GFoundry infrastructure overview
How the GFoundry platform is organised and which Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services and region it runs on.
How is the GFoundry platform organised?
GFoundry is a multi-tenant and multilingual solution, available as SaaS.
Each client account has its own backoffice and its own API, which GFoundry uses to receive and send data.
Each account can be made available through three types of app: the web app, under the client's own URL, and the iOS and Android apps, in the App Store and Google Play.
A client can also use a multi-container setup: with a single application, users are directed to several GFoundry accounts, each with its own separate backoffice.
Which cloud services does GFoundry run on?
GFoundry runs on Google Cloud Platform. The main services are:
Google Kubernetes Engine
A managed environment for containerised applications. GFoundry services run as Docker containers on Kubernetes Engine.
Cloud SQL
Google's managed database service, which provides scaling, backups and failover.
Cloud Storage
Object storage. GFoundry stores static files there, from user photos to JavaScript and CSS files. Google designs Cloud Storage for 99.999999999% annual durability.
Cloud CDN
The content delivery network used to serve the static files stored in Cloud Storage.
Error Reporting, Logging and Monitoring
GCP services used for monitoring and alerting.
Some AI features (GFoundry Intelligence) also use models from external AI providers. See Understanding Compliance on GFoundry: Security, Terms, and Data Protection.
Where does the GFoundry production environment run?
The production environment runs on a regional Kubernetes cluster in the Google Cloud region europe-west4, in Eemshaven, the Netherlands.
Zones
A Google Cloud region is made of several zones. Google designs zones to be independent from each other: power, cooling, networking and control planes are isolated, so a single failure usually affects only one zone. A regional cluster spreads its nodes across the zones of the region.
Where do the GFoundry databases run?
The production databases use Cloud SQL, in the same region (europe-west4).
Availability
Cloud SQL continuously checks the health of the instances and can fail over automatically to a standby instance.
Scalability
Cloud SQL can scale up the machine size and scale out with read replicas.
Fully managed
Google manages replication, patching and backups of the Cloud SQL instances.
Security
Cloud SQL encrypts data in transit within Google's network and at rest, including database tables, temporary files and backups.