Azure architect, Ben

Within Crowdscan, I take up the role of Azure Cloud Architect. I’m responsible for the entire technical architecture: the intake of the sensor data, the processing and analysis, up to the visualisation on the (customer) dashboard.

When we started Crowdscan, we built the architecture from scratch, a mixture of own development and open source platforms. This works very well today, but it does not fit for the growth we foresee in the coming years.

What we need is automation, scalability and the easy integration of new features. We will rebuild our solution based on standardised Azure assets. These building blocks benefit from the most recent development, simplify cost allocation and are designed for scalability. If every new algorithm connects to the baseline like a standalone black box, this will allow us to create a modular offer, where features can be turned on and off in line with the needs of the customer.

In close collaboration with myself and some top architects at Microsoft, our Azure Cloud Expert will create the concepts, rethink the architecture, rebuild it and configure the building blocks. An architecture that is able to operate in the cloud, on our proper infrastructure or at the customer’s premises. It will be a hybrid architecture, as our service is based on short IOT data samples, but is enriched afterwards with various big data sources.

At Crowdscan, we’re a small team, but our growth ambitions are sky-high. We want to double the team, but this growth should not interfere with the Crowdscan values. Every person in our team is passionate about what we’re doing. We all work very independently, in all freedom, but it’s the teamwork that does the magic. Our solution is a success thanks to the unique interaction between the colleagues and the contribution of every single person.