We needed inexpensive, IoT-friendly hardware, naturally drawing us to the lean, mean, fruity machine—The Raspberry Pi.
As we delved deeper into the implementation, we discovered several key insights that shaped our approach. The challenges we faced were not just technical, but also required us to think about user experience and scalability from the ground up.
Throughout this journey, we learned that building robust systems requires careful consideration of edge cases and real-world scenarios. Each decision we made had implications for both performance and maintainability.
The Pi is the epitome of commodity computing. It's cost-effective, energy-efficient, easy to set up, and has a ton of support for peripheral connectivity. With the Raspberry Pi, we can also sandbox and package our services to be deployed remotely nationwide.
As we evaluated different hardware options, the Raspberry Pi stood out for its versatility and community support. The extensive documentation and active developer community meant we could move quickly without reinventing the wheel.
What did we need to do?
We needed to integrate existing microservices with the Print Store. Our objectives were clear:
The results exceeded our expectations. We saw significant improvements in key metrics, and the feedback from our users has been overwhelmingly positive. This project has become a cornerstone of our technical infrastructure.
Looking ahead, we are excited about the possibilities this opens up. The foundation we have built allows us to iterate quickly and adapt to changing requirements while maintaining high standards of quality and reliability.
- Automation: Start the print process once the order has cleared its payment without manual intervention.
- Security: Delete the files as soon as the print is complete.
Implementing these requirements required careful coordination between multiple systems. We had to ensure that the payment gateway, order management system, and print service all worked together seamlessly.
The security aspect was particularly important. We needed to guarantee that sensitive documents would be completely removed from the system after printing, leaving no trace that could compromise user privacy.
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