Architecture & Technology
Our recommendation departs from the RFP's modular-monolith suggestion: we propose a microservices architecture where each core domain is an independently deployable API. On the client side, a single React Native + Capacitor codebase powers both web and mobile.
Core domain APIs
Technology stack
Single codebase delivering responsive web and native iOS/Android from one source. Performs as a true reactive cross-platform application — no separate web build to maintain.
Each domain module is built as an independent API service with its own endpoints, deployment unit and scaling profile. The RFP suggests a modular monolith — we recommend going one step further with microservices for true isolation, independent release cadence and resilience.
ACID compliance and first-class geospatial capabilities for retailer matching. Schema-per-service to preserve service boundaries.
High-performance caching, rate limiting, session management and async RFQ distribution queues across services.
Single entry point for clients, request routing, auth offload, and consistent rate-limiting policy across all microservice APIs.
Cost-efficient KVM footprint for the MVP, with a clear migration path to AWS as the platform scales.
Performance benchmarks
Availability & reliability
- ▸ 99.9% uptime target
- ▸ High-availability architecture — no single point of failure
- ▸ Automated daily backups with 30-day retention
- ▸ Staging and production environment separation
- ▸ Real-time alerting on critical failures
- ✓Encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+)
- ✓Encryption at rest (AES-256)
- ✓Password security (bcrypt hashing)
- ✓Secrets management (environment variables)
- ✓RBAC enforced at API level
- ✓Server-side input validation
- ✓Rate limiting per user / IP
- ✓File upload security — type validation, size limits, malware scanning
- ✓Audit logging for all privileged actions
- — Penetration Testing — deferred to Phase 2 (cost & timeline)
- — SaaS-based security testing — SAST via SonarQube used as MVP alternative
Infrastructure
Server specifications
| Environment | CPU | RAM | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production (MVP) | 8-core | 32 GB | 200 GB SSD |
| Development | 4-core | 8–16 GB | 100 GB SSD |
| Testing / QA | 2-core | 4–8 GB | 50 GB SSD |
DevOps — phased roll-out
| Capability | Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source code repository (Git) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CI/CD pipeline | partial | ✓ | enhanced |
| Containerisation (Docker) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Environment management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secrets management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Database migrations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monitoring & logging | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Infrastructure as Code | — | — | Terraform |
Backup strategy: automated daily database backups · 30-day retention · tested restore procedures.