Scaling the ERP system SAFIR from legacy VMs to Kubernetes
BRF Solutions moved its ERP system SAFIR from one VM per customer to automated container deployments on Kubernetes, and scaled it to a large customer base.
Outcome
- One VM per customer replaced by automated container deployments
- SAFIR scaled to a large number of customers on one platform
- Customers migrated one by one without disruption
The situation
BRF Solutions develops SAFIR, an ERP system with a growing number of customers. Each customer ran on its own virtual machine, and BRF installed, patched, backed up and upgraded every one of them. A new customer meant another VM set up by hand, and every SAFIR release meant touching every VM. The model did not scale with the customer base.
What Natron did
Together with BRF we containerised SAFIR and built an automated deployment on managed Kubernetes in Natron Cloud. There is one platform and one image per release; the deployment for each customer is generated from Git and rolled out by Argo CD. PostgreSQL runs as a managed database per customer, images live in Harbor, and the platform base provides monitoring, backups and network policies.
We migrated the customers one by one from their legacy VMs. Each old VM stayed in place until the customer had been checked on the new deployment.
The outcome
A new SAFIR customer is now a new deployment from Git; nobody sets up a server for it. Releases go out to all customers through the pipeline. Natron operates the platform in Natron Cloud, and BRF's team works on the product.
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