its single-binary installation, minimal resource overhead, and production-grade feature set without the operational complexity of kubeadm-based clusters. Amazon EKS and Azure AKS handle cloud workloads, offloading control plane management and providing native integration with each provider's IAM, networking, and storage services. This allows customers on the client's end to run the platform in their preferred environment without requiring environment-specific application changes.

Core infrastructure services, including Redis Sentinel, MongoDB Replica Sets, and HAProxy, are deployed consistently across all environments, ensuring uniform application behavior whether running on-premises or in the cloud.

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Technical Architecture

On-Premises Clusters (MicroK8s)

Single-node Kubernetes clusters on Windows and Linux for development, testing, and smaller customer deployments
Multi-node Linux clusters with Redis Sentinel, MongoDB Replica Sets, and HAProxy for production workloads requiring high availability
Helm charts and automation scripts for consistent, repeatable provisioning, enabling new customer environments to be stood up in minutes
MetalLB for bare-metal load balancing in environments without cloud-native load balancer support

Cloud Clusters (Amazon EKS and Azure AKS)

Managed Kubernetes clusters with native autoscaling and integrated high-availability features
Consistent application deployment across cloud and on-premises using shared Helm charts and container images
Hybrid connectivity enabling workloads to interact between on-premises and cloud-hosted services

High Availability and Data Layer

Each stateful service was paired with its own failover mechanism to avoid single points of failure at the data layer:
Redis Sentinel for automated failover and monitoring of Redis primary nodes
MongoDB Replica Sets for database redundancy and fault tolerance
HAProxy for load balancing and automated failover across cluster nodes with minimal client disruption

Technologies Used

Kubernetes Orchestration: MicroK8s, Amazon EKS, Azure AKS
CI/CD & Automation: Helm, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure Container Registry
Data & Middleware: Redis Sentinel, MongoDB Replica Set, HAProxy
Observability: Prometheus, Grafana
Performance Testing: JMeter

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Implementation Highlights

CI/CD Automation

Automated build, test, deploy, and rollback pipelines using Jenkins and GitHub Actions
JMeter-based load testing integrated directly into the deployment pipeline to validate performance on every release
Azure Container Registry for centralized image management

Observability

Prometheus for metrics collection across all Kubernetes clusters
Grafana dashboards for real-time visibility into service health, database replication status, traffic distribution, and resource utilization
Alerting rules configured for key indicators including node health, pod restarts, replication lag, and resource saturation

Benefits

Deployment time reduced by approximately 65% through automated CI/CD pipelines, reducing operational overhead and enabling more frequent releases
99.95% measured uptime achieved across production clusters, supported by Redis Sentinel, MongoDB Replica Sets, and HAProxy failover mechanisms
Infrastructure costs reduced by approximately 30% through strategic use of self-managed MicroK8s for on-premises workloads and managed EKS/AKS for cloud workloads
Consistent, platform-agnostic deployment achieved across Windows, Linux, AWS, and Azure environments

About Arystech

Arystech is an enterprise cloud consulting firm specializing in Kubernetes orchestration, DevOps automation, and cloud-native infrastructure. With over twenty years of technology consulting experience and hands-on delivery across AWS and Azure, we help organizations design and implement container platforms, CI/CD pipelines, and hybrid cloud architectures. Our engagements are led by senior engineers who work as embedded extensions of our clients' teams.

If your organization is evaluating Kubernetes for hybrid or multi-cloud deployment, we can help you design an architecture that meets your operational and compliance requirements. Reach out to discuss your requirements.

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