Backend Development & Cloud Infrastructure
Scalable APIs, database architecture, and cloud infrastructure built for reliability, security, and observability — not just for development environments.
Zero unplanned downtime incidents across all production deployments to date
Backend systems are where most products fail silently. A frontend can render without errors while the database connection pool is exhausted, the API is returning stale cached data, and no alerting is configured. Backend development at ApexDev is treated as infrastructure work — designed to be monitored, audited, and scaled from the start, not retrofitted after the first production incident.
Our backend stack centers on Node.js with TypeScript for API services, Firebase (Firestore and Cloud Functions) for real-time and serverless workloads, and PostgreSQL for relational data requiring complex queries, transactions, and compliance-level auditability. PostgreSQL vs. Firestore is a deliberate decision per project — not a default. Financial data, inventory systems, and anything requiring joins and transactional integrity belongs in PostgreSQL. Event-driven content and real-time updates belong in Firestore.
API design follows REST conventions with explicit versioning and contract documentation. We do not build undocumented APIs. Every endpoint has defined request and response schemas, error states, and authentication requirements specified before implementation begins. This discipline reduces frontend integration time by an estimated 35% and makes debugging production incidents faster.
Security is not a post-launch checklist. Authentication and authorization are designed at the architecture level: JWT handling with proper expiry, role-based access control, rate limiting, input validation, SQL injection prevention, and secret management through environment-based configuration are standard across all projects. For applications handling payment data or medical records, we implement additional controls aligned to PCI-DSS and HIPAA requirements.
We configure cloud infrastructure on AWS (Lambda, RDS, S3, CloudFront, EC2) and Google Cloud Platform (Firebase, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL). Infrastructure-as-code using Terraform or AWS CloudFormation is available for projects requiring reproducible, version-controlled environments. Auto-scaling is configured from the start — not as a future enhancement when traffic demands it.
Observability is a first-class deliverable on every project. Every production system we ship includes structured logging, error tracking (Sentry), uptime monitoring, and performance baselines. When something breaks at 2am, you will know before your users do. We configure alerting thresholds, runbooks for common failure modes, and escalation paths as part of every handover package.
What's Included
- [✓]RESTful or GraphQL API with versioning and documentation
- [✓]Database design with migrations and indexing strategy
- [✓]Authentication and role-based authorization system
- [✓]Cloud deployment with auto-scaling configuration
- [✓]CI/CD pipeline for automated testing and deployment
- [✓]Logging, error tracking, and performance monitoring
- [✓]Security audit and penetration test preparation
- [✓]Runbook and infrastructure documentation
Tech Stack
Common Questions
Do you migrate existing databases or only build from scratch?
Both. Database migrations are executed with zero-downtime strategies — incremental schema migrations with backward-compatible intermediate states. We audit the existing schema, design the target state, and execute with rollback plans in place before touching production.
How much does backend development cost?
API-only projects (REST or GraphQL with a database) typically range from $6,000 to $25,000. Full infrastructure projects (multi-service architecture, CI/CD, IaC, and monitoring) range from $20,000 to $80,000 depending on scale and compliance requirements.
Which cloud providers do you work with?
AWS and Google Cloud Platform (Firebase/GCP) are our primary environments. We deploy where your existing infrastructure or compliance requirements dictate — not where we prefer.
Do you set up monitoring and alerting?
Yes. Observability is a standard deliverable, not an optional add-on. We configure logging aggregation, error tracking, uptime monitoring, and performance dashboards before handover.
Can you audit an existing backend before recommending changes?
Yes. A technical audit is the correct starting point for any project inheriting an existing system. We document current architecture, identify security vulnerabilities, performance bottlenecks, and maintainability risks before recommending a path forward.
Ready to start a backend development & infrastructure project?
Scope defined before any code is written.