D3V Technology Solutions

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder and CEO of Down to Ride. Down to Ride is a VC-backed startup focused on helping to build the cycling community connecting riders with other awesome people and rides.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3V Technology Solutions?

Help us review our current technical architecture and propose any immediate roadmap improvement, such as a function of user size, future feature support, etc. Provide Backend development support for our existing applications and build new applications and features. Cloud Engineering - Overseeing and supporting our technology on Google Cloud and connected vendors, including our ongoing architecture and configuration management.

IT support, including cloud architecture, cloud administration, security, and disaster recovery (DR). Project goals were: Reviewing current architecture for MVP and suggesting improvements keeping in mind long term requirements of the application to handle a large user base in multiple geographies, provide alternate options (no vendor lock-in solution) to deploy the application.

Backend support for the existing application and building new application features. Supporting the current application on GCP Infrastructure, Configuration Management, IT support, Disaster Recovery Solution. Migrate from client side Firebase dynamic links to server side implementation.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was looking for a GCP expert that could help us with deciding what we should do in the short term and still have long-term tech scaling alignment with our roadmap. We were seeking a Google Cloud Developer conversant in writing Firebase Cloud Functions that use the Firebase Admin SDK.

We were also looking for a Google Cloud DevOps Expert to perform an assessment of our current serverless infrastructure that runs on Firebase to suggest improvements in addition to future proofing the application to handle scaling, optimize Firestore DB design , and handle daily Firebase deployments.

We had several detailed chat/email conversations with D3V about the project requirements and then after our initial meeting, we were convinced D3V was the right candidate to deliver this project.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The overall mission of the DTR app is to help users efficiently find bicycle rides that will be fun. This means that the app needs to reduce friction and provide easy ways to discover and coordinate the IRL (“in real life”) activity using digital technologies and user experience. Current dependencies include the following:

• Firebase/Analytics Firebase/Auth
• Firebase/Firestore Firebase/Functions
• Firebase/Messaging Firebase/Storage
• Firebase/DynamicLinks Mapbox D3V provided Backend feature development
• Implemented Lazy loading to handle cold starts and thereby reduce latency in the application
• Developed utility scripts to export/import
• Firestore DB across different Firebase projects.
• Cloud Function CRON jobs to delete notifications of expired rides and other cleanup tasks in the app.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

D3V directly supported us with a flexible team of 3-5 engineers working on various features + project management from D3V supporting our internal development team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We were able to release several features in the app rapidly because of a dedicated Firebase backend development team. The backend Firebase Infrastructure was also optimized, especially the Firebase Cloud Functions and our apps on iOS and Android run faster now.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Meetings were scheduled daily to discuss project requirements, roadblocks and progress. D3V always communicated with us about the resources they needed to accomplish the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

D3V Technology Solutions did a great job understanding our needs and context on why we needed certain features. That helped us tremendously keep costs down and speed for delivery up.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

no - they were/are great!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of Engineering at 4K, an NFT marketplace

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3V Technology Solutions?

We hired D3V to help us optimize and migrate our containerized applications hosted on Google Compute Engine VMs to Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), thereby helping us scale our infrastructure to meet traffic demands and also reduce our operational costs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were seeking a Google Cloud DevOps Expert to perform an assessment of our current infrastructure that runs several front end and backend microservices deployed on Google Compute Engine VMs and transition to GKE to resolve our scaling and operational costs.

We had several detailed chat/email conversations with D3V about the project requirements and then after our initial video meeting, we were convinced D3V was the right candidate to deliver this project.

Unlike other vendors, they had clearly explained to us about the capabilities of Google Kubernetes Engine and its native integration with other GCP Services like Cloud Build, Cloud Monitoring and Logging.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Designed a migration plan with assess, plan, migrate and optimize phases to port the application to Google Kubernetes Engine Phase 1 involved assessing the current infrastructure, docker compose files and the applications that run on GCE VMs to understand application dependencies and moving to managed services in GCP, such as re-platforming the application to use managed Cloud SQL instead of self hosted Postgres instance on GCE VM.

Map docker compose files to the GKE manifests (deployments, configmaps, secrets and Ingress) Get the application working on a 3 node GKE cluster Setup an integrated CI/CD pipeline that uses Gitops methodology. Integrated unit tests were also part of the CI pipeline.

Setup Custom monitoring, logging using native Cloud Monitoring and Logging service and slack integration for notifications associated with critical alerts. Setup separate staging and production GKE clusters along with CI/CD to deploy to these environments

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

D3V’s staff guided us in understanding the technical complexities of the project. Their certified engineers and architects used the best Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices in this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Moving to GKE Platform increased our developer velocity and as a company we are now able to release new features in our application faster not to mention the reduced operational complexity that existed with our earlier setup on GCE. Also with GKE our applications can now scale to meet user demand.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Meetings were scheduled twice per week to discuss project requirements, roadblocks and progress. D3V always communicated with us about the resources they needed to accomplish the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

D3V had a genuine interest in communicating and helping our team understand the challenges with the requirements and technology limitations. Moreover, they truly went above and beyond our expectations - they were passionate and committed to the project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of Visual Approach Analytics. We are a data analysis company focused on aviation and the financing of aircraft.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3V Technology Solutions?

As our data warehouses and ETL pipelines grew, we were looking for a group with the insight and expertise to design an architecture to move our systems to the cloud.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

D3V is located in the Dallas area and willing to meet in person to discuss our needs. Steve's experience, background, and certifications made him the perfect choice, and he delivered.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

I was using BigQuery, primarily for loading data manually using custom python scripts. I wanted to get D3V’s thoughts on the best practices for doing so. I am also considering adding a Flask site using an App instance or hosting on my own virtual server. I wanted to discuss proper architecture, ETL process, thoughts on budgeting, and just best practices.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

For this consultation, it was mainly Steve assisting me with my questions about best practices.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have launched several new ELT processes based on Steve's recommendations, and they have proven to be cost-effective and productive.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was a seamless experience.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

D3V had a genuine interest in communicating and helping me understand the challenges with the requirements and technology limitations. I was able to find them, an accomplished Google Cloud Partner, close to where I reside in DFW. They have the pieces we need with regards to application development, big data analytics, and DevOps on Google Cloud.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As the CTO of a real estate technology company our mission is to simplify real estate processes through a unified platform. The company was founded on the idea that complex commissions structures, spreadsheets and routine reporting should not be a barrier to achieving business goals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3V Technology Solutions?

We hired D3V to help us analyze the current App Engine Infrastructure and resolve scalability and recurring latency errors that needed to be addressed.

What were your goals for this project?

1. Troubleshoot and resolve high latency issues experienced by end users caused by a high percentage of 502 timeout errors that were showing up in Cloud Logging in GCP
2. Setup a dedicated Cloud Operations dashboard with additional charts in Cloud Monitoring for the various AppEngine services to aid in troubleshooting
3. Apply Whitebox Monitoring techniques to monitor AppEninge services including setting up distributed tracing using the native Cloud Tracing APM tool in GCP to measure latency of HTTP requests.

SOLUTION

How did you select D3V Technology Solutions?

We were seeking a Google Cloud DevOps Expert to perform a Google AppEngine Infrastructure Analysis to resolve our scaling and severe latency issues. We had several detailed conversations via chat with D3V about the project requirements and then after our initial video meeting, we were convinced D3V was the right candidate to deliver this project.

Unlike other vendors, they had clearly explained to us about the capabilities of Google Cloud Operations Suite and its rich collection of APM tools that we were not aware of ourselves.

Describe the project in detail.

Set up a dedicated Cloud Operations dashboard that contained multiple charts mentioned below to narrow down the latency issues and to help resolve it.

1. Chart showing the number count of AppEngine loading requests happening each day
2. Analyzing existing Response Time / Latency charts (available out of box for AppEngine deployments)
3. Analyzing existing memory / CPU utilization charts (available out of box for AppEngine deployments)
4. New chart to plot the average response time for each AppEngine service
5. New chart to plot the average response time per endpoint URL per service over a 6 hour time window

Application was also optimized to handle cold starts by following best practices in App Development:

1. Lazy loading of app dependencies
2. Use of global variables
3. Fine-tuning parameters in app.yaml
4. Adding a warm up handler
5. Set up distributed traces in Cloud Tracing using OpenTelemetry auto instrumentation and Zipkin

What was the team composition?

D3V’s staff guided us in understanding the technical complexities of the project. Their certified engineers and architects used the best Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices in this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

There were no longer latency issues after the project was completed and our team now has several dashboards to help us monitor attributes associated with our applications.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Meetings were scheduled twice per week to discuss project requirements, roadblocks and progress. D3V always communicated with us about the resources they needed to accomplish the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

D3V had a genuine interest in communicating and helping our team understand the challenges with the requirements and technology limitations. Moreover, they truly went above and beyond our expectations. They were passionate and committed to the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Sometimes its difficult to interact directly with the engineers and a project manager is required.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of an web and application development company focused on medical information.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3V Technology Solutions?

We hired D3V to help us design and setup our networking infrastructure on Google Cloud.

What were your goals for this project?

To design and implement a secure and optimized Google Cloud Network / VPC that involved setting up a serverless VPC access connector to secure Cloud Functions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a Google Cloud Networking expert to help us design the networking setup for our app. We had several conversations via chat with D3V about the project requirements then after our initial phone call, we were convinced D3V was the right candidate to deliver this project.

Unlike other vendors, they had clearly explained to us about project intricacies that we were not aware of ourselves. Their communication and responsiveness sets them apart from the rest.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved setting up GCP networking for an app with two Cloud Functions deployed on Google Cloud Platform - a public facing front end service written in NextJS and a backend service written in Node JS. All the infrastructure provisioning happened in a single custom VPC (default VPC was deleted)

The backend service uses a postgres database and to setup connection from a serverless compute service ( cloud functions in this case ) to Cloud SQL instance / Postgres a serverless VPC connector needed to be setup.

To make the backend service internal only and to enable service-to-service communication between front end and backend services there were 2 options. Identity based control (using Oauth) Network based control (VPC Service Controls)

What was the team composition?

D3V’s staff guided us in understanding the technical complexities of the project. Their certified engineers and architects used the best practices to deploy a cost effective and optimized networking solution on Google Cloud Platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

End-to-end tests were performed to ensure the functionality worked as expected.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

D3V was very responsive with messaging and promptly addressed the feedback and concerns.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their genuine interest in communicating and helping us understand the challenges with the requirements and technology limitations.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't currently have suggestions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

FabSystems is the fastest Steel Estimating software package created for steel estimators, by steel estimators. Fabsystems is a game-changing software that accurately estimates steel requirements in 75% less time than any other steel estimation software in the market. I am the CEO of Fabsystems Inc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3V Technology Solutions?

Thornberg Steel Inc. had pioneered its steel estimating solution as a desktop solution. Facing challenges in managing software licensing and updates for shipped software, D3V was hired to transform the desktop solution into a SAAS-based Cloud Solution.

What were your goals for this project?

To modernize the solution using cutting edge cloud technologies. To make the solution available to customers with a single click of a button on the web. To improve the user experience of the application for the user to create blazing fast steel estimates.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

To digitally transform the desktop solution to a cloud native solution, we had tried other vendors, but none of them were as good as D3V in understanding the business requirements and developing my ideas into a tangible solution.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Fabsystems, our desktop solution is a keyboard friendly user interface with customizable features to satisfy the needs of any fabricator at every stage of the steel fabrication process. Unlike other solutions in the market our desktop solution creates estimates in minutes and not days or weeks. As a business need we wanted to modernize the desktop solution into a cloud native solution and make it easily accessible and available to our customers country-wide.

What was the team composition?

D3V’s expert team of certified engineers delivered our business needs as expected. They consistently delivered on the ideas we had for the cloud solution; the design and user experience of the solution they have developed is the best in the market right now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

From our initial discussions about the business concept, D3V had the solution up and running in 6 months. They organized bi-weely sprint targets to develop functionalities and then demoed the committed items with us at the end of the second week for each sprint. The cloud solution was deployed on Google App Engine that ensured scalability and availability to provide a stable service to our customers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

D3V conducted bi-weekly meetings to discuss project progress, discuss ideas and plan bi-weekly deliverables. They have been at the forefront to address any issues or changes in functionalities that we needed to adhere to our business requirements.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We had tried other vendors but they could not get the concept and were slow and not able to comprehend clearly what we were trying to do. D3V’s passion puts them on another level, they have always been upfront in delivering results, and in situations that needed clarifications, they have always scheduled meetings with us to discuss in detail about the features and functionalities.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that come to mind they were truly the best we've worked with

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of OSMix Music. OSMix is an automated audio mixing and mastering program that provides professional quality mixes in seconds at any budget level. OSMix simplifies the technical aspects of mixing and mastering to accelerate audio production, while preserving creativity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3V Technology Solutions?

We hired D3V to help us build a data pipeline to process audio files and develop the API Backend for our microservice as a cloud solution using Google Cloud Platform.

What were your goals for this project?

To build a cloud service using Google Cloud Platform and provide our partners with API Access to our proprietary audio processing. Build a cloud-based pipeline to process audio files. To arbitrarily scale up and handle processing large quantities of audio files.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a Cloud Developer/Architect to help us build a data pipeline and an API Backend for our microservice. We had several detailed conversations via chat with D3V about the project requirements then after our initial video meeting, we were convinced D3V was the right candidate to deliver this project.

Unlike other vendors, they had clearly explained to us about project intricacies that we were not aware of ourselves. They also explained potential challenges we may face during development as well as how they plan on solving those challenges. D3V is also a Google Cloud Partner.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a binary already built to process audio files and needed help in wrapping the binary with APIs and deploying it to Cloud Run on Google Cloud Platform so that we could give our partners API Access. We also needed a data pipeline to consume files and process files seamlessly. Moreover, the service needed to be able to arbitrarily scale up and handle large quantities of audio files simultaneously.

What was the team composition?

D3V’s staff always guided us in understanding the technical complexities of the project. Their certified engineers and architects used the best practices to deploy a serverless solution on Google Cloud Platform. D3V was also very diligent in setting up SCRUM meetings with OSMIX's software architect and myself to keep us informed on their progress.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Weekly targets were achieved and demoed in the meetings scheduled for that week. Several end-to-end tests were performed to ensure the functionality worked as expected.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Meetings were scheduled twice a week to discuss project requirements, roadblocks, and progress. They always communicated with us regarding the resources they needed to accomplish this project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their genuine interest in communicating and helping us understand the challenges with the requirements and technology limitations. As well as their extensive knowledge of cloud computing, architecture, and development.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I honestly can't think of any. Our experience with D3V was fantastic. Their team was a pleasure to work with, very knowledgeable, and explained everything to us very clearly and concisely. We are very happy with the outcome of this project!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the IT director at a rent-to-own services provider, who has been a front-runner in this field for more than a decade, enabling customers to achieve ownership of outdoor structures like sheds with ease.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3V Technology Solutions?

We had approached D3V Technology Solutions to satisfy the business needs of our web application.

What were your goals for this project?

To bring reliability in our software development process and accelerate the time to market for our business needs, targeted towards improving customer experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had previously worked with different web development vendors that implemented our payment process into our website. While the integration worked, it left a lot to be desired in new features as well as usability for our employees, customers, and dealers. After signing up with D3V we realized right away how they differ from other web development shops.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Our web application software needed robust application development to add new functionalities and improve the usability of the application, to help provide better service to our customers. D3V evaluated software architecture using foundations from Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute and ISO standards.

Delivered reliable application development by satisfying the business needs in every step of the way. Provided expert advice on modernizing application towards cloud native development for future readiness, extensibility and agility.

What was the team composition?

The staff is very friendly, knowledgeable, and eager to help in any way they can. When we first signed up there was about a 3-4 week ramp up time on learning our code and what we wanted to fix, improve, and implement. After the ramp up time the developers were actively contributing and pushing new releases every two weeks if not every week.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Very quickly, we were able to release fixes and enhancements to our website that improved our employees efficiency and the user experience for our customers and dealers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We would meet twice a week to discuss the open items, any blockers, etc. This would allow us to be all on the same page and as a client we felt taken care of because we were actively talking with the PM and developers then giving feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I can’t tell you how many times where I said “I’ve got this idea” and they just make it happen. Their hard work goes to show that they only succeed if we succeed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t think of anything. Our experience with them versus other development shops was night and day.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder/principal for Bedrock Real Property Services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire D3v Technology?

We hired D3v Technology to migrate our analytical workload from AWS to GCP.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal for this project was to quickly and securely migrate the workloads without loss of any functionality.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We wanted to use an experienced partner and finding one that was a Google Cloud Partner was a big plus.

Describe the project in detail.

AWS contained compute instances that needed to be moved to GCP and fully functional after the change. This required a basic thorough understanding of the application and requirements.

The D3V team went above and beyond to assess the environment and plan for a seamless migration. They spent lots of time getting pertinent information from the previous developers in order to execute successfully.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

D3V delivered (assessed, planned, deployed, optimized) by migrating workloads to Google Cloud Platform with our expertise in Google Cloud within 5 days.

We reduced operational costs by 90% by leveraging expertise from D3V Technology.

D3V provided a more secure solution by leveraging container optimized OS VM on Google Cloud Platform.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President of Cryptosoft

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provide a managed service for software supply chain security.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire D3V Technology Solutions to accomplish?

• Co-design workflows and develop service
• Google Cloud expertize to optimize implementation in a Kubernetes orchestrated container environment

SOLUTION

How did you find D3V Technology Solutions?

Referral

Why did you select D3V Technology Solutions over others?

Company values aligned

How many teammates from D3V Technology Solutions were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Co-design the service, code and implement the service. Deliverable was a fully functional managed service of the OWASP Dependency-Track software supply chain security offering with associated billing and user management.   

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

A fully commercialized managed service which now has subscribing customers. An on-going relationahip and partnershup to team on enhancements and associated marketing activities.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Highly collaborative teaming on sprints and workflows. Good agile approach to the project. Deliverables were on-time and the team were always responive to our needs or feedback. 

What was your primary form of communication with D3V Technology Solutions?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Teaming, delivery and a true sense of partnership versus just a commercial vendor relationship. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something D3V Technology Solutions could have done differently?

Nothing comes to mind. The team was good at pivoting to new ideas and suggestions as they arose.