Context
Syarikat Air Melaka Berhad (SAMB), the water utility for the state of Melaka, required a mobile application to provide consumers with digital access to water services. Building on the architectural lessons from Air Selangor, this project was designed cloud-native from day one.
Constraints
- Government utility with regulatory compliance requirements
- Cloud-native architecture required from the start (no legacy migration)
- High-performance API requirements for mobile application
- Database design needing to support future growth and analytics
- Infrastructure as Code requirement for reproducible deployments
Architecture
Cloud-native architecture on AWS with Infrastructure as Code via CloudFormation. The backend API is powered by Laravel Octane for high-performance request handling, with PostgreSQL as the primary data store. Cloudflare provides edge caching and DDoS protection.
Key Decisions
- Cloud-native from day one: Unlike Air Selangor's migration journey, SAMB was architected for cloud from the start — applying lessons learned from previous projects.
- AWS + CloudFormation: Infrastructure as Code ensures reproducible, version-controlled deployments. CloudFormation was chosen for native AWS integration.
- Laravel Octane: Persistent worker model for handling high request volumes efficiently, proven in the Farmbyte project.
- PostgreSQL: Consistent with the Farmbyte stack, chosen for data integrity and query performance.
- Cloudflare integration: Edge caching reduces origin server load and provides built-in DDoS protection.
Security & Reliability
- Infrastructure as Code enables security audit of infrastructure changes
- Cloudflare WAF and DDoS protection at the edge
- Secure API design with proper authentication and authorization
- PostgreSQL with strict data integrity constraints
- SAST integration in CI/CD pipeline
Execution
- Led technical architecture and solution design
- Designed database structure and API contracts
- Configured AWS infrastructure using CloudFormation
- Set up server configuration with Nginx and Laravel Octane
- Produced technical documentation for stakeholder alignment
Outcome
- Delivered a cloud-native architecture applying all lessons from 7+ years of water utility projects
- Infrastructure as Code enables repeatable, auditable deployments
- High-performance API layer ready for Melaka's consumer base
- Architecture documentation enables team scalability