ID Verification Provider unlocked elastic scaling, cost optimization and development velocity with Nitric.

As identity scams become more prevalent many transactions now demand rigorous identity validation. A prominent Identity Verification (IDV) SaaS provider presents a hosted solution which enables individuals to securely and effortlessly validate their identity, including biometric verification, remote applicant interviews and regulatory Know Your Customer (KYC) review and approval processing. Whether for financial dealings, property transactions, or various other services, the platform simplifies identity verification processes for users and the organizations they interact with.

The IDV provider’s initial product was built on a proprietary development platform. While the third-party platform enabled rapid initial development it was expensive to license and presented limitations which restricted their ability to introduce new features. The primary goal was to remove reliance on this third-party platform, allowing the team to modernize their application and directly leverage cloud capabilities, such as ML image analysis, from providers like AWS while reducing operating costs. Facing challenges with software architecture and cloud deployment automation, the IDV firm recognized the need to streamline their tools and processes.

Challenge

• Multi-tenancy was an immediate requirement for their platform to maintain data isolation between customers.
• Previous technology research and appraisal had disrupted their project timeline, diverting team attention from delivering customer value.
• Spiky system load made elastic scaling ideal to reduce off-peak cloud costs, however the existing system was structured as a stateful monolith, presenting challenges to scaling and cost optimization.
• Team lacked dedicated Ops and Cloud expertise as these roles were filled by the third-party platform. Significant time was expended understanding the intricacies of correct infrastructure provisioning on AWS and other unfamiliar cloud practices.

Nitric resolved decision paralysis, unlocked elastic scaling, and enabled cost optimization

The adoption of Nitric revolutionized the way the IDV firm approached application development. By addressing core challenges and streamlining the development process, Nitric enabled the firm to pivot to delivering high-value, secure, and scalable solutions for their customers.

Platform Building Blocks

Nitric offered an array of pre-selected building blocks tailored for their security and scalability. This meant the IDV firm didn’t have to spend time evaluating multiple tools, but rather could directly implement proven components, significantly speeding up the development process.

Handling Cloud Complexity

Nitric ensured everything was provisioned correctly, eliminating potential errors, security vulnerabilities and weeks of deployment automation work. This allowed the team to make progress while continuing to develop their knowledge of AWS and cloud practices. Nitric abstracted much of the cloud's complexity, allowing them to focus more on application logic and less on the intricacies of cloud provisioning and maintenance.

Rapid Iteration with Hot Reloading

One of the standout features was Nitric’s support for hot reloading. This enabled the development team to make real-time changes during local development, greatly reducing the iteration cycle and allowing for faster debugging and enhancements.

Integration with Existing Projects

Nitric's versatility allowed for integration with the firm’s existing database. Through tools like Pulumi, Nitric provided comprehensive support for databases, ensuring that the transition was smooth and existing systems remained unaffected.

The results

As a result of using Nitric, the IDV firm was able to move quickly to confidently deliver the multi-tenant solution their customers needed.

• Scale based on customer growth - the IDV can migrate customers without duplicating infrastructure, so they can start small but have confidence in their ability to scale over time.
• Dev productivity - the team can focus on building features for their customers instead of infrastructure automation and other non-differentiating work.
• The team's delivery speed is unlocked with confidence in automated infrastructure and configuration based on best practices.
• Removed bottleneck of skill development for AWS resources and deployment automation