Conventional Platform → Google Cloud
Healthcare Technology Co. Scales with GCP
- Industry
- Healthcare Technology / Real-World Evidence
- Service
- Cloud Migration to GCP | Microservices Decomposition | Kubernetes Cluster Operation | UX & Front-End Modernization
Overview
Headquartered in the UK, this healthcare technology company provides a growth-engine tracking platform that seamlessly collects and transforms clinical notes into real-world evidence for research purposes. Spanning individual practitioners up to large multinational organizations, the company enables healthcare providers to build, scale, and manage their own personalizations by incorporating social messaging and outcome-driven analytics into daily business activities.
What Was Holding the Platform Back
Outgrown Initial Implementation
Built on a conventional Ruby on Rails app, the platform had outgrown its original architecture — adding new features and improving the UX had become implausible without a rethink.
UX & System Responsiveness
A traditional server-rendered model couldn’t deliver the responsive UX the customer base now expected — a single-page application and clean separation between front and back ends were needed.
Single Bare-Metal Server
The application ran on a single bare-metal server, so scaling, deployment flexibility, and fault tolerance were all constrained by the box.
How We Solved It
To resolve the challenges with the Ruby on Rails-based platform, Sphere migrated the platform to Google Cloud Platform — and divided the migration into two phases that could be delivered without disrupting the production app.
1. Decompose into Services by Business Logic
Phase 1 separated the monolith into several services defined by business logic and responsibilities. Each service became independently deployable and scalable, with clean ownership boundaries.
2. Single Kubernetes Cluster on GCP
Phase 2 transitioned all services into a single Kubernetes cluster under GCP infrastructure. Containerization and routine splitting let the team identify areas that can be scaled independently and improved separately, without affecting the main app and business logic.
3. SPA Front-End for a Modern UX
A single-page application separated UI from backend, delivering the responsive UX the platform had outgrown — and laying the foundation for unlimited per-customer personalizations.
Key Outcomes
Unlimited UX Personalizations
GCP and the new architecture let the company achieve unlimited personalizations to the UX, satisfying its expanding customer base.
Seamless Scaling
GCP scales seamlessly, responsive to improvements, new features, and functionality — no more bare-metal ceiling.
Faster Time to Market
A simple Kubernetes-driven flow lets the company spin up environments in very short time — reducing development time and overall time to market.
Lower Run Cost
Best-practice GCP infrastructure helped the business save on costs while improving reliability and developer velocity.
The Results
With the new GCP platform implemented, the healthcare technology company can now achieve unlimited personalizations to the UX to satisfy its customer base. GCP scales seamlessly, responsive to improvements, new features, and new functionality. The Kubernetes cluster Sphere implemented for this project includes a simple flow that lets the company spin up an environment in very short time — reducing time to market, cutting development time, and helping the business save on costs by applying best practices and the GCP infrastructure.
