EOY 2024 Updates

Release Notes: Key Updates & Improvements

1. Migration to Svelte5 (Frontend Framework Update)

We’ve successfully migrated from Svelte4 to Svelte5, bringing several performance and maintainability benefits to the codebase. This update improves code efficiency, speed, and usability, making development easier and more streamlined. Why does this matter?

• Code Quality: The Svelte5 migration helps us stay up-to-date with the latest updates, ensuring our codebase is both stable and secure.
• Improved Developer Experience: The new format promotes a more homogenous structure, making code easier to review, maintain, and scale. This also helps when recruiting talent, as we are now using a more modern framework that developers are familiar with.

2. API Call Optimization: Server Side Rendering (SSR)

We’ve reworked our approach to making API calls. Instead of relying on a proxy, we’ve moved to Server Side Rendering (SSR) for API calls. This change brings several advantages:

• Faster, More Reliable Calls: SSR reduces latency, making API calls faster and more efficient.
• Improved Data Integrity: Removing browser-based caching and data storage ensures the data is fresh and secure.
• Internal Use Focus: Primarily beneficial for admin users, this change enhances the speed and reliability of internal workflows.

3. Backend Speed Improvements with AWS SnapStart

We’ve integrated AWS SnapStart to optimize the initialization time of Lambda functions. This development allows:

• Faster Lambda Start Times: AWS SnapStart reduces cold start times, resulting in quicker backend response times.
• Enhanced Scalability: As we scale our serverless architecture, this improvement ensures faster and more efficient serverless operations.

4. Intelligent Worker Caching for Long-Running API Calls

We’ve introduced intelligent caching for our long-running API calls. By turning long-running microservices into true asynchronous workers, we can ensure that complex tasks are handled efficiently:

• Resilience: Even with serverless limitations (memory, runtime, or timeouts), these workers can complete data-heavy tasks or complex analytics without failing.
• Improved User Experience: Users will see more consistent results, as these calls are managed and tracked in the background, reducing the impact of potential timeouts or performance bottlenecks.

5. New Resource Tagging: Idle Resources

We’ve added a new idle tag for resources that haven’t been utilized based on CPU usage or data transfer patterns. This new feature helps to:

• Better Resource Management: Identifying idle resources allows us to optimize our infrastructure and reduce unnecessary costs.
• Efficiency: The new tags are applied during the reshaping of items, improving both system resource usage and cost-efficiency.

6. General Availability (GA) of Premier Features for the Next 3 Months

We are excited to announce that all Premier Features will be available for general use over the next 3 months. This includes key enhancements and new capabilities that we’ve worked hard to implement. We encourage you to take full advantage of these updates during this period!

7. Enhanced Monitoring & Logging with AWS Chatbot

We’ve consolidated monitoring and logging across all environments. With the integration of AWS Chatbot, we now have the ability to:

• Interact with Logs: Ask questions directly about errors or alerts, gaining deeper insights into system performance and issues.
• Improved Troubleshooting: Get immediate feedback without having to manually run complex queries, making it easier to resolve issues quickly.

8. Architectural Improvements: Scalability & Templatization

Internally, we’ve focused on making our architecture more scalable and maintainable. Key updates include:

• Templatized Internal Modules: We’ve structured modules to be more flexible and reusable, promoting scalability.
• End-to-End Testing: We’re moving towards a more mature engineering practice, with more comprehensive testing coverage to catch issues earlier in the development cycle. While this still needs some work, it allows us to tackle low-hanging fruit and improve the overall stability of our platform.

9. Focus on AI Agent Research & Development

In the coming year, we’ll be looking heavily on  how AI can:

• Automate Processes: Speed up workflows and reduce manual intervention.

These updates represent a significant step forward in improving both our backend and frontend performance, while also ensuring that we stay on top of the latest technologies and practices. We’re committed to ongoing improvements that benefit both our internal teams and end-users, and we look forward to bringing even more exciting features in the near future.

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