Expert Answer
Anonymous
Situation:
When we were preparing the launch of Cisco Webex Interact in the UK market, we faced a key decision: whether to completely redesign the outbound messaging architecture into microservices with asynchronous processing, or iterate on the existing monolith. The safer choice was incremental updates, but it would limit our scalability and future growth.
Task:
As the engineering manager, my responsibility was to ensure we could handle projected customer growth, deliver a stable platform, and minimize long-term technical debt — while balancing business timelines and risk.
Action:
I proposed moving forward with a microservices-based architecture leveraging RabbitMQ, Redis, and AWS EKS. Before committing, I involved my senior engineers, architects, and product stakeholders in technical design sessions. We mapped out potential risks like message loss, operational complexity, and deployment challenges.
Result:
The calculated risk paid off. We scaled outbound messaging 6x, achieved 99.99% uptime, and eliminated many of the bottlenecks that would have limited us later. The team’s early involvement not only ensured technical robustness, but also created strong ownership and confidence during go-live. This architectural shift became a key enabler for Webex Interact’s success in new markets.
