Technical and methodological support for setting up a new data platform in livestock farming

A cloud-based data platform offers livestock farms the opportunity to process and analyze data from a central location in order to optimize their production. Thanks to remote maintenance, farmers can easily control their equipment remotely.

With 3,200 employees around the world, Big Dutchman designs and implements feeding systems and stall facilities for pigs and poultry. Big Dutchman products help more than 100 countries in the world to produce protein-rich foods economically. With sales of 1.066 billion euros, the family-owned company, which is based in Vechta in Lower Saxony, is considered the market leader in the industry.

The project at a glance

Advice on selecting the tech stack, methodology, and processes
Training for internal developers in modern technology stacks and agile methods

Advice on the design and development of a cloud-based solution in the areas of Azure, CI/CD pipelines and event-driven architectures

Initial situation

Big Dutchman is a pioneer in data management for livestock farming. The company is familiar with the requirements of its customers and is continuously developing new ideas to provide them with the best possible support. Big Dutchman already offers a solution that enables local monitoring and control of operations in the form of BigFarmNet (BFN). In livestock farming, however, there is an increasing need to combine valuable information from several farms in order to optimize overall operating results. This is why Big Dutchman developed a cloud-based solution called BFN Fusion, which allows farm owners to control their farms from a central location and make decisions based on collected data. codecentric was able to support this project with advice (methodology/technology) and practical application development – from A for Azure to Z for zero downtime.

Collaboration with codecentric on the new, centralized solution – BFN Fusion – began with an architecture workshop in September 2019. The team was tasked with developing a “throwaway prototype” for the new BFN Fusion project. The newly formed team was tasked with demonstrating their ability to develop functioning software within a period of three months. The plan worked. The prototype convinced management, enabling the actual development project to kick off. (By the way: the prototype was actually discarded after it had reached its goal.)

Solution

At the beginning of the project, the main task of codecentric's consultants was to share their extensive knowledge of the cloud (Azure) with Big Dutchman's in-house developers. This included training on CI/CD pipelines, the use of Terraform for infrastructure as code, Kubernetes, REST services, GraphQL, IAM (especially Keycloak), monitoring using Datadog, and implementing an event-driven architecture based on Kafka.

The developers at Big Dutchman had previously gained most of their experience in developing embedded systems – many of the new technologies in the tech stack were not yet used. It was a challenging introduction to the world of cloud development, but they passed with flying colors.

In addition to the training, codecentric consultants also actively promoted the development and operation of .NET backend systems, a number of single-page applications with React, an AKS cluster, and application monitoring. Scrum was chosen as the process model for the organization.

12 codecentric consultants have so far been involved in this project, supporting the customer not only in software development but also in the areas of Agile Coaching, Identity & Access Management and & IT Security.

From A for Azure to Z for zero downtime

Advice on building the tech stack
Advice on questions concerning IAM and Keycloak
Technology and methodology training
Development and operation of the.NET backend systems, as well as single-page applications with React, an AKS cluster and application monitoring

Result

The new BFN Fusion platform is today able to process and analyze the metrics of thousands of stalls from around the world and provide them to customers via interfaces that connect to internal systems. This gives the farms central access to data from all phases of their production, allowing them to effectively control their entire value chain and optimize their production based on data. codecentric also actively participated in the development of an innovative remote maintenance solution that enables farmers to control the equipment on their farms remotely, easily and with significant time savings. This allows them to work efficiently while on the move and avoid unnecessary travel between farms.

codecentric is an important partner who can train and advise our teams on a wide range of topics - be it the use of CI/CD pipelines, Azure know-how, Kubernetes, event-driven architectures or application development.
Thorsten Kribber
R&D Director, Big Dutchman

Any questions about the project?

Want to learn more about the project? Are you interested in a similar solution for your company?

Dennis Enselmann

IT Consultant & Software Engineer

Philip Sanetra