Migrating a Swiss Digital Bank from OpenShift to Kubernetes

large_Migrating a Digital Swiss Bank from OpenShift to Kubernetes.png

medium_Migrating a Digital Swiss Bank from OpenShift to Kubernetes.png

small_Migrating a Digital Swiss Bank from OpenShift to Kubernetes.png

thumbnail_Migrating a Digital Swiss Bank from OpenShift to Kubernetes.png

Migrating a Swiss Digital Bank from OpenShift to Kubernetes.png

DEVOPS

KUBERNETES

TERRAFORM

thumbnail_SELISE-logo.png

SELISE-logo.png

Our end customer is a Swiss digital bank for anti-money laundering built for crypto transactions. They are in the market to transform the way people do banking and incorporate digital assets into regulated institutions. They aim to give people control and freedom when managing their own finances while using protocols that enable the secure functioning of a decentralized digital database.

About the End Customer

As a fintech solution, their main concern was regulations, governance, and frequent audits. They needed a team of experts to migrate their solution from Openshift to Kubernetes. So they were on the hunt for a DevOps team to support their migration while improving their existing pipelines.

The digital asset bank wanted to build an easily scalable, more responsive platform to quickly transfer data to the customer and provide an exceptional experience to end users.

What They Needed Help With

As we continued to work together, we became an integral part of their product and SRE teams. We automated the provisioning of AWS infrastructure resources using Terraform, and utilized Kubernetes for workload orchestration. We also used Calico to enhance security, and provide isolation. Overall, our efforts played a key role in helping our end customer achieve their desired outcomes.

A Secure Cloud Infrastructure: Implementing Terraform, Kubernetes, and Calico

We implemented Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and DevOps practices to automate the provisioning and management of the infrastructure and deployments, improving productivity, increasing quality, and decreasing delivery time. The entire execution of the project followed an IaC approach using Terraform, and Atlantis for automating Terraform via pull requests.

We provisioned and maintained AWS resources and improved existing Gitlab pipeline templates based on their needs. Running on AWS EKS as a multitenant solution, we've set up dynamic resource provisioning based on available tenants (B2B clients). Creating a multitenant architecture makes the product available for many customers, white-labeling it, and selling it as a company-branded service.

Terraform: Maximizing Efficiency and Streamlining Infrastructure Management

Container orchestration technologies provide the foundation for managing microservices and architecture at scale. Kubernetes is the best open-source container orchestration platform for Fintech companies to facilitate developer agility, modernization, and operational efficiency. 

Containers allow Fintechs such as our end customer to develop an executable bundle of software that is abstracted away from (not connected to or dependent on) the host operating system so that it can execute uniformly and reliably across any platform or cloud.

Kubernetes: Facilitating Agility, Modernization, and Efficiency

To build workload isolation in multi-tenant environment we turned to [Tigera](https://www.tigera.io/)’s Calico for microsegmentation. [Calico](https://www.tigera.io/project-calico/) is an open-source networking and security solution for containers, virtual machines, and baremetal host-based workloads.

Its comprehensive networking and security policy architecture made it simple to restrict communication and control the traffic flow between workloads inside the cluster and to the external parties outside the cluster. Its security policy engine applied the same policy model at the host networking and service mesh layers, safeguarding client’s infrastructure from compromised workloads and client’s workloads from compromised infrastructure.

This allowed client to build and manage container clusters with Kubernetes while securing their containerized workloads with Calico.

Calico: Our Approach to Kubernetes Networking and Security

How DevOps Helps Fintech Organizations Like Our Client

Our team's expertise in [Kubernetes enablement](https://appstellar.io/kubernetes-enablement) made us the perfect choice to help our end customer build a secure, scalable, and reliable platform. 

As a [Kubernetes Certified Service Provider](https://appstellar.io/insights/updates/cncf-member-kcsp-announcement) and Tigera partner, we have the knowledge and advanced expertise in consulting and providing professional services for organizations embarking on their Kubernetes journey.

Although it is increasingly easy to spin-up a Kubernetes cluster, it can be challenging to implement Kubernetes in a way that aligns with your company's needs. Many applications may not be ready for containerization, making it difficult to take the first steps towards a cloud native environment. We help guide you through the process, providing the necessary services, software, and support to run a production-grade Kubernetes infrastructure in a secure, reliable, scalable, and efficient manner.

Why Us?

What They Have to Say About Us

In the ever-changing Fintech industry, selecting the correct container technology and container orchestration platform can be challenging. You need a trusted technology partner to take advantage of opportunities to increase revenue and customer expectations. Appstellar's expertise in leveraging cloud technology and DevOps solutions help Fintechs to achieve agility, scalability, and delivery of large-scale apps at speed. Check our [Kubernetes Enablement](https://appstellar.io/kubernetes-enablement) page for more information.

How we automated the provisioning and management of the infrastructure for a Swiss Digital Bank using IaC, Terraform, and DevOps practices.

DevOps Solutions

Kubernetes Enablement

Containerized Solutions

Migrating a Swiss Digital Bank from OpenShift to AWS EKS

large_AdVal Appstellar.png

medium_AdVal Appstellar.png

small_AdVal Appstellar.png

thumbnail_AdVal Appstellar.png

AdVal Appstellar.png

CLOUD SOLUTION DEVELOPMENT

adval logo.png

[Iron Horse Logistics Group](https://www.ihlogistics.com/) provides comprehensive rail/barge logistics services, including shipment management, fleet management, repair management, and rate/pricing management.

They navigate the complexities of rail and the benefits and limitations of barge to make things simpler for their clients, manage hands-on logistics functions to streamline processes and create cost-effective solutions, and so much more. Aiming to ease the process of reporting taxes for rail transportation within the United States, they came to us with the idea to build AdVal.

## About the Solution
AdVal is a product designed to streamline the tax reporting process for rail transportation businesses in the United States. It is an ideal solution for companies with large fleets of railcars that operate across multiple states, as it allows them to easily report their state taxes digitally and track the payment status of their taxes. By automating the tax reporting process and providing clear, detailed insights into the process, AdVal makes it easier for businesses in the rail industry to manage their tax obligations and ensure compliance with state regulations.

### Core features of AdVal

Our development team worked tirelessly to create a product that fulfilled the client's requests but also had extra features we believed would make the product better. The main features include the following:
- saving state reports in the application
- saving state mileage reporting by carrier
- accepting or rejecting assessments
- recording tax payments issued to the states
- automatic creation of tax reports

The functionality that sets the application apart from others is the automatic filling of reports from the data contained in the application.

 About the Client – IHL

Did We Deliver?

IHL's goals were to simplify the taxation process, reduce the time required to do taxes, and have a data repository for easy analysis and reference.

The challenge was creating an intuitive interface that helps users understand and manage their dues in real time by giving them access to more than 50 different tax forms (for 50 U.S. states), including personal income statements, corporate tax returns, and more.

However, we managed to do it, and these were the client's answers when we asked him about their satisfaction:

To ensure a smooth and efficient development process, we created an architecture and infrastructure diagram outlining the application and its deployment strategy, including the build and deploy processes. By implementing Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment pipelines from the start, we were able to deliver the solution to the client in incremental stages, allowing for a faster development pace and frequent product releases. This approach also allowed the client to provide early feedback as they saw the product take shape.

The solution was designed using a microservices architecture and, with scalability in mind, broken down into a number of smaller, independent microservices, each deployed independently without affecting the overall integrity of the platform. We chose microservices architecture due to its many advantages.

### Microservices architecture benefits

1. **Improved fault isolation**

If one microservice fails, the others can continue to function, which helps to minimize the impact of failures on the overall system.

2. **Flexibility in language choice**

Different services can be implemented in different programming languages, allowing developers to choose the best language for each service.

3. **Ease of understanding and modification**

Microservices are designed to represent a small piece of functionality, which makes them easy to understand and modify.

4. **Improved team productivity**

The modular nature of microservices allows developers to work on different services independently, which can help to improve team productivity.

5. **Enhanced scalability**

Microservices can be independently scaled, allowing more flexibility in resource allocation and the ability to scale individual services as needed.

6. **Improved deployment and testing**

Microservices can be deployed and tested independently, making the overall deployment process more efficient and reducing the risk of errors.

While the development team started building the product's foundation, our DevOps Engineers were also busy laying out the initial infrastructure. We used Terraform to define, provision, and manage all the resources that made up the AWS infrastructure.

We stored our Terraform configuration files in a GitHub repository, enabling us to track and version changes and improve traceability. The DevOps team followed the same development lifecycle as our development team, and updates to the infrastructure went through a formal code review process. By reviewing the plan, code reviewers can understand the impact of the proposed changes and identify any potential issues before they apply the changes to the infrastructure.

Working in parallel with the development team helped us quickly set up the necessary infrastructure and get the application up and running. The infrastructure continued to evolve in tandem with the product.

Architecture, Infrastructure, and Tech Stack

Our unique combination of cloud software development and DevOps services makes us the perfect partner for companies looking to build their products in the cloud.
When IHL contacted us with their idea, we were excited to take on the challenge. From the United States to Kosovo, we worked closely with IHL to develop the best solution for reducing the pain of taxation.

IHL has been a leader in the rail transportation industry since 2002. Their focus has always been on making this industry more efficient, and with our help, they will be able to take advantage of new solutions and ensure they are following the best industry standards.

Working closely with IHL, we developed a solution that leveraged the latest cloud technologies to streamline the tax reporting process for rail transportation businesses in the United States. We are committed to supporting IHL's mission of making the rail industry more efficient and ensuring they adhere to the highest industry standards.


Why Us

How we built AdVal, a tax management software and data platform with multiple functions for rail transportation.

small_AdVal (1).png

thumbnail_AdVal (1).png

AdVal (1).png

Cloud Solutions

DevOps Consulting and Implementation

AWS CLOUD CONSULTING

How Appstellar Built AdVal to Move Rail Taxes to the Cloud

large_Tali & Rozi.png

medium_Tali & Rozi.png

small_Tali & Rozi.png

thumbnail_Tali & Rozi.png

Tali & Rozi.png

We’re excited to announce that we’re officially [part of the Amazon Web Services Partner Network (APN)](https://partners.amazonaws.com/partners/0010h00001jCcZLAA0/Appstellar)!

Moreover, we at Appstellar, as a leading cloud service and DevOps service provider in Kosovo, are happy to share that we’re the [first company founded and headquartered in the country](https://partners.amazonaws.com/search/partners/?loc=Kosovo) to become an AWS Partner.

APN is Amazon’s global community of partners who leverage AWS to build best-in-class software solutions. It consists of professional services organizations with a demonstrating track record of successfully delivering AWS solutions and an extensive pool of certified and experienced AWS technical consultants.

As an AWS Partner, we support clients in maximizing the value of all that AWS offers and accelerating their journey to the cloud. APN enables us as a partner to provide innovative solutions, solve technical challenges, and deliver value to our and AWS’s mutual customers.

Appstellar is currently in hyper-growth mode. In the past 6 months, we’ve grown our team by 122%! Moreover, we’ve signed multiple new client deals, expanded in new industries of operation (like fintech and healthtech), and also moved to new office spaces. In addition to our AWS partnership, [Appstellar has also become a CNCF member and a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider](https://appstellar.io/insights/updates/cncf-member-kcsp-announcement). With these partnerships, we look forward to accelerating our growth even further and taking on projects we love to work on.

Amazon Partner Network (APN) is uniquely positioned and powered to help customers take full advantage of AWS’s offering in their cloud journey. We as an AWS partner help our customers to grow and scale their businesses on what is known as one of the most advanced cloud ecosystems.

Why work with an AWS Partner Company like Appstellar?

Appstellar is excited to announce that we have joined the Amazon Partner Network as an AWS Consulting Partner. With this partnership, we aim to continue building software products safely on the cloud!

Appstellar Updates

medium_Thumbnail (809 x 585 px) (1).png

small_Thumbnail (809 x 585 px) (1).png

thumbnail_Thumbnail (809 x 585 px) (1).png

Thumbnail (809 x 585 px) (1).png

Appstellar is now an AWS Consulting Partner!

large_Appstellar certifications.png

medium_Appstellar certifications.png

small_Appstellar certifications.png

thumbnail_Appstellar certifications.png

Appstellar certifications.png

We at Appstellar, are thrilled to announce we’re now a CNCF Silver Member, Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP), and a Linux Foundation Silver Member! Read more about it on the [CNCF new members announcement](https://www.cncf.io/announcements/2022/05/18/cloud-native-computing-foundation-hits-800-member-milestone-at-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2022/).

This is a big milestone that demonstrates Appstellar’s expertise as a cloud and DevOps solutions provider helping customers embark on their Kubernetes and cloud-native journey. A lot of work has been done to get here, so we’re super proud and excited to finally receive the KCSP badge. (So excited that we made cookies out of it, as you can see below.)

Since focusing our services strictly on cloud software development and DevOps solutions, we’ve implemented Kubernetes practices for multiple clients in industries such as fintech, healthtech, and others. Having said that, the KCSP certification will help show Appstellar’s extensive expertise in supporting organizations to move to a cloud-native platform. 

As a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider with [Cloud Native Computing Foundation](https://www.cncf.io/), Appstellar will continue to offer Kubernetes support, consulting, and professional services for businesses and organizations wanting to migrate to cloud technologies, or improve their existing cloud infrastructure.

On the other hand, as a member of the CNCF and the [Linux Foundation](https://linuxfoundation.org/), Appstellar commits to expanding the Kubernetes and cloud-native ecosystem and bridging the gap between developers and operations.

*“We're proud to be the first Kubernetes Certified Service Provider in Kosovo and the Westerns Balkans"*
say Co-Founders of Appstellar – Rozafe Llalloshi and Mehmetali Shaqiri.

Appstellar is excited to announce that they are now a CNCF Silver Member, Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP), and a Linux Foundation Silver Member!

Appstellar partnership announcement -  KCSP, Silver Member of CNCF & LINUX FOUNDATION

medium_kcsp.png

small_kcsp.png

thumbnail_kcsp.png

Appstellar is now a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider and Silver Member of CNCF and Linux Foundation!

large_Header picture.png

medium_Header picture.png

small_Header picture.png

thumbnail_Header picture.png

Tali Teaching

DevOps Services

Ready for DevOps  Implementation

Tuesday was the 1st of 20 sessions of the DevOps and Kubernetes Fundamentals training.

As a growing number of companies are moving to the #cloud and seek to implement DevOps practices, the need for qualified DevOps engineers is soaring.

There is huge demand for DevOps engineers and great talent out there but no local trainings on it (that we know of, at least). So, we took this initiative to equip the next generation of DevOps Engineers with the necessary skills they need to start off their DevOps careers right. By the end of the 7-week training, they will be fully prepared for the market.

Objectives of the Training

- Gaining a fundamental understanding of DevOps and why it matters
- Learning Kubernetes fundamentals
- Why automation, culture, and metrics are essential to a successful DevOps project.
- How DevOps can positively impact your business's bottom line.
- Learning how to move your application to the container world
- Learning how to manipulate your application by Kubernetes
- Learning how to work with Kubernetes in AWS
- Why automation, culture, and metrics are essential to a successful DevOps project.
- How DevOps can positively impact your business's bottom line
- Improving time-to-market with Kubernetes and Continuous Delivery
- Learning how to monitor, log, and troubleshoot your application with Kubernetes

5 Reasons to Become a DevOps Engineer

### 1. High Demand

Career opportunities: DevOps engineers are in high demand and this is not expected to change in the future. If anything, it's only expected to increase. They enjoy high salaries and some of the best conditions in the High-Tech industry.

### 2. Understanding the bigger picture

DevOps engineers must understand more than how code works, they need to understand how it all works. How can this piece of code the developer just wrote become usable by every person with a computer? When it doesn’t work, what is the underlying root cause?

### 3. Room for creativity

The whole point of the DevOps culture is to improve the process of software development. You can always implement other people ideas (that are becoming industry standard), or let your creativity speak and come up with your own ideas.

### 4. Constant learning

DevOps never bores you. The ever-evolving technological stack and the vast variety of existing technologies and tools make it impossible to know everything, but as a DevOps engineer, you will often have to learn new skills in order to get things done.

### 5. It's Process-Focused

DevOps is for people who are more interested in the process than in the product... but care about the customers too.

The training will be held three times a week from the 1st of February until the 17th of March, 2022. Since there has been high interest in the training, we will be having a second edition soon after this one wraps up. If you are one of them, follow our and ICK's posts on social media to hear about the open call for applications.

Appstellar in partnership with Innovation Centre Kosovo start off the 1st of twenty 3-hour sessions of training on DevOps and Kubernetes.

medium_Thumbnail (809 x 585 px) .png

small_Thumbnail (809 x 585 px) .png

thumbnail_Thumbnail (809 x 585 px) .png

Thumbnail (809 x 585 px) .png

The DevOps and Kubernetes Fundamentals Training Kicks Off

large_Kubecon 2021

medium_Kubecon 2021

small_Kubecon 2021

thumbnail_Kubecon 2021

Kubecon 2021

Fabian is the Lead Cloud/DevOps Engineer at Appstellar. He’s been working as a DevOps Engineer for about 3 years. Fabian is a certified AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional, HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate, and CKA: Certified Kubernetes Administrator.

Saying Cilium is a service mesh would be all true, but maybe not enough. That’s because of the technology worth mentioning, that makes Cilium known for its efficient and specific solutions. Cilium operates on top of eBPF, which is the successor of BPF, or Classic BPF which makes Linux Kernel programmable. 

We have been told by Thomas Graf CTO and Co-Founder of Isovalent Company which stays behind Cilium, to think of eBPF in Linux Kernel like the JavaScript JIT that runs on browsers. A “eBPF JIT compiler” exists in Kernel Space and executes only safe code making changes as we need in different operations and “syscalls”, making Linux more compact when running container applications. The reason for that is the fast-evolving of containers and microservices technology, which comes with many different needs and at the time when most parts of Linux Kernel were developed, these needs didn’t exist. Why not contribute to the Linux project? Well everyone has different needs, and It would take years to get approved. So when relating for example to security we need patches pretty often, so it wouldn’t be the best choice. 

In my opinion, Cilium really can help us bring our cluster networking, observability, and security to another level!


Cilium and eBPF super-powers

GitOps methodology is continuously proving its benefits with the help of different tools out there, including Flux. In KubeCon Europe Virtual 2021 Flux introduced to us the Flux V2 which will support multi-tenancy. Combined with Helm or Kustomize, Flux V2 will give you a very powerful automated state management solution, in other words, a software agent will be ensuring that the desired state of your Kubernetes Cluster which should be available on a VCS is up to date, checking for source code changes in custom intervals, along with different alerts and features for its end-users. 

With all the automation it comes, unfortunately for the users that are aiming to migrate from Flux V1 it comes with a little bit of pain of manual configurations, because of the Flux V2 incompatibility with .flux.yaml files as they will not be supported anymore.


GitOps and Flux

WebAssembly was another hot topic during the event. As we know WebAssembly was build with the browsers to be their main runtime, but lately it is taking place outside the browsers to, because of its security and flexibility. WebAssembly applications are isolated. Can run anywhere, with different operating systems and CPU system architectures. Sounds familiar? Yeah, containers... As Solomon Hykes, founder of Docker said on a tweet: “If WASI (WebAssembly System Interface) existed in 2008 we wouldn’t have needed to create Docker.”

WebAssembly

No container technology is perfect, but they are very good at what they are designed to do and we should choose based on our needs. Comparing WebAssembly to Docker wouldn’t be fair, as they weren’t developed for the same purpose. But WebAssembly seems to have a future in the server-side combined with Kubernetes because of its high security, efficiency, and lightweight features.

Kubernetes network resources like Ingress and Services, that were part of it from the early days, solved us a lot of problems, but it was quite difficult and some times impossible, to use these resources for more advanced use cases. That resulted in using a lot of annotations and custom resources, which wasn’t a good experience. Gateway API will try to simplify this part of maintenance, saving us time and effort while scaling our applications. 

The Gateway API project defines Kubernetes APIs to configure advanced concepts like traffic splitting, header matching, and load balancing configuration. It comes with new resource types: GatewayClasses, Gateways, and Routes like HTTP Route, TCP Route, UDP Route, and TLS Route. This model of dividing ingress traffic into more specific resources will allow the Gateway API to also expand its protocol support in the future. Do you want more? You can refer to the [Gateway API](https://kubernetes.io/blog/2021/04/22/evolving-kubernetes-networking-with-the-gateway-api/) official documentation!


Gateway API

So pretty cool yeah, all of these sweet tools at our fingertips. We are thankful to all presenters and organizers for this valuable event, for providing us with many different ideas and better thinking of future implementations. Indirectly providing value also at our partners and customers, giving them the best experience when we integrate these tools and methods in real-world solutions.

By the end, for those who couldn’t attend the event, it is available now on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cW8_h98sn8&list=PLj6h78yzYM2MqBm19mRz9SYLsw4kfQBrC) with all its sessions and keynotes.

Being one of the most exciting events of the exploding technology nowadays Kubernetes, we couldn’t miss the innovations, methodologies, and best practices that KubeCon Europe Virtual 2021 introduced. As we know, this event brings to us many trending topics in many different areas of Kubernetes and Cloud-Native and a single article wouldn’t be enough! So we are going through only some topics that I found the most interesting and were getting the most attention at the conference.

DevOps

KubeCon 2021 didn’t disappoint! Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s edition of the world’s largest cloud native conference.

medium_Kubecon2021.jpeg

small_Kubecon2021.jpeg

thumbnail_Kubecon2021.jpeg

Kubecon2021.jpeg

Kubecon 2021 Recap & Takeaways

large_Stellars Photoshoot.png

medium_Stellars Photoshoot.png

small_Stellars Photoshoot.png

thumbnail_Stellars Photoshoot.png

Stellars Photoshoot.png

Setting an agenda for the meeting is critical. Looking back over the past 3 months and planning ahead for the next 3 months requires a schedule to keep things on track.

We have devised a scheme to cover all the essential topics. Here’s what we always cover and why:

### Highlights
Taking a step back and looking at what we’ve collectively achieved over the past three months serves as fuel to keep us motivated to work toward new milestones. That’s why we highlight our team's work over the past three months to show appreciation and recognition for their stellar work.

Meeting Agenda

### Updates
We want to be transparent with our team and let them in on the progress we made on things we shared with them earlier. By doing so, we’re establishing trust and making the team feel involved.

### Announcements
Good or bad, we let our team know what’s up. Just like with the progress updates, our team should know what is going on in the company and its direction. And we believe that All-Hands Meetings are an excellent opportunity to share company news.

### Superstellar work
Each quarterly meeting, we get to learn about one specific successful project a team worked on. This time we got to learn about the sophisticated learner-centric solution our team, led by our VP of Engineering, Rozi, and Project Manager, Adea, did for our client, Brainstorm. Our stellars find this section to be very inspiring!

### Goals
A quarterly meeting isn’t a “quarterly meeting” without establishing your goals for the next three months. That’s why we like to plan ahead and set goals we want to accomplish in the next quarter.

This is the favorite section of many of us. It’s where we get to know what life at Appstellar is like through our stellars' eyes! 

During this meeting section, we focus on three points:

1. We take a look at the statistics from our What is life like at Appstellar? survey
2. Quick Q&A
3. Our famous Thanksgiving section

Covering these six sections has resulted in all our stars staying aligned.✨ No pun intended.

Life at Appstellar

It's been a hectic quarter. Here's what happened:

- We delivered good work and left clients happy with our **#Cloud ** and **#DevOps ** services so much so that we got comments like:


>_Aside from their professionalism and commitment to the project, [Appstellar] is a fun team to work with delivering a wholesome experience…_
 
- We all chose summer to do something very productive — to rest. But taking time off work didn’t mean we took time off being a stellar; we took tokens of Appstellar wherever we went.🏔🌊

Q3 Highlights

- We curated our new website up to the finest details to represent us fully. (Stay tuned for the launch!)

- We celebrated 6 birthdays, 2 promotions, and many raises. We’re going to miss those summer BBQ parties!

- We gave back to a cause we care about. We partnered with **SOS Fshatrat e Fëmijëve Kosovë** for the  **#IT4SOS** campaign.

- We had a fun company photoshoot. Stellars were snapped! ✅ 📸

- We grew our team and outgrew our office. Fun fact: 100% of newcomers in the past 6 months are happy they joined Appstellar and feel welcome here. (Yes, we asked them.)

- We accepted invitations to local forums and summits where we got to represent Appstellar and create partnerships.

A lot more happened but let's keep it at this for now.

Knowing our goals, we’re ecstatic for the last quarter of the year! ✨

Another quarter finished, another all-hands meeting. Every 3 months at the Appstellar headquarters, our team gathers for a now-favorite meeting for all, the quarterly All-Hands Meeting.

Suppose you’re wondering why the hassle of having these meetings every 3 months and not every year as everybody else; the short answer is that it’s worth it. The long answer is that we believe it indirectly contributes to our growth, our team’s happiness, and ultimately our client satisfaction. Because only by retrospection can we know how to move forward.

We believe quarterly meetings indirectly contribute to our growth, our team’s happiness, and ultimately our client satisfaction. Here’s a rundown of our last all hands meeting.

small_Untitled design (2).png

thumbnail_Untitled design (2).png

Untitled design (2).png

Why We Have Quarterly Meetings | Q3 All Hands Meeting Summary

large_Majlinda.png

medium_Majlinda.png

small_Majlinda.png

thumbnail_Majlinda.png

Majlinda Jaha.png

Career at Appstellar

Before shifting to development, Majlinda started at Appstellar as a Quality Assurance Engineer. Her QA experience has enabled Majlinda to have a keen eye for detail which she applies to every project she puts her hands on.

I believe one’s first job might be the very most important one. You’re excited to start a new chapter in your life; you’re filled with passion, ambition, and desire to learn new things. You ask about many things and you observe everything, trying to grasp every little bit of information you can gather.

This experience can either be terrific or terrible; I was lucky enough that it was terrific for me, or shall I say ✨stellar✨.

Right after I finished my studies in Electrical and Computer Engineering, I couldn’t wait to finally start applying in real life everything that I had learned from my education. And just like this, my job-hunting journey began.

As I was checking different IT companies in Kosovo, I came across this small (at that time, because now we have grown to ±30 employees) cloud and DevOps company called Appstellar. 
I don’t know why, but I had a great feeling about this one. I knew that I had to send my CV and hoped for an interview invitation email.

3 months passed, and finally, a notification popped up on my phone. My pupils dilated and my heart started racing faster. 

**I just got an email from them!**

I always imagined I would start my career as a Frontend or a Backend Developer, but Appstellar had something else in mind for me. They had an urgent opening for Quality Assurance Engineer, so they asked me if I was interested in being interviewed for a QA internship position.

I just couldn’t say ‘no’ to that, so, I accepted and a few days later got an email with the great news that I got the job! 

## Being a QA Engineer at Appstellar

The day came. It was October 20th when I started working at Appstellar, a day I will never forget. I was feeling a tad bit nervous, but by the end of the day, that feeling was gone. I was blown away by how professional, friendly, and helpful everyone was.

And just like every other beginning, this one was challenging as well, but I was okay with that because, to me, challenges mean opportunities to learn and grow. 
I was so motivated by the environment that there were even days that I would work after hours (without being asked to) because I wanted to use all that curiosity as fuel to push me to expand my knowledge.

My managers at Appstellar never put on my plate more than I could handle. They gave me the chance to take my time and get independent at my own pace – and for that, I am forever grateful. Not long after, I was able to perform complicated tasks on my own.

I feel like this job really changed me. It made me detail-oriented and taught me how to think and see things from different perspectives. In a way, it prepared me for the next challenge that Appstellar had in store for me.

## My Career Shift to Backend Development

After 5 months of hard work and dedication as a QA Engineer, knowing my wish to shift to development, the management offered me a Backend position. Finally, it happened and I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to start!

I was surprised to see how much my experience as a QA Engineer would help me on my journey as a Backend Developer, especially for user experience. Now, as I’m coding, I try to think of every detail and put myself in users’ shoes, so I can find the best solutions to make things easier for them.

If you get a QA opportunity even though it’s not what you initially thought like me, I highly recommend taking it, because, speaking from experience, it really helps you learn coding better, think as a user, and write test cases.

I am happy to look back and see my journey and feel proud of how far I’ve come. First, I was a QA intern, and now I am the one who’s mentoring the new QA intern.

But I don’t plan to stop here. My plans for the future are to finish as many trainings as I can and learn about the latest trends and the best solutions. To start this off I plan on finishing the DevOps training mentored by our CTO, Tali, and then getting certified as an AWS Certified Developer.

My goal was to become a Full Stack Developer which I have recently achieved (this is a story for another time) and now I'm focusing on giving back to the company what they have given me.

#stellarspeak

The story of how Majlinda started her career as a Quality Assurance Engineer at Appstellar and got the opportunity to shift to her dream job as a Software Developer.

medium_Majlinda Jaha.png

small_Majlinda Jaha.png

thumbnail_Majlinda Jaha.png

Kick-Starting My Development Career at Appstellar

large_let's get stellar.png

medium_let's get stellar.png

small_let's get stellar.png

thumbnail_let's get stellar.png

let's get stellar.png

These partnerships/certifications are a big milestone for us. They demonstrate Appstellar’s expertise as a Cloud and DevOps solutions provider helping customers maximize their cloud-native journey. A lot of work has been done to get here, so we were super excited to share the news with everyone. So excited that we went all in with branded cupcakes and a stellarized drinks menu.

On top of these two accomplishments, in the last six months, we've expanded our staff by 122%! Moreover, we've signed multiple new client deals, expanded in new operation industries (like fintech and health tech), and moved to new office spaces. Hence all the smiley faces.

What makes this celebration even more remarkable is the community that supports our journey. So, this party wouldn't be a success without a full house of partners, contributors, friends, and family.


Finally, neither the success nor the event would be possible without the engines that power our work – our stellar team. We loved seeing them have fun, forget about the bugs, and enjoy the night.

Thank you to anyone who joined! As an [AWS Partner](https://telegrafi.com/first-kosovo-western-balkans-appstellar-now-kubernetes-certified-service-provider-aws-partner/) and KCSP, we look forward to continuing to support our clients in cloud migration and offer Kubernetes support, consulting, and professional services for businesses wanting to migrate to cloud technologies, improve their existing cloud infrastructure, or build them new products directly on the cloud.


While this is not something you will find on the rest of our website, something we’re also ✨stellar✨ at is throwing parties. We’ve recently celebrated two important accomplishments – becoming an [AWS Partner](https://appstellar.io/insights/updates/aws-partner-announcement) (the first company from Kosovo to do so) and being certified as a [Kubernetes Certified Service Provider ](https://appstellar.io/insights/updates/cncf-member-kcsp-announcement)by Cloud Native Computing Foundation (the first in Western Balkans). So, our HQ doors were open for an evening of laughter and fun.


Appstellar celebrates two important accomplishments – becoming an AWS Partner and being certified as a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider by Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

large_IMG_3917 (1).JPG

medium_IMG_3917 (1).JPG

small_IMG_3917 (1).JPG

thumbnail_IMG_3917 (1).JPG

Appstellar celebrates new partnerships

Appstellar Celebrates New Partnerships!

Header pic of Collaboration Models article

large_Header pic of Collaboration Models article.png

medium_Header pic of Collaboration Models article.png

small_Header pic of Collaboration Models article.png

thumbnail_Header pic of Collaboration Models article.png

Header pic of Collaboration Models article.png

Ready for Cloud Solutions Implementation

Artiola is our outgoing stellar with a special love for yoga, dogs, and content creation. She is certified by HubSpot Academy for her Content Marketing, Digital Advertising, and Inbound Marketing skills.

Outsourcing is a model that many companies use. It’s a rising market of [$92.5 billion](https://www.zippia.com/advice/outsourcing-statistics/) expected to increase at a [4% compound yearly growth rate](https://www.zippia.com/advice/outsourcing-statistics/) between 2021 and 2025. IT services are among the most outsourced tasks, with a [37% market share](https://www.zippia.com/advice/outsourcing-statistics/). 

Software Outsourcing is a way to benefit from the expertise of another team or individual expert. It allows you to develop your project with better scalability and flexibility, as well as increased efficiency and security at a lower cost than hiring someone in-house.

Understanding Software Outsourcing

Based on your company's needs and your project requirements, there are three software development collaboration models you need to know.

Project-based collaboration model is an outsourcing model where you let another company fully take care of your project. You give them your requirements, and they implement everything at a fixed cost.

### The Project-Based Model is right for you if…
…you don’t have an internal development team. 

In this case, outsourcing a development team that builds your project from scratch and monitors it after deployment is your best choice.

Companies that offer project-based collaboration models are specialized in specific areas and have dedicated software development teams that work together towards your goals.

### Project-Based Model Benefits

1. Project-Based Collaboration Model

The project-based model means scope-based estimation and ensured delivery of your project on time for a fixed price. 

The dedicated team model is a collaboration model where the outsourcing company carefully chooses a team of specialists to work full-time on your project exclusively.
Since it’s a team that already works together in-house, dedicated teams allow you not to worry about team cooperation or trust. Another perk of dedicated teams is that you won't have to deal with paperwork, such as taxes, HR, and social benefits. The outsourcing company handles it while you pick the brains of professionals and have complete control over your project.
### The Dedicated Teams Model is right for you if…
…you are a startup, don’t have time to hire an in-house team, or simply want to cut costs.

Hiring an in-house team can be expensive, stressful, and can take a lot of time. You have to go through each candidate, consider their pros and cons, make an offer, finalize it, and lastly, make sure each and every one is 100% fit for the project you’re working on.

Dedicated teams, on the other hand, are experts carefully selected by your provider to work on your project. They are 100% fit to work and meet your goals.

### Dedicated team model benefits


2. Dedicated Teams

Sometimes even if you have a million-dollar idea for a software product or service, when you lack the resources to bring it to life, your million-dollar idea will remain simply an idea.

Thanks to the growing market of software outsourcing, chances are you will find all the resources you need outside of your company to meet your internal goals.


Learn about Project-Based, Dedicated Team, or Staff Augmentation Software Outsourcing Models, and find out which model works best for your project.

Cloud Solutions

Serverless Solutions

Containerized Solutions

DevOps Solutions

DevOps Consulting

Kubernetes Enablement

AWS Cloud Consulting

Serverless Solutions

Containerized Solutions

DevOps Consulting

Kubernetes Enablement

AWS Cloud Consulting

About Us

Life at Appstellar

Careers

About Us

Life at Appstellar

Careers

What We Do

Cloud Solutions

Serverless Solutions

Containerized Solutions

DevOps Solutions

DevOps Consulting

Kubernetes Enablement

AWS Cloud Consulting

Cloud Solutions

Serverless Solutions

Containerized Solutions

DevOps Solutions

DevOps Consulting

Kubernetes Enablement

AWS Cloud Consulting

Work

About

About Us

Life at Appstellar

Careers

About Us

Life at Appstellar

Careers

Insights

Our Work

We send companies to space

Here are the most recent ones

Here's What They Think

Here's How We Did It

CASE STUDY

Migrating a Swiss Digital Bank from OpenShift to AWS EKS

CASE STUDY

Migrating a Swiss Digital Bank from OpenShift to AWS EKS

CASE STUDY

How Appstellar Built AdVal to Move Rail Taxes to the Cloud

CASE STUDY

How Appstellar Built AdVal to Move Rail Taxes to the Cloud

Read also...

Appstellar Celebrates New Partnerships!

Project-Based, Dedicated Team, or Staff Augmentation — What's the Difference?

7 AWS Certification Exam Tips From a Certified AWS Cloud Practitioner

Want to be the first to receive the latest case studies?

We send
companies to space