Roadmap Update 11.05–11.19
Welcome to the fourth roadmap update! We are now entering the third month of our six-month sprint towards launch, and remain nicely in line with the schedule.
We are now approaching both the network launch and the product launch. Syntropy will serve as the basic layer for the new programmable internet. The Syntropy Stack will be the first product built on the network, providing an immediate first use case before we invite the world to also start building, expanding the Syntropy ecosystem.
For now, let’s look at what we achieved in the last couple of weeks to get us closer to these goals.
Pre-Launch & DARP Tests
We recently pre-launched the network with 500+ locations and 150+ providers worldwide. Many of you have asked: why pre-launch when you can just launch? Our CTO Jonas took some time to answer these concerns and explain why pre-launching is a smarter approach.
In short, it’s all about testing. When we have the core software working, we need a massive deployment in place spanning all major Internet infrastructure worldwide. You can’t test something that is meant to work on top of the global Internet without actually deploying it in these conditions.
With this initial infrastructure now in place, we can get reliable data on optimizations, like how big and reliable they are, who gets throttled in the evening, which paths are always a shortcut and which never get used, and much more. We will have a full map of the Internet through DARP so we can structure the network accurately.
Once we aggregate and analyze this data, we will drop servers that are not worthwhile to better allocate resources. After testing is complete, we will be able to start the node program and invite you to contribute to the network where it is needed the most.
Testing is about understanding and learning. For that, we have created DARP, which is a constantly learning and improving organism. To support its growth, we have invited several of our trusted ambassadors to help. In recent weeks we continued running community tests of DARP, which have proven fruitful. We managed to simulate real-time earnings for node runners, plus find more routes and more optimizations.
On Friday, we hope to share the first results of the pre-launch testing. Then you will be able to vet the exact improvements that can be made using our network and DARP. Stay tuned for the results!
Microsoft FastTrack
We have been working with Microsoft for some time now. Last summer, we joined their Startup Program, and this April, our participation in the program was extended by getting additional support from Microsoft to boost network performance. In recent weeks, we took a significant step forward in our relationship, with Syntropy being selected for Microsoft’s FastTrack program.
Our addition to the program will result in customized guidance from Azure engineers to accelerate the development and deployment of Syntropy.
We have always been impressed by the speed and reliability of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, and we are very excited about this event and our future collaboration. Over time, the Syntropy Stack is expected to be added to Microsoft’s cloud marketplace, making it easier to connect with Microsoft’s global customer base to generate new leads and expand network capacity.
The integration of global cloud operators is critical for enterprise adoption. We have been making a lot of effort to achieve that, and we are happy to have reached these results in a relatively short time. We will continue nurturing these relationships moving forward.
With so much happening, our developers continue to do the dirty work. Below is a brief list of their achievements over the last two weeks. Progress continues to track our roadmap timeline.
Network
Agent
- Streamlining Wireguard connection configuration;
- Mitigating duplicated error issue;
- Logging amendments to capture the most important data first;
- Enhancing Wireguard route status capture.
Infrastructure
- Set up of the PostgreSQL cluster;
- Set up of routing policies for Elastic;
- Migrated Prometheus to Kubernetes and set the backup schedules.
Networking Stack
- Further implementation and improvements of a UDP load balancer;
- Updating the hash map.
Software
- Wireguard connection improvements;
- Implementation of Services in both the endpoints and Connections;
- Redefined and improved the logic for recognizing overlapping services;
- Connections status implementation;
- Improvements to connection bulk edit performance;
- Lots of bug fixes and scalability improvements.
Business Intelligence Module
- Review and improvement of persistence logic;
- Improvements to applied business logic;
- Rewritten topology saving and performed stress testing.
Quality Assurance
- Started load testing and performance visualizations in Grafana;
- Checks for specific failed connection scenarios;
- Scenarios for mesh testing.
Syntropy SDK
- Platform tags recognition & grouping;
- Improvements to network configuration via CLI;
- Recognition of both names and ids when creating a network;
- Implementation of drift detection;
- Initial service recognition and configuration.
Product
User Interface
- Implementation of unread logs notification;
- Connection amendment summaries provided both in the event of adding new or removing any connections;
- Implementation of expandable services line in both the endpoints and networks sections and definition of the underlying logic;
- Connection table filtering to reflect the connections that belong to the network a user is currently viewing;
- Added a field to recognize when the endpoints were last connected;
- Implemented loaders while information is fetched from the backend;
- Minor improvements to Logs section;
- Multiple visual improvements and fixes.
Graphs & Analytics
- Improvements to zoom behaviour;
- Minimized animations to smoothen the network graph actions;
- Design changes for better visibility and easier network graph navigation;
- Finalized endpoint coordinates saving in the network graph;
- Fixed endpoint & connections count in Global Network;
- Fixes to the initial circular endpoint placement.
