How We Rebuilt a Cultural Intelligence Platform for Country Navigator
The platform had grown for ten years with no tests and no CI/CD. Certificate renewal and SSO setup worked because specific people remembered the steps. Large enterprises used it every day, so it could not go offline for a rebuild. We split the monolith into services. Users and content moved across in stages while the old and new systems ran side by side. Single sign-on became one configuration on Keycloak. Each organization now has its own AI assistant knowledge base. Enterprise customers worked through the whole move with zero downtime.
Afraid Your Platform Will Not Survive a Rebuild?
If only a few people understand your code and your customers cannot lose a day, we plan the move in stages. You see what moves first and how both systems stay live, with the scope and price.
Where the Platform Was Holding the Business Back
What Country Navigator was running on before the rebuild.
Steps Only One Person Knew
Only a few people knew how to renew certificates or set up SSO for a new client.
Every Change Carried Unknown Risk
Ten years of code with no automated tests and no CI/CD. A release could break something the team would only hear about from a customer.
Customers Who Could Not Lose a Day
Large enterprises trained their staff on the platform every day. A maintenance window was off the table.
No View Into the System
The platform had no monitoring, so the team ran it without seeing what it was doing.
The Challenge
Country Navigator ran on a monolith that had grown for ten years with no automated tests and no CI/CD. Certificate renewal and SSO onboarding lived in a few people's heads. Large enterprises used the platform every day, so it could not go offline. Every option had to keep their users working.
The platform also had no AI and could not grow with the content and languages the business planned.
Our Solution
We split the platform into services and moved users and content across in stages. The old and new systems ran side by side, so there was always a working platform. SSO moved to Keycloak with SAML, so onboarding a client became a standard setup. Terraform and Docker put the infrastructure into code. Prometheus, Grafana and Sentry now show the team what every service is doing.
The AI assistant uses a fine-tuned open model and looks up answers in curated content. Each organization's knowledge base stays separate.
How the Platform Was Rebuilt
Each card answers one problem above.
SSO Anyone on the Team Can Set Up
Keycloak and SAML replaced the manual metadata exchange. Onboarding a new enterprise is now one configuration.
Pipelines Before Every Release
We set up CI/CD and put the infrastructure into code first. Each change now goes through the same steps before customers see it.
Both Systems Live During the Move
Users and content moved in stages while the old platform kept running, so customers kept training.
Monitoring on Every Service
Prometheus, Grafana and Sentry show errors and load across the platform as they happen.
What the Cultural Intelligence Training Platform Does
What corporate training software development delivered for enterprise learners.
Service-Oriented Rebuild
We replaced the ten-year-old monolith. An Angular frontend now talks to NestJS services through one API gateway.
Zero Downtime Migration
The full user base and content moved to modern cloud in stages. Enterprise customers kept working through it.
Database Migration
A staged move from MS SQL Server to MySQL. Old and new records were reconciled before anything switched over.
Enterprise SSO on Keycloak
Single sign-on now runs on Keycloak. Before, each client's setup depended on one person's memory.
Observability From Zero
Prometheus, Grafana and Sentry watch every service. Before, the platform had no monitoring.
Production AI Assistant
A fine-tuned open-weight model with retrieval and text to speech. Each organization gets its own knowledge base and prompt setup.
What Runs on Its Own
What the platform handles without anyone stepping in.
Logins Follow the Customer's Own Provider
Staff sign in with their company login and get the access their employer sets.
Errors Show Up as They Happen
Sentry and Grafana flag errors and load on every service, so the team sees problems in real time.
Each Customer's AI Stays in Its Lane
The assistant answers each organization from its own knowledge base and prompt setup.
Guides Refresh With Audio
AI helps refresh the country and culture guides and adds optional audio narration.
Results
What changed for enterprise users after ten years on a monolith.
Downtime Moving a Ten-Year-Old Platform
Replaces the SSO Setup Only One Person Knew
Separate AI Knowledge Base for Each Enterprise
Of Monolith Rebuilt Into Services
The Stack Behind the Zero Downtime Migration
Angular
TypeScript
NestJS
MySQL
Keycloak
AWS
Terraform
Docker
Kubernetes
Prometheus
Grafana
Sentry
LoRA
QLoRA
StripeFrom Monolith to Services, Step by Step
Step 1 - Service Boundaries
Step 2 - Infrastructure as Code
Step 3 - Frontend and Services
Step 4 - Database Migration
Step 5 - Zero Downtime Migration
Step 6 - Enterprise SSO
Step 7 - Observability From Zero
Step 8 - Production AI Assistant
Step 9 - AI-Assisted Content Refresh
Where a Rebuild Like This Applies
Industries where companies use a platform every day and cannot let it go offline.
EdTech
Learning platforms that have to work for years, carry real enterprise customers, and add AI without teaching anyone something false.
HR & Recruitment
Hiring platforms, professional networks and staffing marketplaces where matching runs on structured data.
Aviation
Operations, maintenance and training software for an industry where every system carries a regulatory shadow.
Healthcare & Staffing
Marketplaces and workflow tools for care organizations, where the mechanism in the middle decides whether the market is fair.
Solutions Built Into Country Navigator
The rebuilt platform runs on three Hygge solutions side by side.
LMS & eLearning Platform Development
Cultural learning and assessment for enterprise teams. The AI assistant answers from each organization's own material.
- 1 per orgA separate AI knowledge base for each enterprise
- 10 yearsOf learning and assessment content carried over
- 0 downtimeWhile the user base moved to the new platform
Customer & Partner Portal Development
Each enterprise gets its own space. Staff sign in with their company login, and admins see who completed what.
- 1 configReplaces an SSO setup only one person knew
- Per orgData, admins and reporting kept apart
- Self-serveAdministrators manage cohorts without a ticket
API & Payment Integration
The monolith became services with documented interfaces. A release to one part no longer touches the rest.
- 10 yearsOf monolith rebuilt into services
- 1 contractEach service reached through a documented interface
- 0 downtimeThrough the migration, with live users on it
More Products Hygge Has Shipped
Other products Hygge builds and runs with the client's customers online.
Smarter Humans
A spaced repetition app built by the same team since 2019. About a million users moved to the rebuilt system with zero downtime.
- 93 %Cut off a 20-second document load
- 1 uploadReplaces the card writing people quit over
- 7 yearsOn one product with the same team
BoardsOnline
A founder paid for a platform reported as done. Engineers checked every feature, and the rebuild started from what worked.
- 3 verdictsFor every feature reported as done
- 6 monthsFrom the audit to a tested, live platform
- 1+ yearOf support after the contract ended
PlayFusionLabs CRM
Custom CRM development for a game studio. An agent researches companies, Today lists who to ping, and finance sits in one database.
- ~2 monthsFrom first call to daily use
- 150+Releases since launch
- 1 databaseFor sales, projects and finance
- $0In per-seat licences
CreAItivity
Creative agency software that runs a UK agency's ideation method without a facilitator, now in its third year.
- 36 widgetsCarry a method that needed a facilitator
- 20+ yearsOf agency practice turned into software
- 3rd yearOn the architecture chosen at the start
NOODLZ
Live auction software for an Irish agency network. Auctions moved off phone calls into one platform with verified bidders and a document vault.
- 1 platformReplaces auctions run outside any system
- 1 vaultReplaces contracts moving between inboxes
- 2+ yearsOf continuous delivery since 2024
IntellicAIr
A nurse staffing marketplace built around a sealed bidding engine written from scratch. Bids stay hidden until the round closes.
- 1 roundFor a post that waits 78 days to fill
- No nameOn a bid that used to hide a 40 % cut
- 1 inviteBrings a facility's own agencies onboard
Platform Modernization Services: Questions Buyers Ask
How does a zero downtime migration work for enterprise users?
Our platform runs on steps only one person knows. Where would you start?
Why rebuild the monolith at all?
Why a fine-tuned open-weight model for the AI assistant?
What does the work cover now?
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