Building a Scalable & Maintainable Micro SaaS

3.1 Infrastructure Setup

Cloud Architecture

AWS Infrastructure:
1. Compute Layer
   • EC2/ECS for API
   • Lambda for background jobs
   • Cost: $20-50/month

2. Database Layer
   • RDS PostgreSQL
   • Redis for caching
   • Cost: $15-30/month

3. Storage Layer
   • S3 for assets
   • CloudFront CDN
   • Cost: $5-15/month

Alternative: Vercel/Railway Stack
• Next.js deployment
• Serverless functions
• Edge caching
• Cost: $20-40/month

Service Architecture

Core Services:

1. Authentication Service
   • Clerk/Auth0 integration
   • JWT handling
   • Role-based access
   • SSO support

2. Payment Service
   • Stripe integration
   • Subscription management
   • Webhook handling
   • Invoice generation

3. Email Service
   • Resend/SendGrid
   • Template system
   • Queue management
   • Delivery tracking

4. Background Jobs
   • Bull/Redis Queue
   • Report generation
   • Data processing
   • Cleanup tasks

3.2 Security Implementation

Security Checklist

Authentication:
□ 2FA implementation
□ Password policies
□ Session management
□ OAuth integration

Data Protection:
□ Data encryption
□ Backup strategy
□ GDPR compliance
□ Data sanitization

API Security:
□ Rate limiting
□ JWT validation
□ CORS policies
□ Input validation

Monitoring:
□ Error tracking
□ Audit logging
□ Access monitoring
□ Threat detection

Security Best Practices

Implementation Guide:

1. Data Encryption
   • At rest: AES-256
   • In transit: TLS 1.3
   • Key management
   • Backup encryption

2. Access Control
   • Role-based access
   • Least privilege
   • API keys
   • IP whitelisting

3. Compliance
   • GDPR requirements
   • Cookie consent
   • Privacy policy
   • Terms of service

3.3 Scalability Planning

Performance Optimization

Database Optimization:
1. Indexing Strategy
   • Common queries
   • Sort operations
   • Join conditions

2. Query Optimization
   • Query planning
   • Cache layers
   • Connection pooling

3. Data Partitioning
   • Table partitioning
   • Sharding strategy
   • Archive policy

Load Handling

Scalability Measures:

1. Caching Strategy
   • Redis cache
   • CDN setup
   • Browser caching
   • Query caching

2. Load Balancing
   • Request distribution
   • Health checks
   • Failover setup
   • Auto-scaling

3. Resource Limits
   • API rate limits
   • Storage quotas
   • Compute limits
   • Concurrent users

3.4 Automation Systems

DevOps Pipeline

CI/CD Pipeline:

1. Development
   • Git workflow
   • Branch protection
   • Code review
   • Testing gates

2. Staging
   • Automated deploy
   • Integration tests
   • Performance tests
   • Security scans

3. Production
   • Blue-green deploy
   • Rollback plan
   • Health checks
   • Monitoring

Monitoring Setup