Production Readiness and Payment Processing

Background

A partially completed parking application required expert guidance to ensure production readiness, optimize its payment processing, and establish a secure, scalable cloud infrastructure. The application, built with C# .NET Core 8, EF Core, React, Azure, and Stripe, needed robust deployment workflows and improved customer communication features before launch.

Challenges

Production Readiness: The application lacked a clear deployment strategy and separation between production and non-production environments.
Payment Processing: The existing Stripe implementation was incomplete and required proper configuration to ensure secure and seamless transactions.
Infrastructure Management: The cloud environment was not optimized for scalability, security, and maintainability.
Deployment Automation: The absence of an automated CI/CD pipeline led to inefficiencies in testing and deployment.
Customer Communication: The system lacked built-in email messaging and templating capabilities to notify users about important updates and transactions.

Solution

To address these challenges, I implemented a series of enhancements to improve system reliability, security, and efficiency:

1. Production-Ready Cloud Infrastructure

Designed and provisioned Azure subscription environments, ensuring clear isolation between production and non-production resources.
Enhanced security and scalability by following best practices for access control, resource management, and monitoring.

2. Stripe Payment Processing

Advised on best practices for secure and scalable payment processing using Stripe, ensuring smooth transactions for users.
Configured payment workflows to handle different use cases, improving reliability and customer experience.

3. CI/CD Automation with GitHub Actions

Implemented GitHub Actions for CI/CD, automating build and deployment processes.
Streamlined testing and release management, significantly reducing manual effort and deployment time.

4. Email Messaging and Templating System

Developed and integrated a custom email messaging system, enabling automated customer communications.
Created email templates for transactional and notification-based messages, improving user engagement and support.

Outcome

Improved Security & Scalability: The redesigned Azure infrastructure provided a clear separation of environments, reducing risk and improving maintainability.
Seamless Payment Processing: A properly implemented Stripe integration ensured secure and reliable transactions.
Efficient Deployments: The automated CI/CD pipeline reduced deployment time and minimized errors.
Enhanced Customer Communication: The new email messaging system allowed better engagement with users and improved operational efficiency.

With these improvements, the parking application was successfully prepared for production launch, equipped with a scalable, secure, and efficient cloud environment.