Moving a live platform off its Laravel monolith — with zero downtime
A gradual, parity-first migration of Aubilities' Laravel monolith onto a modular NestJS + Next.js architecture — keeping the live platform serving throughout a dedicated 6-month engagement.
The challenge.
Aubilities' platform ran on an aging Laravel monolith that had become the core orchestration hub — increasingly costly to scale, maintain and reason about. They needed to modernize onto a modular NestJS + Next.js architecture without disrupting a live system, while cutting cloud complexity and operational cost. The migration had to be gradual, low-risk and reversible — preserving existing behavior and data at every step.
Our approach.
Discovery & architecture design
Audited the Laravel system end-to-end — mapping modules, APIs and data models — then produced a NestJS + Next.js blueprint with a phased, low-risk migration roadmap.
Parity-first, gradual migration
Moved module-by-module behind feature flags with parallel execution, validating each piece against legacy behavior before cutover. No big-bang rewrite, no surprise regressions.
Platform foundation & DevOps
Stood up the NestJS / Next.js base in TypeScript with CI/CD pipelines, clean environments, and logging, monitoring and security standards baked in from day one.
Database & cloud optimization
Kept MySQL live during migration, then moved to PostgreSQL once full feature parity was reached — consolidating AWS services to cut cost and operational complexity.
Outcomes that compound.
Timeline.
"Stafflink moved us off a monolith we'd been wary of touching — module by module, with the platform live the whole way through."AubilitiesFounder, Aubilities