Modernizing a bank's integration platform.
From the
ground up.
How Crafty Penguins delivered a fully production-ready, high-availability, multi-data-center platform for a US commercial bank, from zero footprint to documented handover.
A modern integration platform.
Built to
bank-grade standards.
A regional US commercial bank needed to modernize the platform that runs its integration layer, the systems that connect internal services, external partners, and customer-facing applications. The existing environment couldn't carry them forward. What they needed was new: a modern container platform, running highly available across two data centers, with a proven disaster recovery posture and the security, observability, and documentation appropriate to a bank.
Not a phased migration. Not a proof of concept. A production platform, built from zero, ready to carry regulated banking workloads.
- 01 Design and build a modern, highly-available container platform across two data centers.
- 02 Deliver a validated disaster recovery posture, with backups actually tested and restored, not just designed.
- 03 Hand over documented operations, security models, and runbooks, so the bank's own team can run the platform confidently after cutover.
Architect first. Build methodically.
Hand it over
documented.
We started with the architecture, leading design workshops that mapped every layer of the platform, from external network entry all the way to the storage layer. Firewall flows, network topology, storage design across both data centers, and the backup and disaster recovery strategy were all worked out on paper before any hardware was touched.
Then we built. The development cluster came first in the primary data center, a place to prove the architecture in real conditions, integrate the workloads, and shake out the operational details. Once the design was validated, we stood up the disaster recovery environment in the secondary data center, implemented backup policies for the entire platform, and tested full restoration. Not paperwork DR, actual cluster and workload recovery, verified end to end.
With DR proven, we deployed the production cluster in high-availability configuration, promoted the deployment pipelines, applied the security baselines, and coordinated a staged cutover of the integration workloads. Then we tuned everything against real production metrics, built monitoring dashboards and alerts, delivered the runbooks and documentation, and trained the bank's ops and dev teams to run it.
Architecture & detailed design
Full platform architecture, network flows, cluster topology, storage design, and DR strategy, worked through in workshops with the bank's own teams.
Multi-data-center deployment
Dev cluster in the primary DC. Disaster recovery environment in the secondary DC. Production HA cluster with hardened baselines. All built on schedule.
Validated disaster recovery
Backup policies for every layer of the platform, and tested restoration of full clusters and workloads, not just design documents.
Security & observability baselines
Access controls, network policies, workload security standards, monitoring dashboards, and alerting, the operational surface a bank actually needs.
Cutover coordination & documented handover
Staged production cutover of integration workloads. Architecture diagrams, operations runbooks, DR procedures, and security models delivered as documentation. Training sessions for the bank's ops and dev teams so they could run the platform confidently after we handed the keys over.
Primary + DR
Dev · DR · Prod
Verified end-to-end
Runbooks + training
A production platform. Fully documented.
Running in the
bank's hands.
The bank went from zero container-platform footprint to a fully production-ready, highly-available deployment across two data centers, with disaster recovery validated by actual restore testing, not just paper design.
The integration workloads now run on modern infrastructure with the security posture, observability, and operational discipline appropriate to a regulated bank. And because the handover included complete documentation and hands-on training, the bank's own ops and dev teams are running the platform themselves, with the architecture, runbooks, and DR procedures they need to operate it confidently.
The project ended with the keys firmly in the bank's hands, which is how a proper build-and-handover engagement is supposed to end.
Working with similar organizations
Need a platform built to bank-grade standards?
Crafty Penguins designs, builds, and hands over production platforms for regulated institutions, with the security posture, disaster recovery, and operational documentation your environment actually requires.