Leading Global Consulting Firm

Client

Within a leading global consulting firm, there are significant restrictions on applications that can run on company machines. Currently, accountants and business users develop microservices on a platform that requires powerful machines through a SaaS model. This approach creates several challenges for the organization, particularly as the SaaS platform grows in popularity across different territories.

The development environment for microservice creation is complex, requiring access to multiple services such as database access, various services and authorization services. These services must be available locally for testing and debugging purposes, creating a complicated setup process for developers. The current development ecosystem consists of two main developer groups:

1. Core and complex-microservice builders who require extensive development capabilities
2. Simple-microservice builders who work on traditional VTA (View, Transform, Action) handles with or without additional components

As the platform expands internationally, initially to regions like the USA, Luxembourg and Switzerland, there’s an increasing need to support developers who aren’t physically located with the core team. This geographical distribution adds another layer of complexity to the development support process. After successful implementation, the plan is to roll this out globally to all their countries of operation.

Challenges

The organization faces two critical challenges that are creating bottlenecks in the handle development process:

• Complex Local Environment Setup: The deep technical stack required for development includes multiple dependencies such as NPM, various Python environments and infrastructure components. This complexity makes local environments troublesome to configure and maintain consistently across the organization.
• Corporate Security Restrictions: The company’s laptop security measures are designed for consultants rather than developers. While the technology team uses MacBooks with fewer software installation restrictions, this is not a viable option in most countries due to corporate policies.

These bottlenecks result in the core development team spending excessive time supporting handle developers instead of focusing on platform improvements. As the system expands to new territories with different regulatory requirements, this support burden continues to grow, creating an unsustainable situation.

Additionally, developers require specific capabilities that are difficult to provide within the current constraints:

• Syntax highlighting and professional code editors (preferably Visual Studio Code or PyCharm)
• Robust debugging capabilities
• Comprehensive testing of functionality

Our Solutions

As project manager, the proposed solution is to replace the current model for most handle developers with a cloud environment based on standardized templates for specific use cases. After evaluating multiple alternatives, the following solution options have been identified:

• ‘Playground’/Serverless Model: A web-based interface with editor blocks for View, Transform and Action logic. Code is edited and executed from the interface with all processing happening in the backend.
• Cloud-Based Virtual Desktop Solutions: Pre-configured development environments running in the cloud (e.g., using Coder), eliminating the need for local setup.
• GitHub Codespaces: Leveraging GitHub’s cloud development environment that provides consistent, configurable development containers.
• Azure Visual Studio Code Cloud Solution: Using Microsoft’s cloud-based VS Code offering to provide a consistent development experience.
• Self-Managed Azure Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): Custom-configured virtual desktops hosted in Azure.
• Improved/Simplified Local Environment: Visual Studio Code with a custom plugin that provides necessary local services in a simplified manner.

The recommended approach is a hybrid solution that leverages cloud-based development environments for simple-handle builders while maintaining the current setup for core developers and complex-handle builders who require more specialized configurations.

The Results

Implementing the cloud-based development environment solution is expected to deliver significant benefits:

• Device and OS Independence: Developers can work from any device with a web browser, regardless of operating system or hardware specifications.
• Simplified Setup Process: New developers can be onboarded quickly with standardized environments that require minimal configuration.
• Scalability: Computing resources can be dynamically allocated based on development needs, ensuring optimal performance without hardware limitations.
• Global Accessibility: The solution can be easily deployed across territories, supporting international expansion with consistent development experiences.
• Reduced Support Burden: The core team will spend significantly less time on environment setup and maintenance, allowing them to focus on platform improvements.
• Standardized Development Experience: All handle developers will have access to the same tools and capabilities, including syntax highlighting, debugging and testing functionality.
• Compliance with Security Policies: The cloud-based approach circumvents local installation restrictions while maintaining corporate security standards.
• Cost reduction in terms of hardware and support: ~2 million euros annually

This solution specifically targets handle developers who are not co-located with the core team, with a focus on supporting the simple-handle development needs anticipated in Luxembourg, Switzerland and other expanding territories. The approach acknowledges that core developers and some specialized handle developers may continue to require their current development setup.