CAnDL Platform

Table of Contents

Project Overview #

Co-architected and built a container-based platform for deploying analytics and AI applications for internal teams, focusing on security compliance and developer productivity.

Technical Architecture #

Infrastructure Foundation

AWS ECS Fargate for containerized application runtime
Terraform modules for reproducible infrastructure deployment
Multi-environment support (development, testing, production)
Integration with organizational identity management systems

Security Implementation

Migration from standard Debian images to Chainguard minimal containers
Implemented security scanning integration within CI/CD pipelines
Network isolation through VPC endpoint configurations

New AI/ML Integration

Amazon Bedrock integration with custom guardrails
RAG architecture using OpenSearch vector storage
Support for multiple foundation models with dynamic selection
Token usage monitoring and cost optimization

Development Methodology #

Infrastructure as Code

# Example Terraform module structure
module "multi_user_app" {
  source = "./modules/ecs-app"
  
  app_name         = var.app_name
  user_config      = local.user_configurations
  container_image  = "${var.ecr_repository}:${var.image_version}"
  
  # Security configurations
  vpc_config       = var.vpc_settings
  security_groups  = var.security_group_ids
  
  # Monitoring integration
  cloudwatch_config = var.monitoring_settings
}

CI/CD Automation

Automated version tagging using conventional commit standards
Container image building and registry publishing
Terraform validation and security scanning
Integration testing with containerized dependencies

Collaborative Aspects #

This project involved close coordination with:

Data science teams for application requirements
Security architects for compliance validation
Infrastructure specialists for networking design
Project delivery teams for deployment scheduling

Technical Outcomes #

Deployment frequency improved from monthly to weekly cycles
Developer onboarding time decreased through standardized tooling
Infrastructure consistency achieved across multiple environments

Learning Points #

Working within government compliance requirements provided valuable insights into balancing security constraints with developer productivity. The experience highlighted the importance of early security integration rather than retrofitting compliance measures.

Technology Stack: AWS ECS, Terraform, Docker, Python, GitLab CI/CD