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Artwork for Smooth Scaling: System Design for High Traffic

Smooth Scaling: System Design for High Traffic

Queue-it
Queue-It
Kubernetes
Bots
Multi-Cloud
Virtual Waiting Room
Scalability
Simplicity
Cloud Computing
Chaos Engineering
Autoscaling
MACH Architecture
Observability
Build-a-Bear
Online Trust
Software Development
Cloud Security
Hybrid Cloud
Peak Traffic
UK Government
Agentic AI

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 busine... more

PublishesMonthlyEpisodes25Foundeda year ago
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Artwork for Smooth Scaling: System Design for High Traffic

Latest Episodes

Klaus Koefoed spent more than 25 years in IT services and consultancy, at Capgemini, Deloitte, and Accenture, before taking over as CEO of T-Systems in Northern Europe. In this episode of the Smooth Scaling Podcast, Klaus walks host Jose Quaresma thr... more

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Sam Dhar has spent 14 years building infrastructure at Cisco, Amazon Alexa, and Adobe, and now works as Senior Staff Engineer and AI infrastructure leader at Galileo, the enterprise AI evaluation platform. In this episode of the Smooth Scaling Podcas... more

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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 de... more

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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 scalin... more

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Recent Guests

Sam Dhar
Staff Software Engineer at Galileo, expert in Cloud Prem and AI evaluation infrastructures
Galileo
Episode: The Rise of Cloud Prem: Data Ownership in the Age of AI with Galileo's Sam Dhar
Chris Nesbitt-Smith
Technology strategist and consultant on architectural direction for the National Digital Exchange
National Digital Exchange
Episode: A Decade of Kubernetes Lessons with Chris Nesbitt-Smith
Zaigham Sarfaraz
Engineering Manager at Queue-it
Queue-it
Episode: Autoscaling in Production: When It Works and When It Doesn't with Zaigham Sarfaraz and Šimon Bučko
Šimon Bučko
Senior Software Engineer at Queue-it
Queue-it
Episode: Autoscaling in Production: When It Works and When It Doesn't with Zaigham Sarfaraz and Šimon Bučko
Iris Dyrmishi
Senior Observability Engineer at Miro
Miro
Episode: Observability as a Product: Building Platforms Engineers Actually Use with Iris Dyrmishi
Hans Skovgaard
Chief Technology and Product Officer
Queue-it
Episode: Online Traffic in the Age of Agentic AI with Hans Skovgaard
Art Huggard
Digital commerce leader who led Build-A-Bear's web and e-commerce transformation
Build-A-Bear (formerly)
Episode: Running High-Traffic Product Launches at Build-A-Bear with Art Huggard
Ryan Sherlock
Director of Engineering
Intercom
Episode: Database Scaling at Intercom: Aurora, PlanetScale & Incident Response with Engineering Director Ryan Sherlock
Maria Petrova
VP of products at Twaice and previously Supermetrics
Twaice
Episode: Infrastructure as the Product: Designing Data-Heavy Systems with Product VP Maria Petrova

Host

José Quaresma
Lead host with a background as VP Customer Experience & Solutions at Queue-it; frequently discusses system design for high-traffic environments and collaborates with enterprise-scale teams.

Reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars from 8 ratings
  • Scaling Lessons You Can Use Today

    Binge-worthy for SREs and platform folks. Clear takeaways on observability, scaling patterns, and failure modes. I’ve already shipped two ideas from the last episode.

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Perseus001
    Denmark10 months ago

Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

Clear, actionable takeaways for observability and scaling patterns
Strong emphasis on reliability and business impact, helpful for sponsorship pitches
Great guest variety, with deep dives into architecture and incident learnings

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Apple Podcasts
#248
India/Technology

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Lessons from Supporting Hundreds of Peak Traffic Events with Praveen Thakur
Q: What does the typical engagement process look like for a retailer preparing for peak traffic?
The process starts with pre-sales discussions to map the customer's ecosystem and business model, followed by technical integration planning, and then a focus on secure, scalable live deployment with ongoing monitoring and post-event review to tighten any gaps.
The Cost of Scaling for Peak Demand with Head of Engineering Martin Jensen
Q: Can you explain how a virtual waiting room integrates with an existing architecture?
An integration layer diverts excess traffic at the HTTP level to a waiting room component, which manages the queue and controls the rate into the site, ideally deployed at the edge for best control and security.
The Cost of Scaling for Peak Demand with Head of Engineering Martin Jensen
Q: What are the most effective strategies to handle peak demand?
Scale as the core strategy, using horizontal scaling for better long-term reliability, and supplement with a virtual waiting room to throttle traffic and protect the system when scaling alone can't respond quickly enough.
The Cost of Scaling for Peak Demand with Head of Engineering Martin Jensen
Q: How do you define peak demand in practical terms for a website or service?
Peak demand is not just the absolute traffic but the difference from baseline; it often appears as a sharp, short-lived spike when a sales event or announcement drives a flood of users in minutes or seconds.
Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Cloud Strategies & Considerations with Usman Mir
Q: What are the main considerations to avoid vendor lock-in and maintain portability across clouds?
Design for portability from the start by using cloud-native, portable technologies (like containers and Kubernetes) and avoid relying on provider-specific managed services for critical components when possible. Plan for iterative migration and keep data abstractions portable, so you can move workloads between clouds with minimal changes and align with regulatory and sovereignty requirements.

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Frequently Asked Questions About This Podcast

What is This Podcast about and what kind of topics does it cover?

A deep-diberse deep-dive show focused on scalability, reliability, and performance for high-traffic systems. Episodes typically explore practical architecture patterns, cost controls, and real-world lessons from enterprise-scale deployments, including queueing, autoscaling, observability, and data-heavy infrastructure. Notable angles include cloud-native design, event-driven and MACH architectures, and strategies for handling massive traffic surges with a blend of hands-on engineering detail and business impact. A standout trait is the sustained emphasis on reliability at scale through concrete case studies and industry-aligned best practices, making it valuable for engineers, platform teams, and technical leaders evaluating or sponsoring s... more

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What guests have appeared on this podcast?

Recent guests on this podcast include:

1. Sam Dhar
2. Chris Nesbitt-Smith
3. Zaigham Sarfaraz
4. Šimon Bučko
5. Iris Dyrmishi
6. Hans Skovgaard
7. Art Huggard
8. Ryan Sherlock

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