The Snapshot
1
Reitan Convenience Sweden operated a critical internal application, ‘Passport,’ on a legacy architecture that was expensive, inefficient, and difficult to maintain.
2
The two core challenges were the monthly costs of nearly €1,000 for a system with sporadic usage and a high-risk, manual deployment process that was prone to errors.
3
Devoteam re-architected the application on Google Cloud, shifting to a modern serverless model with Cloud Run and Firestore, implementing a fully automated, secure deployment pipeline.
About Reitan Convenience Sweden
Reitan Convenience Sweden is a major force in the Swedish retail industry, operating well-known franchise chains such as Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven. As part of the larger Reitan Retail, headquartered in Norway and active across seven countries, the Swedish entity has a long-standing mission to provide essential convenience goods to people across the nation.
The Challenge
Through its long-standing partnership as a trusted advisor for Reitan Convenience Sweden, Devoteam identified a significant operational inefficiency. The challenge was an internal application called Passport. It was designed to allow suppliers and maintenance staff authorised access to the stores
.The main problem? The system ran on an outdated framework that made the whole process costly.
The Passport application was built on an old .NET framework with rigid dependencies. Making updates was highly tedious and prone to errors. Developers had to connect to a specific virtual machine with strict dependencies, manually build the code, and then push the deployment.
A secondary but equally important issue was cost. The old architecture ran on static servers that were active 24/7, irrespective of traffic. Upkeep of such a system with sporadic usage meant paying hundreds of euros each month in vain.
The Solution
Recognising the client’s pain points, Devoteam proposed a technical overhaul of the Passport system. The approach was designed to be as non-disruptive to RCS as possible.
The goal was twofold: overhauling the deployment process to make it automated and risk-free and rebuilding the system to reduce its operational costs.
The core of the solution was a strategic shift to a modern, serverless architecture on Google Cloud. We kept the front-end user experience unchanged to ensure a seamless transition for staff, but redesigned the entire back end from .NET to Python. This move simplified the codebase and aligned it with RCS’s preferred technology stack, guaranteeing long-term manageability.
We saw an opportunity to transform the application. The running costs were unjustifiably high, and the old deployment process was a major risk. By moving to a serverless architecture with Cloud Run and Firestore, we solved both issues at once while managing the project in a way that required minimal effort from the client’s side
Mikael Fredriksson,
Team Lead & Senior Cloud Architect, Devoteam
The serverless setup was the key to solving the cost issue. With the new tech stack, RCS now only pays for the resources consumed during an actual request. When the system is not in use, it automatically scales down to zero, eliminating idle costs. The ‘pay-for-what-you-use’ model was perfectly suited for Passport’s low traffic.
Establishing a fully automated deployment pipeline was a crucial part of the implementation. We implemented a security tool that performs vulnerability scanning on all dependencies. If a critical vulnerability is found, the deployment is automatically blocked. This proactive security measure was not present before, significantly improving the application’s security.
The Result
Cut the application’s monthly running costs by more than 99%.
Eliminated operational risk by replacing a manual process with a fully automated deployment pipeline.
Enhanced application security by embedding automated vulnerability scanning to block threats.
The results of the Passport system’s rework were immediate, delivering a 99.7% cost reduction. The old system, combining development and production environments, cost approximately €992 per month to run. The new, optimised serverless solution costs, on average, just €3 per month for all three environments combined.
The result of the Passport project speaks for itself. To see a monthly operational cost drop from nearly a thousand euros to just a handful is remarkable
Pär Nilsson,
Architect IT, Reitan Convenience Sweden
Secondly, the project eliminated an operational risk. The deployment process transformed from a high-stakes manual task into a secure, automated workflow. This enhanced accuracy prevented the possibility of catastrophic deployment errors and freed up developer time.
Finally, we enhanced the system’s security. By integrating vulnerability scanning into the deployment pipeline, we introduced a new layer of protection that was not previously in place. This ensures that only secure code makes it into the production environment.
The project’s success was marked by the radio silence from end-users, who experienced a completely seamless transition to the new system without disruption.
Conclusion
The Passport modernisation project is a testament to the might of a partnership between a retail industry player and a tech consultancy. By understanding RCS’s core challenges, Devoteam was able to design and execute a solution that not only solved the security problems but also delivered significant savings. Now, we continue bringing the benefits of Google Cloud across other parts of the organisation’s operations.
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