When Should You Replace Open-Source Real-Time Infrastructure? Lessons from Building LO

Описание и применение

LO заменил открытые решения для реального времени на собственный протокол ConnectX, чтобы улучшить контроль над соединениями и повысить производительность, при этом сохраняя PostgreSQL и Kubernetes.

Задача

Choosing an existing technology can accelerate early development, but over time its limitations may become more expensive than building a custom solution.

Результат

By replacing Centrifugo and mediasoup with ConnectX, LO gained control over critical real‑time features, achieving measurable performance gains and aligning infrastructure with product evolution while retaining mature open‑source components for other needs.

Рабочий процесс

• 1. Identify recurring limitations in the existing real‑time stack.
• 2. Evaluate if workarounds are growing into a complex architecture.
• 3. Assess whether greater control would improve user experience (performance, reliability).
• 4. Determine long‑term maintenance capacity for a proprietary system.
• 5. Decide to replace or adapt the existing technology.
• 6. Design and implement a custom protocol (ConnectX).
• 7. Integrate ConnectX into the platform and benchmark improvements.

Доказательства

We began transitioning toward our own real‑time infrastructure to gain greater control over a critical part of the platform.

Источник

In one of our updates, ConnectX optimizations improved connection establishment speed by approximately 20%.

Источник

Replacing a technology doesn't necessarily mean the original choice was wrong.

Источник