SaaS infrastructure decisions impact scalability, cost, and performance. Learn architecture patterns, cloud provider selection, and best practices.
Infrastructure Requirements
Scalability: Auto-scaling, load balancing, database replication, CDN, caching layers. Plan for 10x growth in first year.
Reliability: Multi-region deployment, automated backups, disaster recovery, 99.99% uptime target, monitoring and alerting.
Security: Encryption at rest and in transit, network security, access controls, regular security audits, compliance (SOC 2, GDPR).
Cloud Provider Selection
AWS: Comprehensive services, strong enterprise support, global infrastructure, mature ecosystem, but can be complex.
GCP: Strong data analytics, competitive pricing, good for AI/ML, but smaller ecosystem than AWS.
Azure: Strong enterprise integration, Microsoft ecosystem, good for hybrid cloud, but can be expensive.
Recommendation: Choose based on team expertise. AWS and GCP both work well for SaaS applications.
Architecture Patterns
Multi-Region: Deploy to multiple regions for redundancy and performance. Use database replication, CDN, and load balancing.
Microservices: Independent services that scale separately. Better fault isolation but increased complexity.
Serverless: Auto-scaling, pay-per-use, no infrastructure management. Good for APIs and event processing.
Database Architecture
Primary Database: PostgreSQL recommended for most SaaS applications. Supports ACID transactions, JSON data, and full-text search.
Caching: Redis for session storage, API response caching, and real-time features.
Replication: Read replicas for scaling reads, write replicas for high availability, automated backups.
CDN and Performance
CDN: CloudFlare, AWS CloudFront, or GCP Cloud CDN for global content delivery. Reduces latency and improves performance.
Optimization: Image optimization, code minification, lazy loading, HTTP/2, compression.
Cost Optimization
Right-Sizing: Choose appropriate instance sizes, use reserved instances for predictable workloads, auto-scale based on demand.
Monitoring: Track costs by service, set up alerts for unusual spending, optimize based on usage patterns.
Professional Setup: Infrastructure setup costs $10K-$25K but saves 30-50% on cloud costs through optimization.
Managed Services: For service businesses, Optimal.dev handles infrastructure, SEO, and growth management under one umbrella.