Smooth Scaling: System Design for High Traffic Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/smooth-scaling-system-design-for-high-traffic Smooth Scaling: System Design for High Traffic focuses on all things scalability, reliability, and performance. Tune in for expert advice on how to scale systems, control costs, boost availability, optimize performance, and get the most out of your tech stack. Host Jose Quaresma is the VP Customer Experience & Solutions at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. He’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that remain reliable at scale. 2026 Queue-it 339bacd0-1e73-5381-ba31-08fe98557e49 no 480bdc80-20e2-11f0-b651-45bf59df5326 José Quaresma en Thu, 30 Apr 2026 09:24:03 +0200 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 09:24:14 +0200 http://www.queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast https://img.transistorcdn.com/kMyivtlrMjiYlr-8L0Ovm35B6Y5jHJVDWXBnMfI1HhA/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hY2Jj/MTdjYjIxN2VmOThi/N2NiNmM5NmI4OWEy/ZGFiNi5qcGc.jpg Smooth Scaling: System Design for High Traffic http://www.queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast episodic Queue-it Smooth Scaling: System Design for High Traffic focuses on all things scalability, reliability, and performance. Tune in for expert advice on how to scale systems, control costs, boost availability, optimize performance, and get the most out of your tech stack. Host Jose Quaresma is the VP Customer Experience & Solutions at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. He’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that remain reliable at scale. Smooth Scaling: System Design for High Traffic focuses on all things scalability, reliability, and performance. System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, Queue-it ApS marketing@queue-it.com No No A Decade of Kubernetes Lessons with Chris Nesbitt-Smith 24 24 A Decade of Kubernetes Lessons with Chris Nesbitt-Smith full 73f9a5da-e2d4-4135-a975-06ddb5676d68 https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep024-kubernetes-lessons/ Chris Nesbitt-Smith has been running Kubernetes in production since version 0.4 — long before pods, before managed services, before most of today's tooling existed. In this episode of Smooth Scaling, he sits down with José Quaresma to share what a decade of running Kubernetes for UK government citizen-facing services has taught him about scaling critical infrastructure. The conversation covers why Kubernetes was the least bad option (and largely still is), why relying on autoscaling means you've already lost, and how Gregor Hohpe's "guardrails versus lane assist" metaphor changes the way you think about capacity. Chris makes the case for climbing the service stack — SaaS first, then Functions as a Service, then Platform as a Service, and only reluctantly managed Kubernetes — and explains why tech is one of the only industries that builds critical systems without ever pricing the risk of failure. A direct, opinionated look at what scaling really demands when the stakes are real and the budget isn't infinite.

Episode page

---

  • (00:01) - Intro
  • (01:23) - Running Kubernetes since v0.4 in UK government
  • (04:56) - Why pod rescheduling went full circle
  • (09:07) - "Brave and stupid": running alpha-stage K8s in production
  • (14:58) - Helm, DevOps as a job title, and cultural drift
  • (16:43) - Climb the service stack (SaaS → FaaS → PaaS → managed K8s)
  • (20:48) - Why engineers resist giving up control
  • (23:52) - Tech doesn't quantify risk the way every other industry does
  • (27:14) - If you're relying on autoscaling, it's already too late
  • (28:30) - The KubeCon Black Friday game: dropping requests as strategy
  • (33:03) - Graceful degradation up the stack
  • (35:34) - "Mostly myths": data sovereignty vs. data residency
  • (38:35) - Cloudflare and "deploy to the world" as a different paradigm
  • (41:53) - The legacy debt sitting in UK public sector tech
  • (46:03) - Rapid-fire: build advice, recommended reading, scalability is...

Chris Nesbitt-Smith is an independent technology strategist, a Kubernetes instructor at LearnKube, and the architect of the UK Government's National Digital Exchange. Based in London, he works at the intersection of policy, security, and modern infrastructure — advising UK and international government departments, multinational enterprises, and large NGOs on cloud-native transformation and DevSecOps. A regular speaker at KubeCon, DevSecCon, and Open Source Summit, his talks span container security, policy-as-versioned-code, and platform engineering. He also blogs regularly on his blog Cloudy with Chance of Freefall.

🔗 Connect 
Guest Chris Nesbitt-Smith: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/cnesbittsmith 
Host José Quaresma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-quaresma/

This podcast is researched by Joseph Thwaites, produced by Perseu Mandillo, and brought to you by Queue-it, your virtual waiting room partner.


© Queue-it, 2026

]]> Chris Nesbitt-Smith has been running Kubernetes in production since version 0.4 — long before pods, before managed services, before most of today's tooling existed. In this episode of Smooth Scaling, he sits down with José Quaresma to share what a decade of running Kubernetes for UK government citizen-facing services has taught him about scaling critical infrastructure. The conversation covers why Kubernetes was the least bad option (and largely still is), why relying on autoscaling means you've already lost, and how Gregor Hohpe's "guardrails versus lane assist" metaphor changes the way you think about capacity. Chris makes the case for climbing the service stack — SaaS first, then Functions as a Service, then Platform as a Service, and only reluctantly managed Kubernetes — and explains why tech is one of the only industries that builds critical systems without ever pricing the risk of failure. A direct, opinionated look at what scaling really demands when the stakes are real and the budget isn't infinite.

Episode page

---

  • (00:01) - Intro
  • (01:23) - Running Kubernetes since v0.4 in UK government
  • (04:56) - Why pod rescheduling went full circle
  • (09:07) - "Brave and stupid": running alpha-stage K8s in production
  • (14:58) - Helm, DevOps as a job title, and cultural drift
  • (16:43) - Climb the service stack (SaaS → FaaS → PaaS → managed K8s)
  • (20:48) - Why engineers resist giving up control
  • (23:52) - Tech doesn't quantify risk the way every other industry does
  • (27:14) - If you're relying on autoscaling, it's already too late
  • (28:30) - The KubeCon Black Friday game: dropping requests as strategy
  • (33:03) - Graceful degradation up the stack
  • (35:34) - "Mostly myths": data sovereignty vs. data residency
  • (38:35) - Cloudflare and "deploy to the world" as a different paradigm
  • (41:53) - The legacy debt sitting in UK public sector tech
  • (46:03) - Rapid-fire: build advice, recommended reading, scalability is...

Chris Nesbitt-Smith is an independent technology strategist, a Kubernetes instructor at LearnKube, and the architect of the UK Government's National Digital Exchange. Based in London, he works at the intersection of policy, security, and modern infrastructure — advising UK and international government departments, multinational enterprises, and large NGOs on cloud-native transformation and DevSecOps. A regular speaker at KubeCon, DevSecCon, and Open Source Summit, his talks span container security, policy-as-versioned-code, and platform engineering. He also blogs regularly on his blog Cloudy with Chance of Freefall.

🔗 Connect 
Guest Chris Nesbitt-Smith: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/cnesbittsmith 
Host José Quaresma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-quaresma/

This podcast is researched by Joseph Thwaites, produced by Perseu Mandillo, and brought to you by Queue-it, your virtual waiting room partner.


© Queue-it, 2026

]]> Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:34:21 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2975 Chris Nesbitt-Smith has been running Kubernetes in production since version 0.4 — long before pods, before managed services, before most of today's tooling existed. In this episode of Smooth Scaling, he sits down with José Quaresma to share what a decade of running Kubernetes for UK government citizen-facing services has taught him about scaling critical infrastructure. The conversation covers why Kubernetes was the least bad option (and largely still is), why relying on autoscaling means you've already lost, and how Gregor Hohpe's "guardrails versus lane assist" metaphor changes the way you think about capacity. Chris makes the case for climbing the service stack — SaaS first, then Functions as a Service, then Platform as a Service, and only reluctantly managed Kubernetes — and explains why tech is one of the only industries that builds critical systems without ever pricing the risk of failure. A direct, opinionated look at what scaling really demands when the stakes are real and the budget isn't infinite.

Episode page

---

  • (00:01) - Intro
  • (01:23) - Running Kubernetes since v0.4 in UK government
  • (04:56) - Why pod rescheduling went full circle
  • (09:07) - "Brave and stupid": running alpha-stage K8s in production
  • (14:58) - Helm, DevOps as a job title, and cultural drift
  • (16:43) - Climb the service stack (SaaS → FaaS → PaaS → managed K8s)
  • (20:48) - Why engineers resist giving up control
  • (23:52) - Tech doesn't quantify risk the way every other industry does
  • (27:14) - If you're relying on autoscaling, it's already too late
  • (28:30) - The KubeCon Black Friday game: dropping requests as strategy
  • (33:03) - Graceful degradation up the stack
  • (35:34) - "Mostly myths": data sovereignty vs. data residency
  • (38:35) - Cloudflare and "deploy to the world" as a different paradigm
  • (41:53) - The legacy debt sitting in UK public sector tech
  • (46:03) - Rapid-fire: build advice, recommended reading, scalability is...

Chris Nesbitt-Smith is an independent technology strategist, a Kubernetes instructor at LearnKube, and the architect of the UK Government's National Digital Exchange. Based in London, he works at the intersection of policy, security, and modern infrastructure — advising UK and international government departments, multinational enterprises, and large NGOs on cloud-native transformation and DevSecOps. A regular speaker at KubeCon, DevSecCon, and Open Source Summit, his talks span container security, policy-as-versioned-code, and platform engineering. He also blogs regularly on his blog Cloudy with Chance of Freefall.

🔗 Connect 
Guest Chris Nesbitt-Smith: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/cnesbittsmith 
Host José Quaresma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-quaresma/

This podcast is researched by Joseph Thwaites, produced by Perseu Mandillo, and brought to you by Queue-it, your virtual waiting room partner.


© Queue-it, 2026

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Autoscaling in Production: When It Works and When It Doesn't with Zaigham Sarfaraz and Šimon Bučko 23 23 Autoscaling in Production: When It Works and When It Doesn't with Zaigham Sarfaraz and Šimon Bučko full c262d6ad-86aa-47b4-96d8-f79fe9fb6d61 https://www.queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep023-autoscaling-in-production/ In this episode, José Quaresma sits down with two Queue-it engineers — Zaigham Sarfaraz, Engineering Manager, and Šimon Bučko, Senior Software Engineer — to talk autoscaling in production. They cover the fundamentals of horizontal and vertical scaling, why stateless architecture matters for scaling out, and what happens when the metrics you're scaling on don't match your actual bottleneck. The conversation gets real when Zaigham shares a war story of autoscaling failing during an iPhone launch — one million users in one second — and how that experience reshaped how the team thinks about pre-scaling for extreme traffic. Šimon challenges the temptation to rely on default configurations and explains why the days you most need autoscaling to work are exactly the days it might not.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (00:46) - What is autoscaling under the hood?
  • (03:25) - Why scaling down matters too
  • (03:53) - Horizontal vs. vertical scaling
  • (05:43) - When vertical scaling is the better choice
  • (07:56) - Stateful vs. stateless applications
  • (10:42) - Solving state for horizontal scaling
  • (12:14) - The role of load balancers
  • (14:31) - Choosing the right scaling metrics
  • (16:46) - Is serverless the silver bullet?
  • (21:34) - The cost paradox of autoscaling
  • (23:40) - iPhone launch: when the whole world wants to buy a product
  • (25:56) - Why autoscaling isn't enough for non-linear traffic
  • (30:37) - The fallacy of the rule of thumb
  • (32:48) - Rapid fire questions

Šimon Bučko is a Senior Software Engineer at Queue-it, working across full-stack development. He is an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional with strong experience in software architecture and bridging the gap between business needs and technical execution. 

Zaigham Sarfaraz is an Engineering Manager at Queue-it with over 15 years of experience across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and people leadership. He is an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and plays a key role in ensuring stable system operations while contributing to the continuous improvement of Queue-it's backend architecture. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> In this episode, José Quaresma sits down with two Queue-it engineers — Zaigham Sarfaraz, Engineering Manager, and Šimon Bučko, Senior Software Engineer — to talk autoscaling in production. They cover the fundamentals of horizontal and vertical scaling, why stateless architecture matters for scaling out, and what happens when the metrics you're scaling on don't match your actual bottleneck. The conversation gets real when Zaigham shares a war story of autoscaling failing during an iPhone launch — one million users in one second — and how that experience reshaped how the team thinks about pre-scaling for extreme traffic. Šimon challenges the temptation to rely on default configurations and explains why the days you most need autoscaling to work are exactly the days it might not.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (00:46) - What is autoscaling under the hood?
  • (03:25) - Why scaling down matters too
  • (03:53) - Horizontal vs. vertical scaling
  • (05:43) - When vertical scaling is the better choice
  • (07:56) - Stateful vs. stateless applications
  • (10:42) - Solving state for horizontal scaling
  • (12:14) - The role of load balancers
  • (14:31) - Choosing the right scaling metrics
  • (16:46) - Is serverless the silver bullet?
  • (21:34) - The cost paradox of autoscaling
  • (23:40) - iPhone launch: when the whole world wants to buy a product
  • (25:56) - Why autoscaling isn't enough for non-linear traffic
  • (30:37) - The fallacy of the rule of thumb
  • (32:48) - Rapid fire questions

Šimon Bučko is a Senior Software Engineer at Queue-it, working across full-stack development. He is an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional with strong experience in software architecture and bridging the gap between business needs and technical execution. 

Zaigham Sarfaraz is an Engineering Manager at Queue-it with over 15 years of experience across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and people leadership. He is an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and plays a key role in ensuring stable system operations while contributing to the continuous improvement of Queue-it's backend architecture. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 08:00:00 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2143 In this episode, José Quaresma sits down with two Queue-it engineers — Zaigham Sarfaraz, Engineering Manager, and Šimon Bučko, Senior Software Engineer — to talk autoscaling in production. They cover the fundamentals of horizontal and vertical scaling, why stateless architecture matters for scaling out, and what happens when the metrics you're scaling on don't match your actual bottleneck. The conversation gets real when Zaigham shares a war story of autoscaling failing during an iPhone launch — one million users in one second — and how that experience reshaped how the team thinks about pre-scaling for extreme traffic. Šimon challenges the temptation to rely on default configurations and explains why the days you most need autoscaling to work are exactly the days it might not.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (00:46) - What is autoscaling under the hood?
  • (03:25) - Why scaling down matters too
  • (03:53) - Horizontal vs. vertical scaling
  • (05:43) - When vertical scaling is the better choice
  • (07:56) - Stateful vs. stateless applications
  • (10:42) - Solving state for horizontal scaling
  • (12:14) - The role of load balancers
  • (14:31) - Choosing the right scaling metrics
  • (16:46) - Is serverless the silver bullet?
  • (21:34) - The cost paradox of autoscaling
  • (23:40) - iPhone launch: when the whole world wants to buy a product
  • (25:56) - Why autoscaling isn't enough for non-linear traffic
  • (30:37) - The fallacy of the rule of thumb
  • (32:48) - Rapid fire questions

Šimon Bučko is a Senior Software Engineer at Queue-it, working across full-stack development. He is an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional with strong experience in software architecture and bridging the gap between business needs and technical execution. 

Zaigham Sarfaraz is an Engineering Manager at Queue-it with over 15 years of experience across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and people leadership. He is an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and plays a key role in ensuring stable system operations while contributing to the continuous improvement of Queue-it's backend architecture. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Observability as a Product: Building Platforms Engineers Actually Use with Iris Dyrmishi 22 22 Observability as a Product: Building Platforms Engineers Actually Use with Iris Dyrmishi full 81702004-01bf-4142-918c-4eb53c8c94bd https://www.queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep022-observability-as-a-product-with-iris-dyrmishi/ In this episode, José Quaresma speaks with Iris Dyrmishi, Senior Observability Engineer at Miro, about building an observability platform that hundreds of engineers actually trust and use. Iris explains how her team treats observability as an internal product, walks through Miro's tracing migration from Jaeger and Zipkin to OpenTelemetry with zero disruption, and shares how teams now use traces proactively to find bottlenecks before they become outages. The conversation also covers the honest downsides — alert noise, dashboard sprawl, and the cost of observability — including a recent example using eBPF and Grafana Beyla to uncover hidden networking expenses that transformed Miro's cloud bill.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:59) - Building Observability as a Product at Miro
  • (04:08) - Migrating to OpenTelemetry
  • (09:21) - Industry Maturity and the Business Case
  • (12:02) - From Reactive to Proactive Observability
  • (14:34) - Logs vs. Tracing Explained
  • (18:04) - Team Ownership, AI, and Freedom
  • (24:38) - The Downsides and Costs of Observability
  • (29:58) - Rapid Fire and Close

Iris Dyrmishi is a Senior Observability Engineer at Miro, where she builds and maintains the company's observability platform. She started as a backend engineer before moving into SRE roles at Worten Portugal and Farfetch, where she developed her specialty in tracing and drove OpenTelemetry migrations across large engineering organisations without disrupting existing workflows. A CNCF Ambassador, co-organiser of Kubernetes Community Days Porto, and active voice in the observability community, she writes extensively about practical adoption challenges and has spoken at KubeCon EU and on the o11ycast podcast. Her guiding philosophy: observability is a team sport.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> In this episode, José Quaresma speaks with Iris Dyrmishi, Senior Observability Engineer at Miro, about building an observability platform that hundreds of engineers actually trust and use. Iris explains how her team treats observability as an internal product, walks through Miro's tracing migration from Jaeger and Zipkin to OpenTelemetry with zero disruption, and shares how teams now use traces proactively to find bottlenecks before they become outages. The conversation also covers the honest downsides — alert noise, dashboard sprawl, and the cost of observability — including a recent example using eBPF and Grafana Beyla to uncover hidden networking expenses that transformed Miro's cloud bill.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:59) - Building Observability as a Product at Miro
  • (04:08) - Migrating to OpenTelemetry
  • (09:21) - Industry Maturity and the Business Case
  • (12:02) - From Reactive to Proactive Observability
  • (14:34) - Logs vs. Tracing Explained
  • (18:04) - Team Ownership, AI, and Freedom
  • (24:38) - The Downsides and Costs of Observability
  • (29:58) - Rapid Fire and Close

Iris Dyrmishi is a Senior Observability Engineer at Miro, where she builds and maintains the company's observability platform. She started as a backend engineer before moving into SRE roles at Worten Portugal and Farfetch, where she developed her specialty in tracing and drove OpenTelemetry migrations across large engineering organisations without disrupting existing workflows. A CNCF Ambassador, co-organiser of Kubernetes Community Days Porto, and active voice in the observability community, she writes extensively about practical adoption challenges and has spoken at KubeCon EU and on the o11ycast podcast. Her guiding philosophy: observability is a team sport.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:50:24 +0100 Queue-it Queue-it 2000 In this episode, José Quaresma speaks with Iris Dyrmishi, Senior Observability Engineer at Miro, about building an observability platform that hundreds of engineers actually trust and use. Iris explains how her team treats observability as an internal product, walks through Miro's tracing migration from Jaeger and Zipkin to OpenTelemetry with zero disruption, and shares how teams now use traces proactively to find bottlenecks before they become outages. The conversation also covers the honest downsides — alert noise, dashboard sprawl, and the cost of observability — including a recent example using eBPF and Grafana Beyla to uncover hidden networking expenses that transformed Miro's cloud bill.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:59) - Building Observability as a Product at Miro
  • (04:08) - Migrating to OpenTelemetry
  • (09:21) - Industry Maturity and the Business Case
  • (12:02) - From Reactive to Proactive Observability
  • (14:34) - Logs vs. Tracing Explained
  • (18:04) - Team Ownership, AI, and Freedom
  • (24:38) - The Downsides and Costs of Observability
  • (29:58) - Rapid Fire and Close

Iris Dyrmishi is a Senior Observability Engineer at Miro, where she builds and maintains the company's observability platform. She started as a backend engineer before moving into SRE roles at Worten Portugal and Farfetch, where she developed her specialty in tracing and drove OpenTelemetry migrations across large engineering organisations without disrupting existing workflows. A CNCF Ambassador, co-organiser of Kubernetes Community Days Porto, and active voice in the observability community, she writes extensively about practical adoption challenges and has spoken at KubeCon EU and on the o11ycast podcast. Her guiding philosophy: observability is a team sport.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Online Traffic in the Age of Agentic AI with Hans Skovgaard 21 21 Online Traffic in the Age of Agentic AI with Hans Skovgaard full 3896e212-9899-42b0-a824-d6f46498a9c3 https://www.queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep021-agentic-ai-and-future-of-online-traffic/ In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma speaks with Hans Skovgaard, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Queue-it, about a shift that is already underway and accelerating fast: the internet now carries more automated bot traffic than human traffic — and agentic AI is about to make that gap much wider.

Hans explains why the old model of "bots versus humans" is fundamentally broken, and why the real question is no longer who is visiting your site, but what their intent is. The conversation covers why autoscaling can no longer protect against the extreme traffic bursts that AI agents will generate, how to make bot attacks economically unviable, and what a future of AI agents buying concert tickets on your behalf actually looks like in practice. Hans also unpacks the evolving landscape of digital identity — from payment certificates to the EU Digital Identity Wallet — and what it means to build systems that can tell a genuine buyer from a scalper running 100,000 simultaneous requests.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (01:19) - The Internet Just Changed — More Bots Than Humans Online
  • (03:51) - The New Threat Isn't Bots vs. Humans. It's Intent.
  • (06:06) - Why Autoscaling Can't Save You in the Agentic Age
  • (09:00) - Making Attacks Expensive — The Economics of Bot Defence
  • (11:02) - What Does the Future Actually Look Like? The AI Agent Buying Your Tickets
  • (14:30) - The Next Generation of Challenges — Easy for Humans, Costly for Bots
  • (18:53) - The Deeper Problem: Volatility Is Going Out of Control
  • (20:24) - Can We Prove You're Human? Identity, Trust & the EU Wallet
  • (25:45) - Rapid Fire
  • (30:07) - Outro

Hans J. Skovgaard is Chief Technology and Product Officer at Queue-it, the Copenhagen-founded SaaS company whose virtual waiting room technology helps the world's biggest brands manage traffic surges and prevent bot abuse during high-demand online events. With over two decades of experience leading engineering and product organisations in Nordic software companies, Hans has built a career at the intersection of deep technical expertise and strategic leadership. Before Queue-it, he served as CTPO at Penneo, a Nasdaq Copenhagen-listed RegTech company, and as CTO and VP of R&D at Capture One, where he led the company's spin-off from Phase One, launched its first SaaS product, and shipped Capture One for iPad. Earlier, he held engineering leadership roles at Milestone Systems and Microsoft. He holds an M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from IMD, and has published research at AAAI, IEEE, and ACM.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma speaks with Hans Skovgaard, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Queue-it, about a shift that is already underway and accelerating fast: the internet now carries more automated bot traffic than human traffic — and agentic AI is about to make that gap much wider.

Hans explains why the old model of "bots versus humans" is fundamentally broken, and why the real question is no longer who is visiting your site, but what their intent is. The conversation covers why autoscaling can no longer protect against the extreme traffic bursts that AI agents will generate, how to make bot attacks economically unviable, and what a future of AI agents buying concert tickets on your behalf actually looks like in practice. Hans also unpacks the evolving landscape of digital identity — from payment certificates to the EU Digital Identity Wallet — and what it means to build systems that can tell a genuine buyer from a scalper running 100,000 simultaneous requests.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (01:19) - The Internet Just Changed — More Bots Than Humans Online
  • (03:51) - The New Threat Isn't Bots vs. Humans. It's Intent.
  • (06:06) - Why Autoscaling Can't Save You in the Agentic Age
  • (09:00) - Making Attacks Expensive — The Economics of Bot Defence
  • (11:02) - What Does the Future Actually Look Like? The AI Agent Buying Your Tickets
  • (14:30) - The Next Generation of Challenges — Easy for Humans, Costly for Bots
  • (18:53) - The Deeper Problem: Volatility Is Going Out of Control
  • (20:24) - Can We Prove You're Human? Identity, Trust & the EU Wallet
  • (25:45) - Rapid Fire
  • (30:07) - Outro

Hans J. Skovgaard is Chief Technology and Product Officer at Queue-it, the Copenhagen-founded SaaS company whose virtual waiting room technology helps the world's biggest brands manage traffic surges and prevent bot abuse during high-demand online events. With over two decades of experience leading engineering and product organisations in Nordic software companies, Hans has built a career at the intersection of deep technical expertise and strategic leadership. Before Queue-it, he served as CTPO at Penneo, a Nasdaq Copenhagen-listed RegTech company, and as CTO and VP of R&D at Capture One, where he led the company's spin-off from Phase One, launched its first SaaS product, and shipped Capture One for iPad. Earlier, he held engineering leadership roles at Milestone Systems and Microsoft. He holds an M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from IMD, and has published research at AAAI, IEEE, and ACM.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:02:46 +0100 Queue-it Queue-it 1847 In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma speaks with Hans Skovgaard, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Queue-it, about a shift that is already underway and accelerating fast: the internet now carries more automated bot traffic than human traffic — and agentic AI is about to make that gap much wider.

Hans explains why the old model of "bots versus humans" is fundamentally broken, and why the real question is no longer who is visiting your site, but what their intent is. The conversation covers why autoscaling can no longer protect against the extreme traffic bursts that AI agents will generate, how to make bot attacks economically unviable, and what a future of AI agents buying concert tickets on your behalf actually looks like in practice. Hans also unpacks the evolving landscape of digital identity — from payment certificates to the EU Digital Identity Wallet — and what it means to build systems that can tell a genuine buyer from a scalper running 100,000 simultaneous requests.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (01:19) - The Internet Just Changed — More Bots Than Humans Online
  • (03:51) - The New Threat Isn't Bots vs. Humans. It's Intent.
  • (06:06) - Why Autoscaling Can't Save You in the Agentic Age
  • (09:00) - Making Attacks Expensive — The Economics of Bot Defence
  • (11:02) - What Does the Future Actually Look Like? The AI Agent Buying Your Tickets
  • (14:30) - The Next Generation of Challenges — Easy for Humans, Costly for Bots
  • (18:53) - The Deeper Problem: Volatility Is Going Out of Control
  • (20:24) - Can We Prove You're Human? Identity, Trust & the EU Wallet
  • (25:45) - Rapid Fire
  • (30:07) - Outro

Hans J. Skovgaard is Chief Technology and Product Officer at Queue-it, the Copenhagen-founded SaaS company whose virtual waiting room technology helps the world's biggest brands manage traffic surges and prevent bot abuse during high-demand online events. With over two decades of experience leading engineering and product organisations in Nordic software companies, Hans has built a career at the intersection of deep technical expertise and strategic leadership. Before Queue-it, he served as CTPO at Penneo, a Nasdaq Copenhagen-listed RegTech company, and as CTO and VP of R&D at Capture One, where he led the company's spin-off from Phase One, launched its first SaaS product, and shipped Capture One for iPad. Earlier, he held engineering leadership roles at Milestone Systems and Microsoft. He holds an M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from IMD, and has published research at AAAI, IEEE, and ACM.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Running High-Traffic Product Launches at Build-A-Bear with Art Huggard 20 20 Running High-Traffic Product Launches at Build-A-Bear with Art Huggard full 105aa486-0cbc-4a76-b488-81c620cec32c https://www.queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep020-high-traffic-product-launches/ In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma sits down with Art Huggard, former VP of E-Commerce at Build-A-Bear, who transformed the company's online presence from a crashing website to a $70 million business over eight years. Art shares his unconventional path from chemical engineering to e-commerce leadership at Bass Pro Shops, Hudson's Bay, and Build-A-Bear. He reveals how the company went from website crashes every hour during the 2016 holiday season to successfully managing viral product launches like Baby Yoda that sold out in four hours. Art discusses Queue-it's virtual waiting room for handling extreme traffic spikes, real-time system tuning during flash sales, and the importance of balancing technical infrastructure with guest experience. The conversation covers cloud scalability challenges, order management bottlenecks in Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and what it takes to handle 300+ orders per minute. The episode illustrates how preparation and cross-industry lessons can turn unpredictable demand into business success.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:03) - From Chemical Engineer to Ecommerce Leader
  • (05:01) - How Early Ecommerce Got the Experience Wrong
  • (07:30) - Walking Into a Website That Was Crashing
  • (09:56) - Why Build-A-Bear Isn't Just a Toy Company
  • (12:03) - Using AI to Remove Bottlenecks and Ship Faster
  • (14:43) - COVID, Baby Yoda, and Sudden Demand Spikes
  • (16:05) - What 300 Orders a Minute Really Looks Like
  • (22:38) - Finding the Real Bottlenecks in the Stack
  • (25:29) - From Ammunition to Baby Yoda: Cross-Industry Lessons
  • (27:57) - Book Recommendations and Professional Advice
  • (30:32) - What Scalability Really Means

Art Huggard is a leading expert in Digital Commerce. He has helped many well known brands such as Build-A-Bear, Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Boats, Hudson Bay and others move from chaos to High Growth. He has a keen understanding of the entire customer ecosystem including Web, Order Management, CRM, Loyalty and Digital Marketing. Known for building high performance teams Art has been an excellent mentor to many at the companies where he has worked. Most recently Art has formed Gateway-Commerce (www.gateway-commerce.com) where he provides fractional consulting to companies looking to make significant improvements to how they serve their guests. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. © Queue-it, 2026

]]> In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma sits down with Art Huggard, former VP of E-Commerce at Build-A-Bear, who transformed the company's online presence from a crashing website to a $70 million business over eight years. Art shares his unconventional path from chemical engineering to e-commerce leadership at Bass Pro Shops, Hudson's Bay, and Build-A-Bear. He reveals how the company went from website crashes every hour during the 2016 holiday season to successfully managing viral product launches like Baby Yoda that sold out in four hours. Art discusses Queue-it's virtual waiting room for handling extreme traffic spikes, real-time system tuning during flash sales, and the importance of balancing technical infrastructure with guest experience. The conversation covers cloud scalability challenges, order management bottlenecks in Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and what it takes to handle 300+ orders per minute. The episode illustrates how preparation and cross-industry lessons can turn unpredictable demand into business success.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:03) - From Chemical Engineer to Ecommerce Leader
  • (05:01) - How Early Ecommerce Got the Experience Wrong
  • (07:30) - Walking Into a Website That Was Crashing
  • (09:56) - Why Build-A-Bear Isn't Just a Toy Company
  • (12:03) - Using AI to Remove Bottlenecks and Ship Faster
  • (14:43) - COVID, Baby Yoda, and Sudden Demand Spikes
  • (16:05) - What 300 Orders a Minute Really Looks Like
  • (22:38) - Finding the Real Bottlenecks in the Stack
  • (25:29) - From Ammunition to Baby Yoda: Cross-Industry Lessons
  • (27:57) - Book Recommendations and Professional Advice
  • (30:32) - What Scalability Really Means

Art Huggard is a leading expert in Digital Commerce. He has helped many well known brands such as Build-A-Bear, Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Boats, Hudson Bay and others move from chaos to High Growth. He has a keen understanding of the entire customer ecosystem including Web, Order Management, CRM, Loyalty and Digital Marketing. Known for building high performance teams Art has been an excellent mentor to many at the companies where he has worked. Most recently Art has formed Gateway-Commerce (www.gateway-commerce.com) where he provides fractional consulting to companies looking to make significant improvements to how they serve their guests. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. © Queue-it, 2026

]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 08:00:00 +0100 Queue-it Queue-it 1921 In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma sits down with Art Huggard, former VP of E-Commerce at Build-A-Bear, who transformed the company's online presence from a crashing website to a $70 million business over eight years. Art shares his unconventional path from chemical engineering to e-commerce leadership at Bass Pro Shops, Hudson's Bay, and Build-A-Bear. He reveals how the company went from website crashes every hour during the 2016 holiday season to successfully managing viral product launches like Baby Yoda that sold out in four hours. Art discusses Queue-it's virtual waiting room for handling extreme traffic spikes, real-time system tuning during flash sales, and the importance of balancing technical infrastructure with guest experience. The conversation covers cloud scalability challenges, order management bottlenecks in Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and what it takes to handle 300+ orders per minute. The episode illustrates how preparation and cross-industry lessons can turn unpredictable demand into business success.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:03) - From Chemical Engineer to Ecommerce Leader
  • (05:01) - How Early Ecommerce Got the Experience Wrong
  • (07:30) - Walking Into a Website That Was Crashing
  • (09:56) - Why Build-A-Bear Isn't Just a Toy Company
  • (12:03) - Using AI to Remove Bottlenecks and Ship Faster
  • (14:43) - COVID, Baby Yoda, and Sudden Demand Spikes
  • (16:05) - What 300 Orders a Minute Really Looks Like
  • (22:38) - Finding the Real Bottlenecks in the Stack
  • (25:29) - From Ammunition to Baby Yoda: Cross-Industry Lessons
  • (27:57) - Book Recommendations and Professional Advice
  • (30:32) - What Scalability Really Means

Art Huggard is a leading expert in Digital Commerce. He has helped many well known brands such as Build-A-Bear, Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Boats, Hudson Bay and others move from chaos to High Growth. He has a keen understanding of the entire customer ecosystem including Web, Order Management, CRM, Loyalty and Digital Marketing. Known for building high performance teams Art has been an excellent mentor to many at the companies where he has worked. Most recently Art has formed Gateway-Commerce (www.gateway-commerce.com) where he provides fractional consulting to companies looking to make significant improvements to how they serve their guests. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. © Queue-it, 2026

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Database Scaling at Intercom: Aurora, PlanetScale & Incident Response with Engineering Director Ryan Sherlock 19 19 Database Scaling at Intercom: Aurora, PlanetScale & Incident Response with Engineering Director Ryan Sherlock full 47a2d8ca-716b-4bb8-b59d-5099c74b0307 https://www.queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep019-database-scaling/ In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma talks with Ryan Sherlock, Director of Engineering at Intercom, about the realities of scaling databases in a fast-growing SaaS product. Ryan shares Intercom’s journey from a single MySQL database through Aurora, proxies, and per-customer scaling patterns—and what eventually pushed the team toward PlanetScale. The conversation also explores Intercom’s heartbeat-based approach to incident detection and response, focusing on customer impact rather than infrastructure metrics.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro and episode overview
  • (01:14) - Early scaling pains: systems going down every day
  • (02:56) - Database evolution: MySQL, caching, Aurora, and ProxySQL
  • (07:36) - Tens of billions of rows and the table Intercom couldn’t migrate
  • (09:07) - Intercom’s multi-region architecture and the EU region
  • (10:59) - Why Intercom moved from Aurora to PlanetScale (Vitess)
  • (15:12) - PlanetScale in practice: shards, VTGate, and zero-downtime upgrades
  • (22:39) - Heartbeat metrics and automated incident response
  • (30:03) - AWS outage case study: DynamoDB failure and real-time recovery
  • (34:17) - Incident mitigation lessons: “I’m now a web box” and VTGate limits
  • (41:40) - Rapid fire questions: books, career advice, and scalability mindset

Ryan Sherlock is Senior Director of Engineering at Intercom in Dublin, where he leads the core technologies and infrastructure groups that power Intercom’s AI first customer service platform. Through talks and writing on the Intercom engineering blog, he shares practical playbooks on scaling infrastructure and engineering enablement, running high leverage incident response, and using heartbeat metrics to tie reliability directly to real customer outcomes rather than just server graphs. Outside Intercom, he serves on the board of the Rails Foundation, helping steward the future of the Ruby on Rails ecosystem. Before moving into tech leadership, Ryan spent several years as a professional cyclist, an experience he wrote about in “Why you should have skin in the engineering game”, and that still shapes how he thinks about risk, ownership, and reliability in software.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma talks with Ryan Sherlock, Director of Engineering at Intercom, about the realities of scaling databases in a fast-growing SaaS product. Ryan shares Intercom’s journey from a single MySQL database through Aurora, proxies, and per-customer scaling patterns—and what eventually pushed the team toward PlanetScale. The conversation also explores Intercom’s heartbeat-based approach to incident detection and response, focusing on customer impact rather than infrastructure metrics.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro and episode overview
  • (01:14) - Early scaling pains: systems going down every day
  • (02:56) - Database evolution: MySQL, caching, Aurora, and ProxySQL
  • (07:36) - Tens of billions of rows and the table Intercom couldn’t migrate
  • (09:07) - Intercom’s multi-region architecture and the EU region
  • (10:59) - Why Intercom moved from Aurora to PlanetScale (Vitess)
  • (15:12) - PlanetScale in practice: shards, VTGate, and zero-downtime upgrades
  • (22:39) - Heartbeat metrics and automated incident response
  • (30:03) - AWS outage case study: DynamoDB failure and real-time recovery
  • (34:17) - Incident mitigation lessons: “I’m now a web box” and VTGate limits
  • (41:40) - Rapid fire questions: books, career advice, and scalability mindset

Ryan Sherlock is Senior Director of Engineering at Intercom in Dublin, where he leads the core technologies and infrastructure groups that power Intercom’s AI first customer service platform. Through talks and writing on the Intercom engineering blog, he shares practical playbooks on scaling infrastructure and engineering enablement, running high leverage incident response, and using heartbeat metrics to tie reliability directly to real customer outcomes rather than just server graphs. Outside Intercom, he serves on the board of the Rails Foundation, helping steward the future of the Ruby on Rails ecosystem. Before moving into tech leadership, Ryan spent several years as a professional cyclist, an experience he wrote about in “Why you should have skin in the engineering game”, and that still shapes how he thinks about risk, ownership, and reliability in software.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> Tue, 13 Jan 2026 08:00:00 +0100 Queue-it Queue-it 2775 In this episode of Smooth Scaling, José Quaresma talks with Ryan Sherlock, Director of Engineering at Intercom, about the realities of scaling databases in a fast-growing SaaS product. Ryan shares Intercom’s journey from a single MySQL database through Aurora, proxies, and per-customer scaling patterns—and what eventually pushed the team toward PlanetScale. The conversation also explores Intercom’s heartbeat-based approach to incident detection and response, focusing on customer impact rather than infrastructure metrics.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro and episode overview
  • (01:14) - Early scaling pains: systems going down every day
  • (02:56) - Database evolution: MySQL, caching, Aurora, and ProxySQL
  • (07:36) - Tens of billions of rows and the table Intercom couldn’t migrate
  • (09:07) - Intercom’s multi-region architecture and the EU region
  • (10:59) - Why Intercom moved from Aurora to PlanetScale (Vitess)
  • (15:12) - PlanetScale in practice: shards, VTGate, and zero-downtime upgrades
  • (22:39) - Heartbeat metrics and automated incident response
  • (30:03) - AWS outage case study: DynamoDB failure and real-time recovery
  • (34:17) - Incident mitigation lessons: “I’m now a web box” and VTGate limits
  • (41:40) - Rapid fire questions: books, career advice, and scalability mindset

Ryan Sherlock is Senior Director of Engineering at Intercom in Dublin, where he leads the core technologies and infrastructure groups that power Intercom’s AI first customer service platform. Through talks and writing on the Intercom engineering blog, he shares practical playbooks on scaling infrastructure and engineering enablement, running high leverage incident response, and using heartbeat metrics to tie reliability directly to real customer outcomes rather than just server graphs. Outside Intercom, he serves on the board of the Rails Foundation, helping steward the future of the Ruby on Rails ecosystem. Before moving into tech leadership, Ryan spent several years as a professional cyclist, an experience he wrote about in “Why you should have skin in the engineering game”, and that still shapes how he thinks about risk, ownership, and reliability in software.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2026

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Infrastructure as the Product: Designing Data-Heavy Systems with Product VP Maria Petrova 18 18 Infrastructure as the Product: Designing Data-Heavy Systems with Product VP Maria Petrova full dc432068-c780-4d0a-a6e1-c220151c44b7 https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep018-infrastructure-as-product/ Infrastructure is often treated as a backend concern, but in practice it shapes how users experience a product. In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Product VP Maria Petrova explores what it means when infrastructure becomes the product, looking at real-world, data-heavy systems where decisions around compute, data resolution, scheduling, regions, and cost directly impact scalability and user experience. The conversation dives into scaling beyond the MVP, balancing accuracy with performance, and why both engineers and product managers need to think carefully about infrastructure trade-offs when operating at scale.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:02) - Infrastructure Is the Product (And Why It Shapes UX)
  • (05:34) - Performance, Databases, and Why Compute Matters Again
  • (07:27) - How TWAICE Scales Battery Analytics With Sensor Data
  • (10:44) - What TWAICE Optimizes (And What It Doesn’t)
  • (14:38) - What Product Managers Must Understand About Infrastructure
  • (20:32) - Supermetrics: Multi-Cloud, Compliance, and Customer Expectations
  • (25:01) - Cutting Compute Costs at TWAICE Without Losing Accuracy
  • (32:05) - Principles for Building Scalable Data Products
  • (34:48) - Rapid Fire: Books, Advice, and What Scalability Means

Maria Petrova is a product leader known for scaling data-driven platforms and building high-performing product teams.With over a decade of experience across AdTech, eCommerce, and green tech, she’s led teams at Supermetrics, Zalando, Smartly.io, and now TWAICE, where she’s shaping AI-powered energy intelligence solutions. Maria is also the founder of Value Lab, a consultancy that embeds expert product talent into growing teams. She’s passionate about building products that truly solve customer problems at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> Infrastructure is often treated as a backend concern, but in practice it shapes how users experience a product. In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Product VP Maria Petrova explores what it means when infrastructure becomes the product, looking at real-world, data-heavy systems where decisions around compute, data resolution, scheduling, regions, and cost directly impact scalability and user experience. The conversation dives into scaling beyond the MVP, balancing accuracy with performance, and why both engineers and product managers need to think carefully about infrastructure trade-offs when operating at scale.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:02) - Infrastructure Is the Product (And Why It Shapes UX)
  • (05:34) - Performance, Databases, and Why Compute Matters Again
  • (07:27) - How TWAICE Scales Battery Analytics With Sensor Data
  • (10:44) - What TWAICE Optimizes (And What It Doesn’t)
  • (14:38) - What Product Managers Must Understand About Infrastructure
  • (20:32) - Supermetrics: Multi-Cloud, Compliance, and Customer Expectations
  • (25:01) - Cutting Compute Costs at TWAICE Without Losing Accuracy
  • (32:05) - Principles for Building Scalable Data Products
  • (34:48) - Rapid Fire: Books, Advice, and What Scalability Means

Maria Petrova is a product leader known for scaling data-driven platforms and building high-performing product teams.With over a decade of experience across AdTech, eCommerce, and green tech, she’s led teams at Supermetrics, Zalando, Smartly.io, and now TWAICE, where she’s shaping AI-powered energy intelligence solutions. Maria is also the founder of Value Lab, a consultancy that embeds expert product talent into growing teams. She’s passionate about building products that truly solve customer problems at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> Tue, 16 Dec 2025 08:00:00 +0100 Queue-it Queue-it 2414 Infrastructure is often treated as a backend concern, but in practice it shapes how users experience a product. In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Product VP Maria Petrova explores what it means when infrastructure becomes the product, looking at real-world, data-heavy systems where decisions around compute, data resolution, scheduling, regions, and cost directly impact scalability and user experience. The conversation dives into scaling beyond the MVP, balancing accuracy with performance, and why both engineers and product managers need to think carefully about infrastructure trade-offs when operating at scale.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:02) - Infrastructure Is the Product (And Why It Shapes UX)
  • (05:34) - Performance, Databases, and Why Compute Matters Again
  • (07:27) - How TWAICE Scales Battery Analytics With Sensor Data
  • (10:44) - What TWAICE Optimizes (And What It Doesn’t)
  • (14:38) - What Product Managers Must Understand About Infrastructure
  • (20:32) - Supermetrics: Multi-Cloud, Compliance, and Customer Expectations
  • (25:01) - Cutting Compute Costs at TWAICE Without Losing Accuracy
  • (32:05) - Principles for Building Scalable Data Products
  • (34:48) - Rapid Fire: Books, Advice, and What Scalability Means

Maria Petrova is a product leader known for scaling data-driven platforms and building high-performing product teams.With over a decade of experience across AdTech, eCommerce, and green tech, she’s led teams at Supermetrics, Zalando, Smartly.io, and now TWAICE, where she’s shaping AI-powered energy intelligence solutions. Maria is also the founder of Value Lab, a consultancy that embeds expert product talent into growing teams. She’s passionate about building products that truly solve customer problems at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Queue-it’s Virtual Waiting Room System Design with Product Architect Moji Sarooghi 17 17 Queue-it’s Virtual Waiting Room System Design with Product Architect Moji Sarooghi full 04c3e41d-3e4d-4a9a-b30a-8c7fd8a58443 https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep017-virtual-waiting-room-architecture/ In this episode, Moji Sarooghi, Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it, breaks down the design principles and distributed systems behind Queue-it’s virtual waiting room. He explains how the team handles massive traffic spikes, upholds strict first-in, first-out fairness on request, and maintains reliability at a scale that would overwhelm most platforms. Moji also covers the shift from server-side integrations to Edge compute, how Safety Net protects against unexpected peaks, and why simplicity and failure-oriented design drive every architectural choice. A clear, technical exploration of scaling responsibly when millions depend on your system.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (01:34) - Visitor Flow: How the Waiting Room Works
  • (03:24) - Edge vs. Server-Side Connectors
  • (06:10) - Why Edge Improves Simplicity & Security
  • (07:12) - Preventing Queue Bypass Attempts
  • (09:14) - Connector Types & Verification Logic
  • (12:04) - Safety Net: Automatic Peak Protection
  • (14:54) - Scheduled Waiting Rooms + Safety Net
  • (17:19) - FIFO at Scale
  • (18:57) - Estimating Wait Times at Scale
  • (20:40) - Designing for Reliability & High Traffic
  • (24:38) - How Outflow Is Calculated
  • (29:07) - Queue-It Token & Visitor Verification
  • (31:02) - Cookies & Secure Access
  • (32:35) - Key AWS Services in the Architecture
  • (34:57) - Future: Multi-Cloud, Edge, & Bring Your Own Proxy
  • (37:59) - Outro


Mojtaba Sarooghi is a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Moji was one of the company’s first employees, starting his journey as a software developer over 10 years ago. He is highly experienced with AWS services, product and architectural design, managing developer teams, and defining and executing on product vision.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> In this episode, Moji Sarooghi, Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it, breaks down the design principles and distributed systems behind Queue-it’s virtual waiting room. He explains how the team handles massive traffic spikes, upholds strict first-in, first-out fairness on request, and maintains reliability at a scale that would overwhelm most platforms. Moji also covers the shift from server-side integrations to Edge compute, how Safety Net protects against unexpected peaks, and why simplicity and failure-oriented design drive every architectural choice. A clear, technical exploration of scaling responsibly when millions depend on your system.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (01:34) - Visitor Flow: How the Waiting Room Works
  • (03:24) - Edge vs. Server-Side Connectors
  • (06:10) - Why Edge Improves Simplicity & Security
  • (07:12) - Preventing Queue Bypass Attempts
  • (09:14) - Connector Types & Verification Logic
  • (12:04) - Safety Net: Automatic Peak Protection
  • (14:54) - Scheduled Waiting Rooms + Safety Net
  • (17:19) - FIFO at Scale
  • (18:57) - Estimating Wait Times at Scale
  • (20:40) - Designing for Reliability & High Traffic
  • (24:38) - How Outflow Is Calculated
  • (29:07) - Queue-It Token & Visitor Verification
  • (31:02) - Cookies & Secure Access
  • (32:35) - Key AWS Services in the Architecture
  • (34:57) - Future: Multi-Cloud, Edge, & Bring Your Own Proxy
  • (37:59) - Outro


Mojtaba Sarooghi is a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Moji was one of the company’s first employees, starting his journey as a software developer over 10 years ago. He is highly experienced with AWS services, product and architectural design, managing developer teams, and defining and executing on product vision.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2025 08:00:00 +0100 Queue-it Queue-it 2315 In this episode, Moji Sarooghi, Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it, breaks down the design principles and distributed systems behind Queue-it’s virtual waiting room. He explains how the team handles massive traffic spikes, upholds strict first-in, first-out fairness on request, and maintains reliability at a scale that would overwhelm most platforms. Moji also covers the shift from server-side integrations to Edge compute, how Safety Net protects against unexpected peaks, and why simplicity and failure-oriented design drive every architectural choice. A clear, technical exploration of scaling responsibly when millions depend on your system.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (01:34) - Visitor Flow: How the Waiting Room Works
  • (03:24) - Edge vs. Server-Side Connectors
  • (06:10) - Why Edge Improves Simplicity & Security
  • (07:12) - Preventing Queue Bypass Attempts
  • (09:14) - Connector Types & Verification Logic
  • (12:04) - Safety Net: Automatic Peak Protection
  • (14:54) - Scheduled Waiting Rooms + Safety Net
  • (17:19) - FIFO at Scale
  • (18:57) - Estimating Wait Times at Scale
  • (20:40) - Designing for Reliability & High Traffic
  • (24:38) - How Outflow Is Calculated
  • (29:07) - Queue-It Token & Visitor Verification
  • (31:02) - Cookies & Secure Access
  • (32:35) - Key AWS Services in the Architecture
  • (34:57) - Future: Multi-Cloud, Edge, & Bring Your Own Proxy
  • (37:59) - Outro


Mojtaba Sarooghi is a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Moji was one of the company’s first employees, starting his journey as a software developer over 10 years ago. He is highly experienced with AWS services, product and architectural design, managing developer teams, and defining and executing on product vision.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Trustpilot’s Journey From Monolith to Event-Driven with Engineering VP Angela Timofte 16 16 Trustpilot’s Journey From Monolith to Event-Driven with Engineering VP Angela Timofte full 1be66594-d306-4528-8274-fe914190586c https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep016-monolith-to-event-driven/ In this episode, Angela Timofte, former VP of Global Engineering at Trustpilot, shares the decade-long journey of evolving Trustpilot’s architecture from a monolith to an event-driven, serverless-first platform. She reflects on the technical and organizational shifts that made it possible—from early trade-offs and nano-services to guardrails, templating, and chaos engineering. Angela also discusses the role of AI in engineering productivity, why staying small matters, and what scalability really means across tech, teams, and leadership. A thoughtful, candid look at modernizing systems for long-term resilience.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Episode Introduction
  • (01:14) - What a Monolith Really Is
  • (03:15) - Why Starting With a Monolith Made Sense
  • (04:52) - The Breaking Point: When Scale Hit Hard
  • (07:21) - Baby Monoliths & Early Decomposition
  • (11:13) - The Shift to Serverless First
  • (13:21) - Guardrails, VM Alerts & Tech Stack Choices
  • (21:17) - Microservices to Nano Services: The Trade-offs
  • (25:47) - Traffic Peaks, Auto-Scaling & Stress Testing
  • (33:05) - Staying Small by Design: Team Structure & Conway’s Law
  • (36:28) - The Impact of AI in Engineering & New Beginnings
  • (43:28) - Rapid-Fire: Books, Advice & Defining Scalability
  • (46:19) - Wrap-up


Angela Timofte is a technology leader known for transforming organizations for scale and impact. As former VP of Global Engineering & Applied AI at Trustpilot, she led both the engineering and data science functions, driving the company’s shift from monolithic systems to scalable, event-driven, cloud-native architecture and drove a major transformation going from maintenance to value creation across the engineering organization. An AWS Serverless Hero and international speaker, she’s recognized for her work on scalability, data infrastructure, and high-performance engineering culture. Today, Angela advises companies through her consultancy, Atim Advisory, and is building a new tech venture.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> In this episode, Angela Timofte, former VP of Global Engineering at Trustpilot, shares the decade-long journey of evolving Trustpilot’s architecture from a monolith to an event-driven, serverless-first platform. She reflects on the technical and organizational shifts that made it possible—from early trade-offs and nano-services to guardrails, templating, and chaos engineering. Angela also discusses the role of AI in engineering productivity, why staying small matters, and what scalability really means across tech, teams, and leadership. A thoughtful, candid look at modernizing systems for long-term resilience.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Episode Introduction
  • (01:14) - What a Monolith Really Is
  • (03:15) - Why Starting With a Monolith Made Sense
  • (04:52) - The Breaking Point: When Scale Hit Hard
  • (07:21) - Baby Monoliths & Early Decomposition
  • (11:13) - The Shift to Serverless First
  • (13:21) - Guardrails, VM Alerts & Tech Stack Choices
  • (21:17) - Microservices to Nano Services: The Trade-offs
  • (25:47) - Traffic Peaks, Auto-Scaling & Stress Testing
  • (33:05) - Staying Small by Design: Team Structure & Conway’s Law
  • (36:28) - The Impact of AI in Engineering & New Beginnings
  • (43:28) - Rapid-Fire: Books, Advice & Defining Scalability
  • (46:19) - Wrap-up


Angela Timofte is a technology leader known for transforming organizations for scale and impact. As former VP of Global Engineering & Applied AI at Trustpilot, she led both the engineering and data science functions, driving the company’s shift from monolithic systems to scalable, event-driven, cloud-native architecture and drove a major transformation going from maintenance to value creation across the engineering organization. An AWS Serverless Hero and international speaker, she’s recognized for her work on scalability, data infrastructure, and high-performance engineering culture. Today, Angela advises companies through her consultancy, Atim Advisory, and is building a new tech venture.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> Tue, 18 Nov 2025 08:00:00 +0100 Queue-it Queue-it 2813 In this episode, Angela Timofte, former VP of Global Engineering at Trustpilot, shares the decade-long journey of evolving Trustpilot’s architecture from a monolith to an event-driven, serverless-first platform. She reflects on the technical and organizational shifts that made it possible—from early trade-offs and nano-services to guardrails, templating, and chaos engineering. Angela also discusses the role of AI in engineering productivity, why staying small matters, and what scalability really means across tech, teams, and leadership. A thoughtful, candid look at modernizing systems for long-term resilience.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Episode Introduction
  • (01:14) - What a Monolith Really Is
  • (03:15) - Why Starting With a Monolith Made Sense
  • (04:52) - The Breaking Point: When Scale Hit Hard
  • (07:21) - Baby Monoliths & Early Decomposition
  • (11:13) - The Shift to Serverless First
  • (13:21) - Guardrails, VM Alerts & Tech Stack Choices
  • (21:17) - Microservices to Nano Services: The Trade-offs
  • (25:47) - Traffic Peaks, Auto-Scaling & Stress Testing
  • (33:05) - Staying Small by Design: Team Structure & Conway’s Law
  • (36:28) - The Impact of AI in Engineering & New Beginnings
  • (43:28) - Rapid-Fire: Books, Advice & Defining Scalability
  • (46:19) - Wrap-up


Angela Timofte is a technology leader known for transforming organizations for scale and impact. As former VP of Global Engineering & Applied AI at Trustpilot, she led both the engineering and data science functions, driving the company’s shift from monolithic systems to scalable, event-driven, cloud-native architecture and drove a major transformation going from maintenance to value creation across the engineering organization. An AWS Serverless Hero and international speaker, she’s recognized for her work on scalability, data infrastructure, and high-performance engineering culture. Today, Angela advises companies through her consultancy, Atim Advisory, and is building a new tech venture.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Navigating ISO 27001 and Multi-Cloud with Security Architect Gabor Sivók 15 15 Navigating ISO 27001 and Multi-Cloud with Security Architect Gabor Sivók full 5c08f849-7253-4a6e-953c-2b97956bd2bd https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep015-cloud-security/ In this episode, Gabor Sivók, Cloud Security Architect at Queue-it, shares a practical look at what it takes to secure large-scale systems in today’s cloud environments. He walks through Queue-it’s journey to ISO 27001 certification, the real trade-offs between security and performance, and how security practices adapt in multi-cloud setups. Gabor also weighs in on the growing role of AI in security operations—and why the best security work often stays invisible. A grounded conversation for anyone working at the intersection of reliability, scalability, and security.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro & welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (02:58) - AWS GameDay: Security through gamification
  • (06:31) - The journey to ISO 27001 certification
  • (09:34) - Balancing scalability, reliability & security
  • (12:49) - What TLS really means for secure communication
  • (15:29) - Moving from AWS to multi-cloud security
  • (18:31) - How AI is changing cloud security
  • (20:27) - The endless game of attackers vs. defenders
  • (22:44) - Advice for starting a security career early
  • (24:11) - Wrap-up & closing message


Gabor Sivók is a Cloud Security Architect at Queue-it, where he leads security efforts across the R&D organization. With a background in infrastructure and compliance, he played a key role in Queue-it’s ISO 27001 certification and now focuses on securing multi-cloud environments at scale. Gabor works closely with platform engineering teams to embed security into architecture decisions while balancing performance, resilience, and risk. He’s also an active participant in the security community, keeping pace with emerging threats and tooling through Discord, Reddit, and bug bounty networks.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> In this episode, Gabor Sivók, Cloud Security Architect at Queue-it, shares a practical look at what it takes to secure large-scale systems in today’s cloud environments. He walks through Queue-it’s journey to ISO 27001 certification, the real trade-offs between security and performance, and how security practices adapt in multi-cloud setups. Gabor also weighs in on the growing role of AI in security operations—and why the best security work often stays invisible. A grounded conversation for anyone working at the intersection of reliability, scalability, and security.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro & welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (02:58) - AWS GameDay: Security through gamification
  • (06:31) - The journey to ISO 27001 certification
  • (09:34) - Balancing scalability, reliability & security
  • (12:49) - What TLS really means for secure communication
  • (15:29) - Moving from AWS to multi-cloud security
  • (18:31) - How AI is changing cloud security
  • (20:27) - The endless game of attackers vs. defenders
  • (22:44) - Advice for starting a security career early
  • (24:11) - Wrap-up & closing message


Gabor Sivók is a Cloud Security Architect at Queue-it, where he leads security efforts across the R&D organization. With a background in infrastructure and compliance, he played a key role in Queue-it’s ISO 27001 certification and now focuses on securing multi-cloud environments at scale. Gabor works closely with platform engineering teams to embed security into architecture decisions while balancing performance, resilience, and risk. He’s also an active participant in the security community, keeping pace with emerging threats and tooling through Discord, Reddit, and bug bounty networks.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> Tue, 04 Nov 2025 08:02:47 +0100 Queue-it Queue-it 1484 In this episode, Gabor Sivók, Cloud Security Architect at Queue-it, shares a practical look at what it takes to secure large-scale systems in today’s cloud environments. He walks through Queue-it’s journey to ISO 27001 certification, the real trade-offs between security and performance, and how security practices adapt in multi-cloud setups. Gabor also weighs in on the growing role of AI in security operations—and why the best security work often stays invisible. A grounded conversation for anyone working at the intersection of reliability, scalability, and security.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro & welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (02:58) - AWS GameDay: Security through gamification
  • (06:31) - The journey to ISO 27001 certification
  • (09:34) - Balancing scalability, reliability & security
  • (12:49) - What TLS really means for secure communication
  • (15:29) - Moving from AWS to multi-cloud security
  • (18:31) - How AI is changing cloud security
  • (20:27) - The endless game of attackers vs. defenders
  • (22:44) - Advice for starting a security career early
  • (24:11) - Wrap-up & closing message


Gabor Sivók is a Cloud Security Architect at Queue-it, where he leads security efforts across the R&D organization. With a background in infrastructure and compliance, he played a key role in Queue-it’s ISO 27001 certification and now focuses on securing multi-cloud environments at scale. Gabor works closely with platform engineering teams to embed security into architecture decisions while balancing performance, resilience, and risk. He’s also an active participant in the security community, keeping pace with emerging threats and tooling through Discord, Reddit, and bug bounty networks.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Mastering MACH Architecture & Orchestration with Sezin Cagil of Dr. Martens & the MACH Alliance 14 14 Mastering MACH Architecture & Orchestration with Sezin Cagil of Dr. Martens & the MACH Alliance full 831f8345-f5c9-476a-8a16-d7944d8ba521 https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep014-mach-architecture/ In this episode, Sezin Cagil, Head of Unified Commerce Technology at Dr. Martens and MACH Alliance ambassador, shares hard-won insights on implementing and scaling MACH architecture in real-world environments. She explores how to approach modular migrations, manage complex vendor ecosystems, and prepare systems for high-traffic events. Beyond the tech, Sezin highlights the importance of team readiness, operational maturity, and aligning architecture with business needs. A must-listen for anyone navigating composable commerce or modern retail infrastructure.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro Intro & What MACH Really Means
  • (02:27) - How Sezin Accidentally Joined the MACH Movement
  • (03:56) - From Monoliths to MACH: The Shift in Retail Tech
  • (08:18) - Shopify, Complexity & When MACH Fits
  • (11:04) - Inside a MACH E-commerce Architecture
  • (14:52) - Aligning Tech Decisions with Business Needs
  • (18:30) - Moving from Monolith to MACH: Benefits & Pitfalls
  • (21:43) - Start Small: The Right Way to Transform
  • (26:21) - Preparing for Traffic Peaks & Vendor Alignment
  • (33:38) - The Queue-it Story: Handling Surprises in Peak Events
  • (37:41) - Defining Scalability—Sezin’s Final Take


Sezin Cagil is Head of Unified Commerce Technology at Dr. Martens, leading the teams through digital transformation and supporting omnichannel strategy. With expertise in agile delivery, composable architecture, and MACH principles, she drives seamless customer experiences across digital and retail channels. Previously, she led digital delivery at Selfridges and Costa Coffee, scaling international eCommerce platforms. As a MACH Alliance Ambassador, Sezin advocates for modern, modular technologies and contributes to industry thought leadership.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> In this episode, Sezin Cagil, Head of Unified Commerce Technology at Dr. Martens and MACH Alliance ambassador, shares hard-won insights on implementing and scaling MACH architecture in real-world environments. She explores how to approach modular migrations, manage complex vendor ecosystems, and prepare systems for high-traffic events. Beyond the tech, Sezin highlights the importance of team readiness, operational maturity, and aligning architecture with business needs. A must-listen for anyone navigating composable commerce or modern retail infrastructure.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro Intro & What MACH Really Means
  • (02:27) - How Sezin Accidentally Joined the MACH Movement
  • (03:56) - From Monoliths to MACH: The Shift in Retail Tech
  • (08:18) - Shopify, Complexity & When MACH Fits
  • (11:04) - Inside a MACH E-commerce Architecture
  • (14:52) - Aligning Tech Decisions with Business Needs
  • (18:30) - Moving from Monolith to MACH: Benefits & Pitfalls
  • (21:43) - Start Small: The Right Way to Transform
  • (26:21) - Preparing for Traffic Peaks & Vendor Alignment
  • (33:38) - The Queue-it Story: Handling Surprises in Peak Events
  • (37:41) - Defining Scalability—Sezin’s Final Take


Sezin Cagil is Head of Unified Commerce Technology at Dr. Martens, leading the teams through digital transformation and supporting omnichannel strategy. With expertise in agile delivery, composable architecture, and MACH principles, she drives seamless customer experiences across digital and retail channels. Previously, she led digital delivery at Selfridges and Costa Coffee, scaling international eCommerce platforms. As a MACH Alliance Ambassador, Sezin advocates for modern, modular technologies and contributes to industry thought leadership.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:07:17 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2362 In this episode, Sezin Cagil, Head of Unified Commerce Technology at Dr. Martens and MACH Alliance ambassador, shares hard-won insights on implementing and scaling MACH architecture in real-world environments. She explores how to approach modular migrations, manage complex vendor ecosystems, and prepare systems for high-traffic events. Beyond the tech, Sezin highlights the importance of team readiness, operational maturity, and aligning architecture with business needs. A must-listen for anyone navigating composable commerce or modern retail infrastructure.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Intro Intro & What MACH Really Means
  • (02:27) - How Sezin Accidentally Joined the MACH Movement
  • (03:56) - From Monoliths to MACH: The Shift in Retail Tech
  • (08:18) - Shopify, Complexity & When MACH Fits
  • (11:04) - Inside a MACH E-commerce Architecture
  • (14:52) - Aligning Tech Decisions with Business Needs
  • (18:30) - Moving from Monolith to MACH: Benefits & Pitfalls
  • (21:43) - Start Small: The Right Way to Transform
  • (26:21) - Preparing for Traffic Peaks & Vendor Alignment
  • (33:38) - The Queue-it Story: Handling Surprises in Peak Events
  • (37:41) - Defining Scalability—Sezin’s Final Take


Sezin Cagil is Head of Unified Commerce Technology at Dr. Martens, leading the teams through digital transformation and supporting omnichannel strategy. With expertise in agile delivery, composable architecture, and MACH principles, she drives seamless customer experiences across digital and retail channels. Previously, she led digital delivery at Selfridges and Costa Coffee, scaling international eCommerce platforms. As a MACH Alliance Ambassador, Sezin advocates for modern, modular technologies and contributes to industry thought leadership.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Hype Event Protection: How Akamai & Queue-it Stop Bots at Scale, with Ilia Bromberg & Martin Larsen 13 13 Hype Event Protection: How Akamai & Queue-it Stop Bots at Scale, with Ilia Bromberg & Martin Larsen full 04222067-ed9c-48ae-91e0-40b10b88dfa8 https://share.transistor.fm/s/18d32522 In this episode of the Smooth Scaling Podcast, Ilia Bromberg (Akamai) and Martin Larsen (Queue-it) explore the evolution of bots, the growing complexity of detecting them, and the real-world impact on hype events like product drops and ticket sales. They introduce Hype Event Protection, a new joint solution from Queue-it and Akamai, designed to level the playing field for genuine users. The discussion covers technical approaches to bot mitigation, performance optimization, and the importance of layered defenses for high-demand online events.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Guest Introductions
  • (01:01) - Why Bots Are a Problem
  • (04:06) - Good Bots vs. Bad Bots
  • (07:49) - How Bots Have Evolved
  • (11:42) - Bots Move Into E-commerce
  • (13:10) - Residential IPs and Hidden Networks
  • (15:42) - What Is a Hype Event?
  • (18:46) - Why Queue-it and Akamai Partnered
  • (22:20) - Fairness, Trust & Brand Reputation
  • (28:36) - How Hype Event Protection Works
  • (35:59) - Preparing for Big Events
  • (44:34) - Real Results from Beta Customers
  • (46:42) - How to Get Started & Wrap-Up


Ilia Bromberg is a Principal Solutions Engineer at Akamai Technologies with nearly 30 years experience helping organizations secure and scale their digital environments. A seasoned leader in web and application security, he has been named Akamai’s Solutions Engineer of the Year and has earned multiple hackathon and innovation awards. He holds CISSP, CCSP, and GWAPT certifications and specializes in WAFs, bot management, API security, DNS, and zero trust technologies. 

Martin Larsen is a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Starting as a software developer, Martin was one of the company’s first employees. He played an instrumental role in building the foundations of Queue-it and is heavily involved in activities including the design, architecture, testing, and deployment of the virtual waiting room, as well as defining and executing on product vision. This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> In this episode of the Smooth Scaling Podcast, Ilia Bromberg (Akamai) and Martin Larsen (Queue-it) explore the evolution of bots, the growing complexity of detecting them, and the real-world impact on hype events like product drops and ticket sales. They introduce Hype Event Protection, a new joint solution from Queue-it and Akamai, designed to level the playing field for genuine users. The discussion covers technical approaches to bot mitigation, performance optimization, and the importance of layered defenses for high-demand online events.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Guest Introductions
  • (01:01) - Why Bots Are a Problem
  • (04:06) - Good Bots vs. Bad Bots
  • (07:49) - How Bots Have Evolved
  • (11:42) - Bots Move Into E-commerce
  • (13:10) - Residential IPs and Hidden Networks
  • (15:42) - What Is a Hype Event?
  • (18:46) - Why Queue-it and Akamai Partnered
  • (22:20) - Fairness, Trust & Brand Reputation
  • (28:36) - How Hype Event Protection Works
  • (35:59) - Preparing for Big Events
  • (44:34) - Real Results from Beta Customers
  • (46:42) - How to Get Started & Wrap-Up


Ilia Bromberg is a Principal Solutions Engineer at Akamai Technologies with nearly 30 years experience helping organizations secure and scale their digital environments. A seasoned leader in web and application security, he has been named Akamai’s Solutions Engineer of the Year and has earned multiple hackathon and innovation awards. He holds CISSP, CCSP, and GWAPT certifications and specializes in WAFs, bot management, API security, DNS, and zero trust technologies. 

Martin Larsen is a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Starting as a software developer, Martin was one of the company’s first employees. He played an instrumental role in building the foundations of Queue-it and is heavily involved in activities including the design, architecture, testing, and deployment of the virtual waiting room, as well as defining and executing on product vision. This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> Tue, 07 Oct 2025 08:50:26 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2927 In this episode of the Smooth Scaling Podcast, Ilia Bromberg (Akamai) and Martin Larsen (Queue-it) explore the evolution of bots, the growing complexity of detecting them, and the real-world impact on hype events like product drops and ticket sales. They introduce Hype Event Protection, a new joint solution from Queue-it and Akamai, designed to level the playing field for genuine users. The discussion covers technical approaches to bot mitigation, performance optimization, and the importance of layered defenses for high-demand online events.

Episode page

---

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Guest Introductions
  • (01:01) - Why Bots Are a Problem
  • (04:06) - Good Bots vs. Bad Bots
  • (07:49) - How Bots Have Evolved
  • (11:42) - Bots Move Into E-commerce
  • (13:10) - Residential IPs and Hidden Networks
  • (15:42) - What Is a Hype Event?
  • (18:46) - Why Queue-it and Akamai Partnered
  • (22:20) - Fairness, Trust & Brand Reputation
  • (28:36) - How Hype Event Protection Works
  • (35:59) - Preparing for Big Events
  • (44:34) - Real Results from Beta Customers
  • (46:42) - How to Get Started & Wrap-Up


Ilia Bromberg is a Principal Solutions Engineer at Akamai Technologies with nearly 30 years experience helping organizations secure and scale their digital environments. A seasoned leader in web and application security, he has been named Akamai’s Solutions Engineer of the Year and has earned multiple hackathon and innovation awards. He holds CISSP, CCSP, and GWAPT certifications and specializes in WAFs, bot management, API security, DNS, and zero trust technologies. 

Martin Larsen is a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Starting as a software developer, Martin was one of the company’s first employees. He played an instrumental role in building the foundations of Queue-it and is heavily involved in activities including the design, architecture, testing, and deployment of the virtual waiting room, as well as defining and executing on product vision. This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo. 

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Handling 200k Requests Per Second Surges with Zalando SRE Manager Johannes Boumans 12 12 Handling 200k Requests Per Second Surges with Zalando SRE Manager Johannes Boumans full de36ec29-a8a7-492f-895b-2ee45d733d82 https://share.transistor.fm/s/c7575740 In this episode, Johannes Boumans, Engineering Manager in Zalando’s SRE team, shares how Lounge by Zalando handles daily surges of up to 200,000 requests per second. He discusses the shift from monoliths to microservices, the “you build it, you run it” model, SRE champions, and the trade-offs behind reliability, fairness, and cost. From bot defense to chaos engineering, it’s a deep dive into scaling one of Europe’s largest e-commerce platforms.

Episode page

---

Johannes Boumans is an Engineering Manager in the SRE organization at Zalando, where he leads reliability efforts for Zalando Lounge, the company’s off-price shopping destination. Over nearly 10 years at Zalando, Johannes has grown from product support into SRE leadership, where he now supports 25 engineering teams in building resilient, fair, and scalable systems. Johannes is passionate about the “you build it, you run it” philosophy and champions practices like chaos engineering, predictive scaling, and bot defense to keep systems reliable.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

00:00 – Intro
01:28 – Zalando: Europe's leading fashion destination
02:42 – The company’s rapid tech evolution since 2008
03:41 – From one team to 25: Johannes’ journey
05:48 – How the SRE champions model works
08:00 – What reliability really means at Zalando
09:27 – From monolith to full DevOps accountability
11:32 – What makes Lounge by Zalando unique
12:50 – Dealing with massive daily traffic spikes
14:05 – Predictive scaling and real-time cost control
17:15 – First-come, first-served: fairness at scale
22:11 – Solving the challenges of limited inventory
25:09 – Combating bots with layered protections
27:12 – Trade-offs: performance vs. experience
29:38 – Why Lounge doesn’t have a search function
31:17 – Advice for engineering managers facing traffic surges
34:25 – Chaos testing in production—including turning off zones
35:53 – Scaling advice for daily vs. seasonal peaks
37:55 – Evaluating virtual waiting rooms for fairness
39:30 – Book & mindset recommendations for engineers
41:43 – Scalability is… balance, cost, and confidence

© Queue-it, 2025 

]]> In this episode, Johannes Boumans, Engineering Manager in Zalando’s SRE team, shares how Lounge by Zalando handles daily surges of up to 200,000 requests per second. He discusses the shift from monoliths to microservices, the “you build it, you run it” model, SRE champions, and the trade-offs behind reliability, fairness, and cost. From bot defense to chaos engineering, it’s a deep dive into scaling one of Europe’s largest e-commerce platforms.

Episode page

---

Johannes Boumans is an Engineering Manager in the SRE organization at Zalando, where he leads reliability efforts for Zalando Lounge, the company’s off-price shopping destination. Over nearly 10 years at Zalando, Johannes has grown from product support into SRE leadership, where he now supports 25 engineering teams in building resilient, fair, and scalable systems. Johannes is passionate about the “you build it, you run it” philosophy and champions practices like chaos engineering, predictive scaling, and bot defense to keep systems reliable.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

00:00 – Intro
01:28 – Zalando: Europe's leading fashion destination
02:42 – The company’s rapid tech evolution since 2008
03:41 – From one team to 25: Johannes’ journey
05:48 – How the SRE champions model works
08:00 – What reliability really means at Zalando
09:27 – From monolith to full DevOps accountability
11:32 – What makes Lounge by Zalando unique
12:50 – Dealing with massive daily traffic spikes
14:05 – Predictive scaling and real-time cost control
17:15 – First-come, first-served: fairness at scale
22:11 – Solving the challenges of limited inventory
25:09 – Combating bots with layered protections
27:12 – Trade-offs: performance vs. experience
29:38 – Why Lounge doesn’t have a search function
31:17 – Advice for engineering managers facing traffic surges
34:25 – Chaos testing in production—including turning off zones
35:53 – Scaling advice for daily vs. seasonal peaks
37:55 – Evaluating virtual waiting rooms for fairness
39:30 – Book & mindset recommendations for engineers
41:43 – Scalability is… balance, cost, and confidence

© Queue-it, 2025 

]]> Tue, 23 Sep 2025 10:42:35 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2586 In this episode, Johannes Boumans, Engineering Manager in Zalando’s SRE team, shares how Lounge by Zalando handles daily surges of up to 200,000 requests per second. He discusses the shift from monoliths to microservices, the “you build it, you run it” model, SRE champions, and the trade-offs behind reliability, fairness, and cost. From bot defense to chaos engineering, it’s a deep dive into scaling one of Europe’s largest e-commerce platforms.

Episode page

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Johannes Boumans is an Engineering Manager in the SRE organization at Zalando, where he leads reliability efforts for Zalando Lounge, the company’s off-price shopping destination. Over nearly 10 years at Zalando, Johannes has grown from product support into SRE leadership, where he now supports 25 engineering teams in building resilient, fair, and scalable systems. Johannes is passionate about the “you build it, you run it” philosophy and champions practices like chaos engineering, predictive scaling, and bot defense to keep systems reliable.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

00:00 – Intro
01:28 – Zalando: Europe's leading fashion destination
02:42 – The company’s rapid tech evolution since 2008
03:41 – From one team to 25: Johannes’ journey
05:48 – How the SRE champions model works
08:00 – What reliability really means at Zalando
09:27 – From monolith to full DevOps accountability
11:32 – What makes Lounge by Zalando unique
12:50 – Dealing with massive daily traffic spikes
14:05 – Predictive scaling and real-time cost control
17:15 – First-come, first-served: fairness at scale
22:11 – Solving the challenges of limited inventory
25:09 – Combating bots with layered protections
27:12 – Trade-offs: performance vs. experience
29:38 – Why Lounge doesn’t have a search function
31:17 – Advice for engineering managers facing traffic surges
34:25 – Chaos testing in production—including turning off zones
35:53 – Scaling advice for daily vs. seasonal peaks
37:55 – Evaluating virtual waiting rooms for fairness
39:30 – Book & mindset recommendations for engineers
41:43 – Scalability is… balance, cost, and confidence

© Queue-it, 2025 

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Special Episode: The Digital Experiences that Build & Break Trust, with CMO Jillian Als 11 11 Special Episode: The Digital Experiences that Build & Break Trust, with CMO Jillian Als full d3a09236-140d-4465-8d31-e74d1fa7875d https://share.transistor.fm/s/e2eceedd In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Jillian Als, CMO at Queue-it, unpacks The Age of Online Trust report. She explores why reliability is the license to operate, how trust is earned in drops but lost in buckets, and what 1,000 consumers revealed about their expectations for fairness, transparency, and resilient digital experiences. For technical leaders, the findings confirm that every percentage point of uptime and performance directly impacts trust, loyalty, and long-term business growth.

Episode page

---

Jillian Als is Chief Marketing Officer at Queue-it, where she leads global marketing efforts to help businesses earn and protect online trust for billions of digital visitors each year. With 15+ years in B2B SaaS marketing, she’s known for her expertise in go-to-market strategy, demand generation, and brand development, as well as her passion for building happy, high-performing teams. A frequent speaker at industry podcasts and events like SaaSiest2025 and Funnel Vision, Jillian brings a deep understanding of consumer behavior and the link between digital performance, transparency, and loyalty.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro: Trust, Scale & a Special Guest
  • (01:06) - The Meaning of Reliability
  • (03:08) - Exploring Technical and Commercial Views on Reliability
  • (04:53) - A Deep Dive Into the “Age of Online Trust” Report
  • (07:13) - The Global Survey Methodology
  • (08:13) - The Definition of Online Trust
  • (10:28) - The Ongoing Importance of Trust Beyond Peak Events
  • (12:33) - Key Findings: How Bad Experiences Erode Trust
  • (13:54) - Gen Z’s Higher Trust Expectations
  • (16:26) - Preference for Smooth Experiences Over Speed
  • (18:45) - The Psychology Behind Informed Waiting
  • (21:11) - How Trust Fuels Loyalty, Spend, and Advocacy
  • (26:31) - Technical Takeaways From the Report
  • (29:06) - Rapid Fire Insights on Scalability, Books, and Career Advice

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Jillian Als, CMO at Queue-it, unpacks The Age of Online Trust report. She explores why reliability is the license to operate, how trust is earned in drops but lost in buckets, and what 1,000 consumers revealed about their expectations for fairness, transparency, and resilient digital experiences. For technical leaders, the findings confirm that every percentage point of uptime and performance directly impacts trust, loyalty, and long-term business growth.

Episode page

---

Jillian Als is Chief Marketing Officer at Queue-it, where she leads global marketing efforts to help businesses earn and protect online trust for billions of digital visitors each year. With 15+ years in B2B SaaS marketing, she’s known for her expertise in go-to-market strategy, demand generation, and brand development, as well as her passion for building happy, high-performing teams. A frequent speaker at industry podcasts and events like SaaSiest2025 and Funnel Vision, Jillian brings a deep understanding of consumer behavior and the link between digital performance, transparency, and loyalty.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro: Trust, Scale & a Special Guest
  • (01:06) - The Meaning of Reliability
  • (03:08) - Exploring Technical and Commercial Views on Reliability
  • (04:53) - A Deep Dive Into the “Age of Online Trust” Report
  • (07:13) - The Global Survey Methodology
  • (08:13) - The Definition of Online Trust
  • (10:28) - The Ongoing Importance of Trust Beyond Peak Events
  • (12:33) - Key Findings: How Bad Experiences Erode Trust
  • (13:54) - Gen Z’s Higher Trust Expectations
  • (16:26) - Preference for Smooth Experiences Over Speed
  • (18:45) - The Psychology Behind Informed Waiting
  • (21:11) - How Trust Fuels Loyalty, Spend, and Advocacy
  • (26:31) - Technical Takeaways From the Report
  • (29:06) - Rapid Fire Insights on Scalability, Books, and Career Advice

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> Tue, 09 Sep 2025 07:39:43 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 1915 In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Jillian Als, CMO at Queue-it, unpacks The Age of Online Trust report. She explores why reliability is the license to operate, how trust is earned in drops but lost in buckets, and what 1,000 consumers revealed about their expectations for fairness, transparency, and resilient digital experiences. For technical leaders, the findings confirm that every percentage point of uptime and performance directly impacts trust, loyalty, and long-term business growth.

Episode page

---

Jillian Als is Chief Marketing Officer at Queue-it, where she leads global marketing efforts to help businesses earn and protect online trust for billions of digital visitors each year. With 15+ years in B2B SaaS marketing, she’s known for her expertise in go-to-market strategy, demand generation, and brand development, as well as her passion for building happy, high-performing teams. A frequent speaker at industry podcasts and events like SaaSiest2025 and Funnel Vision, Jillian brings a deep understanding of consumer behavior and the link between digital performance, transparency, and loyalty.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro: Trust, Scale & a Special Guest
  • (01:06) - The Meaning of Reliability
  • (03:08) - Exploring Technical and Commercial Views on Reliability
  • (04:53) - A Deep Dive Into the “Age of Online Trust” Report
  • (07:13) - The Global Survey Methodology
  • (08:13) - The Definition of Online Trust
  • (10:28) - The Ongoing Importance of Trust Beyond Peak Events
  • (12:33) - Key Findings: How Bad Experiences Erode Trust
  • (13:54) - Gen Z’s Higher Trust Expectations
  • (16:26) - Preference for Smooth Experiences Over Speed
  • (18:45) - The Psychology Behind Informed Waiting
  • (21:11) - How Trust Fuels Loyalty, Spend, and Advocacy
  • (26:31) - Technical Takeaways From the Report
  • (29:06) - Rapid Fire Insights on Scalability, Books, and Career Advice

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Lessons from Supporting Hundreds of Peak Traffic Events with Praveen Thakur 10 10 Lessons from Supporting Hundreds of Peak Traffic Events with Praveen Thakur full 3262c8e1-d36d-479b-b79b-d3bbde28ac0e https://share.transistor.fm/s/9b84bccf In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Jose is joined by Praveen Thakur, Queue-it’s Head of Technical Engagement, APAC who shares what it takes to prepare for and succeed during high-traffic online events. From coordinating mission control rooms to navigating bot threats and post-event analysis, Praveen shares lessons learned from years of hands-on experience with retailers, ticketing providers, and government organizations. The discussion offers a behind-the-scenes look at the technical and organizational decisions that shape successful peak traffic events.

Episode page

---

Praveen Thakur is Head of Technical Engagement, APAC at Queue-it, where he works closely with teams across the region on technical integration, performance readiness, and post-event analysis. With over 13 years of experience spanning product engineering, consulting, and in-house IT roles, he brings deep expertise in cloud, DevOps, and distributed systems. He’s particularly focused on aligning technology decisions with business goals and building resilient, outcome-oriented teams.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:00) - What is technical engagement at Queue-it?
  • (04:03) - How Praveen became head of technical engagement
  • (07:09) - Preparing retailers for peak traffic events
  • (15:11) - Scheduled events vs. 24/7 peak protection
  • (18:21) - Why you might restrict traffic intentionally
  • (20:48) - Inside a mission control “war room”
  • (26:50) - Post-event evaluation & common mistakes
  • (28:14) - Covering the full user journey
  • (30:10) - How the bot landscape has changed
  • (32:22) - There are no bullet proof solutions against bots
  • (34:07) - Rapid-fire questions with Praveen Thakur
  • (37:42) - Wrapping up the episode

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Jose is joined by Praveen Thakur, Queue-it’s Head of Technical Engagement, APAC who shares what it takes to prepare for and succeed during high-traffic online events. From coordinating mission control rooms to navigating bot threats and post-event analysis, Praveen shares lessons learned from years of hands-on experience with retailers, ticketing providers, and government organizations. The discussion offers a behind-the-scenes look at the technical and organizational decisions that shape successful peak traffic events.

Episode page

---

Praveen Thakur is Head of Technical Engagement, APAC at Queue-it, where he works closely with teams across the region on technical integration, performance readiness, and post-event analysis. With over 13 years of experience spanning product engineering, consulting, and in-house IT roles, he brings deep expertise in cloud, DevOps, and distributed systems. He’s particularly focused on aligning technology decisions with business goals and building resilient, outcome-oriented teams.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:00) - What is technical engagement at Queue-it?
  • (04:03) - How Praveen became head of technical engagement
  • (07:09) - Preparing retailers for peak traffic events
  • (15:11) - Scheduled events vs. 24/7 peak protection
  • (18:21) - Why you might restrict traffic intentionally
  • (20:48) - Inside a mission control “war room”
  • (26:50) - Post-event evaluation & common mistakes
  • (28:14) - Covering the full user journey
  • (30:10) - How the bot landscape has changed
  • (32:22) - There are no bullet proof solutions against bots
  • (34:07) - Rapid-fire questions with Praveen Thakur
  • (37:42) - Wrapping up the episode

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2025 08:00:00 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2295 In this episode of Smooth Scaling, Jose is joined by Praveen Thakur, Queue-it’s Head of Technical Engagement, APAC who shares what it takes to prepare for and succeed during high-traffic online events. From coordinating mission control rooms to navigating bot threats and post-event analysis, Praveen shares lessons learned from years of hands-on experience with retailers, ticketing providers, and government organizations. The discussion offers a behind-the-scenes look at the technical and organizational decisions that shape successful peak traffic events.

Episode page

---

Praveen Thakur is Head of Technical Engagement, APAC at Queue-it, where he works closely with teams across the region on technical integration, performance readiness, and post-event analysis. With over 13 years of experience spanning product engineering, consulting, and in-house IT roles, he brings deep expertise in cloud, DevOps, and distributed systems. He’s particularly focused on aligning technology decisions with business goals and building resilient, outcome-oriented teams.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Smooth Scaling Podcast
  • (01:00) - What is technical engagement at Queue-it?
  • (04:03) - How Praveen became head of technical engagement
  • (07:09) - Preparing retailers for peak traffic events
  • (15:11) - Scheduled events vs. 24/7 peak protection
  • (18:21) - Why you might restrict traffic intentionally
  • (20:48) - Inside a mission control “war room”
  • (26:50) - Post-event evaluation & common mistakes
  • (28:14) - Covering the full user journey
  • (30:10) - How the bot landscape has changed
  • (32:22) - There are no bullet proof solutions against bots
  • (34:07) - Rapid-fire questions with Praveen Thakur
  • (37:42) - Wrapping up the episode

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Scaling Ticketing Systems for traffic bursts & bots with Line-Up's Barnaby Clark 9 9 Scaling Ticketing Systems for traffic bursts & bots with Line-Up's Barnaby Clark full 566ea3cb-4ab2-41c7-8092-1308f1ac9420 https://share.transistor.fm/s/4cd13f03 In this episode, Barnaby Clark, CEO of Line-Up, reveals the engineering practices behind resilient ticketing systems that handle real-world demand. Barnaby explains how Line-Up rebuilt their platform from the ground up to meet the complex needs of live events, from unique inventory structures and API scaling to predictive load handling and third-party integrations. Barnaby dives into the evolving threat of bots, the nuances of asynchronous payments, and how to design for bursts in traffic without breaking the customer experience. It’s a practical look at infrastructure, performance, and the unpredictable nature of ticketing at scale.

Episode page

---

Barnaby Clark is CEO and Co-Founder at Line-Up. He has 12 years of experience designing innovative software products across diverse stacks, scaling and guiding cross-functional teams, building high-growth e-commerce platforms, and overcoming complex software challenges. Line-Up was shortlisted for Best Technology Provider at the British Media Awards, won Seedcamp London and has secured multiple funding rounds from angel investors, institutional backers, and corporate entities. Prior to Line-Up, Barnaby spent 5 years working on Mergers & Acquisitions and private capital fundraising efforts within the technology sector. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Introduction: Designing Scalable Ticketing Systems
  • (00:45) - Barnaby’s Journey to Founding Line-Up
  • (02:15) - Unique Scaling Challenges in Ticket Sales
  • (05:08) - Breaking Down the Ticket Purchase Journey
  • (06:41) - Read vs. Write Operations in Scalability
  • (09:53) - Handling Sudden Traffic Spikes
  • (12:11) - Predictive Scaling and Early User Signals
  • (17:26) - Integrating Third-Party Ticket Sales APIs
  • (20:02) - Payment Providers and Asynchronous Challenges
  • (26:09) - Disaster Recovery and System Protection
  • (30:35) - Tackling Bots and Fraud in Ticketing
  • (35:04) - Rapid-Fire Insights & Recommendations

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> In this episode, Barnaby Clark, CEO of Line-Up, reveals the engineering practices behind resilient ticketing systems that handle real-world demand. Barnaby explains how Line-Up rebuilt their platform from the ground up to meet the complex needs of live events, from unique inventory structures and API scaling to predictive load handling and third-party integrations. Barnaby dives into the evolving threat of bots, the nuances of asynchronous payments, and how to design for bursts in traffic without breaking the customer experience. It’s a practical look at infrastructure, performance, and the unpredictable nature of ticketing at scale.

Episode page

---

Barnaby Clark is CEO and Co-Founder at Line-Up. He has 12 years of experience designing innovative software products across diverse stacks, scaling and guiding cross-functional teams, building high-growth e-commerce platforms, and overcoming complex software challenges. Line-Up was shortlisted for Best Technology Provider at the British Media Awards, won Seedcamp London and has secured multiple funding rounds from angel investors, institutional backers, and corporate entities. Prior to Line-Up, Barnaby spent 5 years working on Mergers & Acquisitions and private capital fundraising efforts within the technology sector. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Introduction: Designing Scalable Ticketing Systems
  • (00:45) - Barnaby’s Journey to Founding Line-Up
  • (02:15) - Unique Scaling Challenges in Ticket Sales
  • (05:08) - Breaking Down the Ticket Purchase Journey
  • (06:41) - Read vs. Write Operations in Scalability
  • (09:53) - Handling Sudden Traffic Spikes
  • (12:11) - Predictive Scaling and Early User Signals
  • (17:26) - Integrating Third-Party Ticket Sales APIs
  • (20:02) - Payment Providers and Asynchronous Challenges
  • (26:09) - Disaster Recovery and System Protection
  • (30:35) - Tackling Bots and Fraud in Ticketing
  • (35:04) - Rapid-Fire Insights & Recommendations

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> Tue, 12 Aug 2025 08:06:19 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2405 In this episode, Barnaby Clark, CEO of Line-Up, reveals the engineering practices behind resilient ticketing systems that handle real-world demand. Barnaby explains how Line-Up rebuilt their platform from the ground up to meet the complex needs of live events, from unique inventory structures and API scaling to predictive load handling and third-party integrations. Barnaby dives into the evolving threat of bots, the nuances of asynchronous payments, and how to design for bursts in traffic without breaking the customer experience. It’s a practical look at infrastructure, performance, and the unpredictable nature of ticketing at scale.

Episode page

---

Barnaby Clark is CEO and Co-Founder at Line-Up. He has 12 years of experience designing innovative software products across diverse stacks, scaling and guiding cross-functional teams, building high-growth e-commerce platforms, and overcoming complex software challenges. Line-Up was shortlisted for Best Technology Provider at the British Media Awards, won Seedcamp London and has secured multiple funding rounds from angel investors, institutional backers, and corporate entities. Prior to Line-Up, Barnaby spent 5 years working on Mergers & Acquisitions and private capital fundraising efforts within the technology sector. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Introduction: Designing Scalable Ticketing Systems
  • (00:45) - Barnaby’s Journey to Founding Line-Up
  • (02:15) - Unique Scaling Challenges in Ticket Sales
  • (05:08) - Breaking Down the Ticket Purchase Journey
  • (06:41) - Read vs. Write Operations in Scalability
  • (09:53) - Handling Sudden Traffic Spikes
  • (12:11) - Predictive Scaling and Early User Signals
  • (17:26) - Integrating Third-Party Ticket Sales APIs
  • (20:02) - Payment Providers and Asynchronous Challenges
  • (26:09) - Disaster Recovery and System Protection
  • (30:35) - Tackling Bots and Fraud in Ticketing
  • (35:04) - Rapid-Fire Insights & Recommendations

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Cloud Strategies & Considerations with Usman Mir 8 8 Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Cloud Strategies & Considerations with Usman Mir full cd4b5d52-6c3e-4dc7-8302-3eaeb651fb4f https://share.transistor.fm/s/8b514524 In this episode, Usman Mir, Senior Engineering Manager at Queue-it, shares insights into how to evaluate and implement hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. Usman draws on his 10+ years experience in automation and cloud infrastructure, diving into real-world definitions, legal and cost considerations, vendor lock-in risks, and the growing need for cloud-native, containerized setups. From hot-hot setups to data sovereignty, Usman breaks down the trade-offs and the practical steps for moving toward a modern cloud setup.

Episode page

---

Usman Mir is an experienced IT leader with 15+ years across software development, DevOps, and cloud architecture. Now Senior Engineering Manager at Queue-it, he’s led teams and delivered solutions in industries from retail to telecom. Usman has built ecommerce platforms, managed hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and advised on automation and governance—always bridging the gap between business and tech. Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome to Smooth Scaling with Usman Mir
  • (01:52) - From Commodore 64 to Cloud Architect
  • (02:56) - Public, Private, Hybrid & Multi‑Cloud Explained
  • (06:37) - The Latest Multi‑Cloud Trends
  • (10:29) - Choosing Between Cold & Hot‑Hot Strategies
  • (14:03) - Why Portability Matters in Multi‑Cloud
  • (19:18) - Do You Need DevOps for Multi‑Cloud?
  • (21:49) - How to Plan Your Multi‑Cloud Migration
  • (24:32) - Avoiding Vendor Lock‑In in the Cloud
  • (27:50) - Migration Stories & Key Takeaways

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> In this episode, Usman Mir, Senior Engineering Manager at Queue-it, shares insights into how to evaluate and implement hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. Usman draws on his 10+ years experience in automation and cloud infrastructure, diving into real-world definitions, legal and cost considerations, vendor lock-in risks, and the growing need for cloud-native, containerized setups. From hot-hot setups to data sovereignty, Usman breaks down the trade-offs and the practical steps for moving toward a modern cloud setup.

Episode page

---

Usman Mir is an experienced IT leader with 15+ years across software development, DevOps, and cloud architecture. Now Senior Engineering Manager at Queue-it, he’s led teams and delivered solutions in industries from retail to telecom. Usman has built ecommerce platforms, managed hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and advised on automation and governance—always bridging the gap between business and tech. Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome to Smooth Scaling with Usman Mir
  • (01:52) - From Commodore 64 to Cloud Architect
  • (02:56) - Public, Private, Hybrid & Multi‑Cloud Explained
  • (06:37) - The Latest Multi‑Cloud Trends
  • (10:29) - Choosing Between Cold & Hot‑Hot Strategies
  • (14:03) - Why Portability Matters in Multi‑Cloud
  • (19:18) - Do You Need DevOps for Multi‑Cloud?
  • (21:49) - How to Plan Your Multi‑Cloud Migration
  • (24:32) - Avoiding Vendor Lock‑In in the Cloud
  • (27:50) - Migration Stories & Key Takeaways

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:00:00 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2369 In this episode, Usman Mir, Senior Engineering Manager at Queue-it, shares insights into how to evaluate and implement hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. Usman draws on his 10+ years experience in automation and cloud infrastructure, diving into real-world definitions, legal and cost considerations, vendor lock-in risks, and the growing need for cloud-native, containerized setups. From hot-hot setups to data sovereignty, Usman breaks down the trade-offs and the practical steps for moving toward a modern cloud setup.

Episode page

---

Usman Mir is an experienced IT leader with 15+ years across software development, DevOps, and cloud architecture. Now Senior Engineering Manager at Queue-it, he’s led teams and delivered solutions in industries from retail to telecom. Usman has built ecommerce platforms, managed hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and advised on automation and governance—always bridging the gap between business and tech. Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale. 

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome to Smooth Scaling with Usman Mir
  • (01:52) - From Commodore 64 to Cloud Architect
  • (02:56) - Public, Private, Hybrid & Multi‑Cloud Explained
  • (06:37) - The Latest Multi‑Cloud Trends
  • (10:29) - Choosing Between Cold & Hot‑Hot Strategies
  • (14:03) - Why Portability Matters in Multi‑Cloud
  • (19:18) - Do You Need DevOps for Multi‑Cloud?
  • (21:49) - How to Plan Your Multi‑Cloud Migration
  • (24:32) - Avoiding Vendor Lock‑In in the Cloud
  • (27:50) - Migration Stories & Key Takeaways

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma From Chaos to Reliability with Gremlin CEO Kolton Andrus 7 7 From Chaos to Reliability with Gremlin CEO Kolton Andrus full b6461419-d1f2-4474-9585-cdc97cc93d47 https://share.transistor.fm/s/ec051f83 In this episode, Kolton Andrus, Founder and CEO of Gremlin deep dives into all things chaos engineering and reliability testing. Kolton shares his journey from leading reliability efforts at Amazon and Netflix to founding Gremlin, an enterprise reliability platform. They discuss what it really takes to build resilient systems, the cultural shift required to prioritize reliability, and how Gremlin is working to reshape accountability in engineering teams. From testing dependencies to aligning incentives, this conversation is packed with real-world insights into scaling systems (and teams) that don't break under pressure.

Episode page

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Kolton Andrus is the CEO and founder of Gremlin. Prior, he focused on building and operating reliable systems at Netflix and Amazon. At both companies he operated systems at scale, managed company wide incidents and helped build out their respective reliability programs and toolsets.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro & Guest: Kolton Andrus
  • (04:20) - Founding Gremlin (2016)
  • (08:47) - Rewarding Invisible Reliability Work
  • (12:27) - Proving Reliability’s Business Value
  • (15:21) - Rethinking the “Chaos Engineering” Label
  • (20:18) - Chaos Testing to Reliability Scores
  • (24:25) - Spreading Reliability Culture Across Teams
  • (28:50) - Safe, Incremental Failure Testing in Prod
  • (33:30) - Load + Fault Testing for Peak Traffic
  • (36:30) - AI’s Opportunities & Risks for Ops
  • (39:30) - Defining Scalability as Elasticity
  • (44:18) - Key Takeaways & Farewell

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> In this episode, Kolton Andrus, Founder and CEO of Gremlin deep dives into all things chaos engineering and reliability testing. Kolton shares his journey from leading reliability efforts at Amazon and Netflix to founding Gremlin, an enterprise reliability platform. They discuss what it really takes to build resilient systems, the cultural shift required to prioritize reliability, and how Gremlin is working to reshape accountability in engineering teams. From testing dependencies to aligning incentives, this conversation is packed with real-world insights into scaling systems (and teams) that don't break under pressure.

Episode page

---

Kolton Andrus is the CEO and founder of Gremlin. Prior, he focused on building and operating reliable systems at Netflix and Amazon. At both companies he operated systems at scale, managed company wide incidents and helped build out their respective reliability programs and toolsets.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro & Guest: Kolton Andrus
  • (04:20) - Founding Gremlin (2016)
  • (08:47) - Rewarding Invisible Reliability Work
  • (12:27) - Proving Reliability’s Business Value
  • (15:21) - Rethinking the “Chaos Engineering” Label
  • (20:18) - Chaos Testing to Reliability Scores
  • (24:25) - Spreading Reliability Culture Across Teams
  • (28:50) - Safe, Incremental Failure Testing in Prod
  • (33:30) - Load + Fault Testing for Peak Traffic
  • (36:30) - AI’s Opportunities & Risks for Ops
  • (39:30) - Defining Scalability as Elasticity
  • (44:18) - Key Takeaways & Farewell

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> Tue, 01 Jul 2025 08:00:00 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2692 In this episode, Kolton Andrus, Founder and CEO of Gremlin deep dives into all things chaos engineering and reliability testing. Kolton shares his journey from leading reliability efforts at Amazon and Netflix to founding Gremlin, an enterprise reliability platform. They discuss what it really takes to build resilient systems, the cultural shift required to prioritize reliability, and how Gremlin is working to reshape accountability in engineering teams. From testing dependencies to aligning incentives, this conversation is packed with real-world insights into scaling systems (and teams) that don't break under pressure.

Episode page

---

Kolton Andrus is the CEO and founder of Gremlin. Prior, he focused on building and operating reliable systems at Netflix and Amazon. At both companies he operated systems at scale, managed company wide incidents and helped build out their respective reliability programs and toolsets.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro & Guest: Kolton Andrus
  • (04:20) - Founding Gremlin (2016)
  • (08:47) - Rewarding Invisible Reliability Work
  • (12:27) - Proving Reliability’s Business Value
  • (15:21) - Rethinking the “Chaos Engineering” Label
  • (20:18) - Chaos Testing to Reliability Scores
  • (24:25) - Spreading Reliability Culture Across Teams
  • (28:50) - Safe, Incremental Failure Testing in Prod
  • (33:30) - Load + Fault Testing for Peak Traffic
  • (36:30) - AI’s Opportunities & Risks for Ops
  • (39:30) - Defining Scalability as Elasticity
  • (44:18) - Key Takeaways & Farewell

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma The Cost of Scaling for Peak Demand with Head of Engineering Martin Jensen 6 6 The Cost of Scaling for Peak Demand with Head of Engineering Martin Jensen full d8bf64f8-89d3-4931-8c6d-5e7017d4296e https://share.transistor.fm/s/02c1784b In this episode, Martin Jensen, Head of Engineering, breaks down the true cost of scaling for peak demand. He explains the limits of autoscaling, when pre-scaling makes sense, and how tools like virtual waiting rooms are used to handle sudden spikes in traffic. Martin also discusses system bottlenecks, performance trade-offs, and practical strategies for staying in control during high-demand moments like ticket sales, product drops, and popular registrations.

Episode page

---

This episode´s guest is Martin Jensen. Martin Nørskov Jensen is an experienced engineering leader and Head of Engineering at Queue-it. With 15+ years in software development and 5+ years in leadership, he builds agile, high-performing teams focused on collaboration, trust, and engineering excellence.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:58) - Meet Guest Martin Jensen
  • (02:10) - What exactly *is* peak demand?
  • (03:20) - Real-world peak-traffic examples
  • (05:39) - Auto- vs pre-scaling strategies
  • (07:09) - Scaling limits & hidden costs
  • (10:11) - Virtual waiting rooms explained
  • (13:33) - How queues + scaling fit together
  • (18:45) - CDNs, caches & other toolkits
  • (26:08) - Key take-aways & pro tips
  • (29:32) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 


]]> In this episode, Martin Jensen, Head of Engineering, breaks down the true cost of scaling for peak demand. He explains the limits of autoscaling, when pre-scaling makes sense, and how tools like virtual waiting rooms are used to handle sudden spikes in traffic. Martin also discusses system bottlenecks, performance trade-offs, and practical strategies for staying in control during high-demand moments like ticket sales, product drops, and popular registrations.

Episode page

---

This episode´s guest is Martin Jensen. Martin Nørskov Jensen is an experienced engineering leader and Head of Engineering at Queue-it. With 15+ years in software development and 5+ years in leadership, he builds agile, high-performing teams focused on collaboration, trust, and engineering excellence.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:58) - Meet Guest Martin Jensen
  • (02:10) - What exactly *is* peak demand?
  • (03:20) - Real-world peak-traffic examples
  • (05:39) - Auto- vs pre-scaling strategies
  • (07:09) - Scaling limits & hidden costs
  • (10:11) - Virtual waiting rooms explained
  • (13:33) - How queues + scaling fit together
  • (18:45) - CDNs, caches & other toolkits
  • (26:08) - Key take-aways & pro tips
  • (29:32) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 


]]> Tue, 17 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 1805 In this episode, Martin Jensen, Head of Engineering, breaks down the true cost of scaling for peak demand. He explains the limits of autoscaling, when pre-scaling makes sense, and how tools like virtual waiting rooms are used to handle sudden spikes in traffic. Martin also discusses system bottlenecks, performance trade-offs, and practical strategies for staying in control during high-demand moments like ticket sales, product drops, and popular registrations.

Episode page

---

This episode´s guest is Martin Jensen. Martin Nørskov Jensen is an experienced engineering leader and Head of Engineering at Queue-it. With 15+ years in software development and 5+ years in leadership, he builds agile, high-performing teams focused on collaboration, trust, and engineering excellence.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:58) - Meet Guest Martin Jensen
  • (02:10) - What exactly *is* peak demand?
  • (03:20) - Real-world peak-traffic examples
  • (05:39) - Auto- vs pre-scaling strategies
  • (07:09) - Scaling limits & hidden costs
  • (10:11) - Virtual waiting rooms explained
  • (13:33) - How queues + scaling fit together
  • (18:45) - CDNs, caches & other toolkits
  • (26:08) - Key take-aways & pro tips
  • (29:32) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 


]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Running High-Traffic Product Drops at Rapha with Tristan Watson 5 5 Running High-Traffic Product Drops at Rapha with Tristan Watson full 077d3ffb-12d3-4059-a69b-3a1769c2acff https://share.transistor.fm/s/71d89c77 In this episode, seasoned platform engineer Tristan Watson shares his learnings from handling peak traffic at Rapha and Booking.com. Tristan reveals the key challenges, trade-offs, and best practices involved in preparing infrastructure for high-traffic product drops and collaborations. Whether you're navigating traffic surges or optimizing for resilience, Tristan’s advice will help you prepare your systems to handle the pressure.

Episode page

---

This episode´s guest is Tristan Watson. Tristan Watson has spent over a decade mastering the art of keeping websites fast, stable, and scalable. With experience leading teams and steering key projects across tech, retail, and finance he consistently balances technical excellence with business goals. His pragmatic approach and passion for emerging tech like AI make him a sought-after consultant. Off the clock, you’ll find him exploring new tech trends or out on a bike ride. You can find Tristan on LinkedIn here.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:58) - Tristan's journey
  • (02:47) - Differences in scalability
  • (08:08) - Differences in traffic peaks
  • (11:12) - The challenges of an SRE team
  • (16:34) - High stakes make the most memorable moments
  • (19:39) - The Rapha system setup in more detail
  • (26:24) - Iterating - anticipating problems or learning from mistakes
  • (27:57) - The alternatives on the table
  • (29:30) - Uncertainty in the reliability of the current systems
  • (30:59) - The virtual waiting room
  • (33:13) - Experience during the drop
  • (37:03) - The best moments are with great partners
  • (40:00) - Main learnings from Product drop
  • (42:04) - Rapid Fire Questions
  • (46:07) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 


]]> In this episode, seasoned platform engineer Tristan Watson shares his learnings from handling peak traffic at Rapha and Booking.com. Tristan reveals the key challenges, trade-offs, and best practices involved in preparing infrastructure for high-traffic product drops and collaborations. Whether you're navigating traffic surges or optimizing for resilience, Tristan’s advice will help you prepare your systems to handle the pressure.

Episode page

---

This episode´s guest is Tristan Watson. Tristan Watson has spent over a decade mastering the art of keeping websites fast, stable, and scalable. With experience leading teams and steering key projects across tech, retail, and finance he consistently balances technical excellence with business goals. His pragmatic approach and passion for emerging tech like AI make him a sought-after consultant. Off the clock, you’ll find him exploring new tech trends or out on a bike ride. You can find Tristan on LinkedIn here.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:58) - Tristan's journey
  • (02:47) - Differences in scalability
  • (08:08) - Differences in traffic peaks
  • (11:12) - The challenges of an SRE team
  • (16:34) - High stakes make the most memorable moments
  • (19:39) - The Rapha system setup in more detail
  • (26:24) - Iterating - anticipating problems or learning from mistakes
  • (27:57) - The alternatives on the table
  • (29:30) - Uncertainty in the reliability of the current systems
  • (30:59) - The virtual waiting room
  • (33:13) - Experience during the drop
  • (37:03) - The best moments are with great partners
  • (40:00) - Main learnings from Product drop
  • (42:04) - Rapid Fire Questions
  • (46:07) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 


]]> Tue, 03 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2800 In this episode, seasoned platform engineer Tristan Watson shares his learnings from handling peak traffic at Rapha and Booking.com. Tristan reveals the key challenges, trade-offs, and best practices involved in preparing infrastructure for high-traffic product drops and collaborations. Whether you're navigating traffic surges or optimizing for resilience, Tristan’s advice will help you prepare your systems to handle the pressure.

Episode page

---

This episode´s guest is Tristan Watson. Tristan Watson has spent over a decade mastering the art of keeping websites fast, stable, and scalable. With experience leading teams and steering key projects across tech, retail, and finance he consistently balances technical excellence with business goals. His pragmatic approach and passion for emerging tech like AI make him a sought-after consultant. Off the clock, you’ll find him exploring new tech trends or out on a bike ride. You can find Tristan on LinkedIn here.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:58) - Tristan's journey
  • (02:47) - Differences in scalability
  • (08:08) - Differences in traffic peaks
  • (11:12) - The challenges of an SRE team
  • (16:34) - High stakes make the most memorable moments
  • (19:39) - The Rapha system setup in more detail
  • (26:24) - Iterating - anticipating problems or learning from mistakes
  • (27:57) - The alternatives on the table
  • (29:30) - Uncertainty in the reliability of the current systems
  • (30:59) - The virtual waiting room
  • (33:13) - Experience during the drop
  • (37:03) - The best moments are with great partners
  • (40:00) - Main learnings from Product drop
  • (42:04) - Rapid Fire Questions
  • (46:07) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 


]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Designing Features For Scale with Head of Product & UX Karen Risvig 4 4 Designing Features For Scale with Head of Product & UX Karen Risvig full 0ae4a584-c738-4009-a6d8-f710b79c60b5 https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep004-designing-features-for-scale/ What does it take to build product features that hold up under massive traffic while still delivering a great user experience? Karen Risvig, Head of Product & UX at Queue-it, joins Smooth Scaling to share how her team designs for scalability, resilience, and security from day one. From invite-only waiting rooms to real-time visitor analytics, Karen breaks down the product decisions behind some of Queue-it’s most exciting features—and the trade-offs that come with building for scale.

Episode page

---
This episode's guest is Karen Risvig. Karen Risvig is a dynamic product leader with extensive experience in the SaaS industry. As Head of Product & UX at Queue-it, she leads product strategy, roadmap execution, and a team of product managers and UX specialists. She brings a data-driven approach to decision-making and excels at turning complex challenges into clear, high-impact solutions. Karen is known for fostering cross-functional collaboration and delivering products that align with both user needs and business goals.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (01:05) - Career Journey
  • (03:45) - Projects vs. Products: Shifting Perspectives
  • (05:25) - Feature Spotlight: Invite-Only Waiting Rooms
  • (08:49) - Leveraging Customer Insights and Behavioral Data
  • (10:21) - Capturing User Attention
  • (11:48) - Reducing Purchase Friction
  • (13:17) - Early-stage Feature Evaluation and Idea Validation
  • (17:50) - Balancing Problems and Opportunities
  • (19:27) - Core Requirements: Scalability, Resilience, and Security
  • (25:14) - Scalability in Practice: Handling Massive User Interaction
  • (27:29) - Trade-offs in Product Development
  • (29:33) - Lessons Learned at Queue-it
  • (31:52) - Rapid-fire Q&A: Resources and Advice
  • (33:55) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> What does it take to build product features that hold up under massive traffic while still delivering a great user experience? Karen Risvig, Head of Product & UX at Queue-it, joins Smooth Scaling to share how her team designs for scalability, resilience, and security from day one. From invite-only waiting rooms to real-time visitor analytics, Karen breaks down the product decisions behind some of Queue-it’s most exciting features—and the trade-offs that come with building for scale.

Episode page

---
This episode's guest is Karen Risvig. Karen Risvig is a dynamic product leader with extensive experience in the SaaS industry. As Head of Product & UX at Queue-it, she leads product strategy, roadmap execution, and a team of product managers and UX specialists. She brings a data-driven approach to decision-making and excels at turning complex challenges into clear, high-impact solutions. Karen is known for fostering cross-functional collaboration and delivering products that align with both user needs and business goals.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (01:05) - Career Journey
  • (03:45) - Projects vs. Products: Shifting Perspectives
  • (05:25) - Feature Spotlight: Invite-Only Waiting Rooms
  • (08:49) - Leveraging Customer Insights and Behavioral Data
  • (10:21) - Capturing User Attention
  • (11:48) - Reducing Purchase Friction
  • (13:17) - Early-stage Feature Evaluation and Idea Validation
  • (17:50) - Balancing Problems and Opportunities
  • (19:27) - Core Requirements: Scalability, Resilience, and Security
  • (25:14) - Scalability in Practice: Handling Massive User Interaction
  • (27:29) - Trade-offs in Product Development
  • (29:33) - Lessons Learned at Queue-it
  • (31:52) - Rapid-fire Q&A: Resources and Advice
  • (33:55) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> Tue, 20 May 2025 08:00:00 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2070 What does it take to build product features that hold up under massive traffic while still delivering a great user experience? Karen Risvig, Head of Product & UX at Queue-it, joins Smooth Scaling to share how her team designs for scalability, resilience, and security from day one. From invite-only waiting rooms to real-time visitor analytics, Karen breaks down the product decisions behind some of Queue-it’s most exciting features—and the trade-offs that come with building for scale.

Episode page

---
This episode's guest is Karen Risvig. Karen Risvig is a dynamic product leader with extensive experience in the SaaS industry. As Head of Product & UX at Queue-it, she leads product strategy, roadmap execution, and a team of product managers and UX specialists. She brings a data-driven approach to decision-making and excels at turning complex challenges into clear, high-impact solutions. Karen is known for fostering cross-functional collaboration and delivering products that align with both user needs and business goals.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (01:05) - Career Journey
  • (03:45) - Projects vs. Products: Shifting Perspectives
  • (05:25) - Feature Spotlight: Invite-Only Waiting Rooms
  • (08:49) - Leveraging Customer Insights and Behavioral Data
  • (10:21) - Capturing User Attention
  • (11:48) - Reducing Purchase Friction
  • (13:17) - Early-stage Feature Evaluation and Idea Validation
  • (17:50) - Balancing Problems and Opportunities
  • (19:27) - Core Requirements: Scalability, Resilience, and Security
  • (25:14) - Scalability in Practice: Handling Massive User Interaction
  • (27:29) - Trade-offs in Product Development
  • (29:33) - Lessons Learned at Queue-it
  • (31:52) - Rapid-fire Q&A: Resources and Advice
  • (33:55) - Outro

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Load Testing for Peak Traffic with Radview's Yam Shal-Bar 3 3 Load Testing for Peak Traffic with Radview's Yam Shal-Bar full 33aded45-fbd9-46d9-8b3c-3f7f20cf080d https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep003-load-testing/ In this episode, Yam Shal-Bar, CTO at Radview, discusses the the evolving world of load testing and how it's used to prepare for peak traffic. He covers the most common system bottlenecks, the importance of iterative testing, and strategies for accurately simulating user journeys. Yam shares insights into common misconceptions around testing, best practices, and trends like AI for test analysis and API-level testing. Whether you're launching a new web app or tuning an existing one, this episode is packed with practical advice for testing systems for resilience and scalability.

Episode page

---

This episode's guest is Yam Shal-Bar. Yam Shal-Bar is an experienced development leader and software architect with over two decades of expertise in managing distributed teams and delivering enterprise-scale software solutions. As CTO at RadView Software, he drives the company’s technical roadmap and leads the development of core products, including RadView’s performance testing platform and web dashboard. Throughout his career—including leadership roles at British Telecom, Reliance Infocomm, and Vodafone—he has championed Agile methodologies, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines to deliver robust, scalable systems.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:59) - Yam Shal-Bar and Radview
  • (02:20) - Simulating User Journeys
  • (05:00) - How to approach load testing?
  • (06:25) - What are common finds when load testing?
  • (10:42) - Different perspectives on "capacity"
  • (16:05) - The playbook of load testing
  • (18:50) - What are common bottlenecks in complex systems?
  • (20:32) - Third-party services and load testing
  • (23:33) - What exactly are you load testing?
  • (26:11) - What is changing within the load testing space?
  • (27:39) - API and User Journey testing
  • (30:56) - Rapid-Fire Questions
  • (35:25) - Wrap Up

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> In this episode, Yam Shal-Bar, CTO at Radview, discusses the the evolving world of load testing and how it's used to prepare for peak traffic. He covers the most common system bottlenecks, the importance of iterative testing, and strategies for accurately simulating user journeys. Yam shares insights into common misconceptions around testing, best practices, and trends like AI for test analysis and API-level testing. Whether you're launching a new web app or tuning an existing one, this episode is packed with practical advice for testing systems for resilience and scalability.

Episode page

---

This episode's guest is Yam Shal-Bar. Yam Shal-Bar is an experienced development leader and software architect with over two decades of expertise in managing distributed teams and delivering enterprise-scale software solutions. As CTO at RadView Software, he drives the company’s technical roadmap and leads the development of core products, including RadView’s performance testing platform and web dashboard. Throughout his career—including leadership roles at British Telecom, Reliance Infocomm, and Vodafone—he has championed Agile methodologies, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines to deliver robust, scalable systems.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:59) - Yam Shal-Bar and Radview
  • (02:20) - Simulating User Journeys
  • (05:00) - How to approach load testing?
  • (06:25) - What are common finds when load testing?
  • (10:42) - Different perspectives on "capacity"
  • (16:05) - The playbook of load testing
  • (18:50) - What are common bottlenecks in complex systems?
  • (20:32) - Third-party services and load testing
  • (23:33) - What exactly are you load testing?
  • (26:11) - What is changing within the load testing space?
  • (27:39) - API and User Journey testing
  • (30:56) - Rapid-Fire Questions
  • (35:25) - Wrap Up

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> Mon, 05 May 2025 20:00:00 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 2180 In this episode, Yam Shal-Bar, CTO at Radview, discusses the the evolving world of load testing and how it's used to prepare for peak traffic. He covers the most common system bottlenecks, the importance of iterative testing, and strategies for accurately simulating user journeys. Yam shares insights into common misconceptions around testing, best practices, and trends like AI for test analysis and API-level testing. Whether you're launching a new web app or tuning an existing one, this episode is packed with practical advice for testing systems for resilience and scalability.

Episode page

---

This episode's guest is Yam Shal-Bar. Yam Shal-Bar is an experienced development leader and software architect with over two decades of expertise in managing distributed teams and delivering enterprise-scale software solutions. As CTO at RadView Software, he drives the company’s technical roadmap and leads the development of core products, including RadView’s performance testing platform and web dashboard. Throughout his career—including leadership roles at British Telecom, Reliance Infocomm, and Vodafone—he has championed Agile methodologies, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines to deliver robust, scalable systems.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (00:59) - Yam Shal-Bar and Radview
  • (02:20) - Simulating User Journeys
  • (05:00) - How to approach load testing?
  • (06:25) - What are common finds when load testing?
  • (10:42) - Different perspectives on "capacity"
  • (16:05) - The playbook of load testing
  • (18:50) - What are common bottlenecks in complex systems?
  • (20:32) - Third-party services and load testing
  • (23:33) - What exactly are you load testing?
  • (26:11) - What is changing within the load testing space?
  • (27:39) - API and User Journey testing
  • (30:56) - Rapid-Fire Questions
  • (35:25) - Wrap Up

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Simple is Scalable with Product Architect Mojtaba Sarooghi 2 2 Simple is Scalable with Product Architect Mojtaba Sarooghi full dd7bd6fa-0018-4edf-bb7b-f2285050cf76 https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep002-simple-is-scalable What makes a system scalable? In this episode, Mojtaba Sarooghi explains why simplicity is the secret to scalability. Saroonghi explains why avoiding complexity helps minimize the risk of failure while improving troubleshooting, deployment, and the overall scalability of a system. He walks though how Queue-it has maintained simplicity as it has grown, the allure of complexity, and how architects can incorporate simplicity into their system design and development.

Episode page

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This episode's guest is Mojtaba Sarooghi, a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Moji was one of the company’s first employees, starting his journey as a software developer over 10 years ago. He is highly experienced with AWS services, product and architectural design, managing developer teams, and defining and executing on product vision.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Introduction
  • (01:08) - Moji’s Background
  • (01:59) - What Makes a System Scalable?
  • (05:19) - Trade-offs of Simplicity vs. Complexity
  • (11:37) - Simplicity in scalability
  • (13:00) - Simplicity and complexity in Queue-it
  • (17:32) - Everyday Complexity in Engineering
  • (19:22) - Quickfire Round
  • (23:40) - Wrap-up

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> What makes a system scalable? In this episode, Mojtaba Sarooghi explains why simplicity is the secret to scalability. Saroonghi explains why avoiding complexity helps minimize the risk of failure while improving troubleshooting, deployment, and the overall scalability of a system. He walks though how Queue-it has maintained simplicity as it has grown, the allure of complexity, and how architects can incorporate simplicity into their system design and development.

Episode page

---

This episode's guest is Mojtaba Sarooghi, a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Moji was one of the company’s first employees, starting his journey as a software developer over 10 years ago. He is highly experienced with AWS services, product and architectural design, managing developer teams, and defining and executing on product vision.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Introduction
  • (01:08) - Moji’s Background
  • (01:59) - What Makes a System Scalable?
  • (05:19) - Trade-offs of Simplicity vs. Complexity
  • (11:37) - Simplicity in scalability
  • (13:00) - Simplicity and complexity in Queue-it
  • (17:32) - Everyday Complexity in Engineering
  • (19:22) - Quickfire Round
  • (23:40) - Wrap-up

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:01:17 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 1469 What makes a system scalable? In this episode, Mojtaba Sarooghi explains why simplicity is the secret to scalability. Saroonghi explains why avoiding complexity helps minimize the risk of failure while improving troubleshooting, deployment, and the overall scalability of a system. He walks though how Queue-it has maintained simplicity as it has grown, the allure of complexity, and how architects can incorporate simplicity into their system design and development.

Episode page

---

This episode's guest is Mojtaba Sarooghi, a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Moji was one of the company’s first employees, starting his journey as a software developer over 10 years ago. He is highly experienced with AWS services, product and architectural design, managing developer teams, and defining and executing on product vision.

Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

  • (00:00) - Welcome & Introduction
  • (01:08) - Moji’s Background
  • (01:59) - What Makes a System Scalable?
  • (05:19) - Trade-offs of Simplicity vs. Complexity
  • (11:37) - Simplicity in scalability
  • (13:00) - Simplicity and complexity in Queue-it
  • (17:32) - Everyday Complexity in Engineering
  • (19:22) - Quickfire Round
  • (23:40) - Wrap-up

© Queue-it, 2025 ]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma Design for Failure with Product Architect Martin Larsen 1 1 Design for Failure with Product Architect Martin Larsen full 348c5d00-4e5a-4035-8d9e-8f8c0e0840b3 https://queue-it.com/smooth-scaling-podcast/ep001-design-for-failure No system has 100% reliability. Failures and faults are inevitable. At scale, everything breaks. In this episode, Martin Larsen explains the design for failure approach behind Queue-it’s architecture and how it increases the platform’s availability and resilience. Larsen explores the principles behind designing for failure, the tradeoffs involved, the mechanisms implemented at Queue-it, and the tangible ways companies can bring this development approach into their processes.

Episode page

---
Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This episode's guest is Martin Larsen, a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Starting as a software developer, Martin was one of the company’s first employees. He played an instrumental role in building the foundations of Queue-it and is heavily involved in activities including the design, architecture, testing, and deployment of the virtual waiting room, as well as defining and executing on product vision.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> No system has 100% reliability. Failures and faults are inevitable. At scale, everything breaks. In this episode, Martin Larsen explains the design for failure approach behind Queue-it’s architecture and how it increases the platform’s availability and resilience. Larsen explores the principles behind designing for failure, the tradeoffs involved, the mechanisms implemented at Queue-it, and the tangible ways companies can bring this development approach into their processes.

Episode page

---
Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This episode's guest is Martin Larsen, a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Starting as a software developer, Martin was one of the company’s first employees. He played an instrumental role in building the foundations of Queue-it and is heavily involved in activities including the design, architecture, testing, and deployment of the virtual waiting room, as well as defining and executing on product vision.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> Tue, 22 Apr 2025 11:19:06 +0200 Queue-it Queue-it 1655 No system has 100% reliability. Failures and faults are inevitable. At scale, everything breaks. In this episode, Martin Larsen explains the design for failure approach behind Queue-it’s architecture and how it increases the platform’s availability and resilience. Larsen explores the principles behind designing for failure, the tradeoffs involved, the mechanisms implemented at Queue-it, and the tangible ways companies can bring this development approach into their processes.

Episode page

---
Host Jose Quaresma is the VP of Technical Engagement at Queue-it, working on the frontlines with some of the world’s biggest businesses on their busiest days, from Ticketmaster to Zalando to Home Office U.K. Each week, he’ll be joined by experts across industries, uncovering how major organizations design, build, and deploy systems that perform at scale.

This episode's guest is Martin Larsen, a Distinguished Product Architect at Queue-it. Starting as a software developer, Martin was one of the company’s first employees. He played an instrumental role in building the foundations of Queue-it and is heavily involved in activities including the design, architecture, testing, and deployment of the virtual waiting room, as well as defining and executing on product vision.

This podcast is hosted by José Quaresma, researched by Joseph Thwaites and produced by Perseu Mandillo.

© Queue-it, 2025

]]> System design, Scalability, Cloud architecture, Load testing, High traffic systems, Software reliability, Peak demand engineering, Cost optimization, Event-driven architecture, DevOps at scale, No José Quaresma