Development environment reference architecture

Introduction to the development environment reference architecture

Purpose:
Used by developers for writing, building, and initially verifying new code or features.
The Thinkwise Software Factory is the production environment for your developers.

User Types:

• Software Developers: Primary users for code creation and modification.
• Technical Leads/Architects: Occasionally validate implementation approaches or perform initial reviews.

Access Method:

• Typically via local user accounts or developer-managed credentials.
• No external authentication (such as OpenID) required; focus is on ease of access for rapid iteration.

Data:

• Synthetic, mock, or minimal datasets for functionality checks.
• Usually isolated from real, acceptance, or production data.

Typical Activities:

• Code writing and debugging
• Unit testing and initial functional checks
• Code reviews and developer integration

Tools:

• Thinkwise Software Factory
• SSMS

Development environment requirements

A development environment should be set up with as few restrictions as possible and requires the following conditions to function properly:

• Minimal Restrictions – Allow smooth debugging, integration, and testing of components.
• AI Configuration – Requires an active (paid) API key to access AI services such as OpenAI or other platforms.
• Database Requirements – Installation of Microsoft SQL Server is required:
  • Version: Standard or Enterprise
  • Full Text Search must be enabled
• Security (SSL/TLS) – The environment must support SSL:
  • Browsers impose restrictions on HTTP, leading to reduced performance compared to HTTPS.
  • Supported certificate types:
    • Standard SSL certificate
    • Wildcard certificate
    • Self-signed certificate (acceptable for internal testing)
• Thinkwise Windows GUI for development – Requires at least 500MB RAM memory per user.
• Indicium Service Account – A dedicated service account is required for running Indicium with:
  • Write permissions on the Indicium directory
  • Access rights to both the IAM database and the application database
  • Secure management in accordance with the organization’s identity and access policies

Cloud

Architecture and connections with 4 developers or less

Cloud development environment reference architecture

Connections:

1. Developer to Internet – Connects to the bastion environment via public internet.
2. Internet to External Firewall – Incoming connection hits an external firewall.
3. External Firewall to Bastion (Jump Server) – Traffic passes into the secure bastion environment.
4. Bastion to Internal Firewall – Traffic moves through an internal firewall into protected VNets.
5. Bastion to App Server (VNet 3) – Secure connection to application servers.
6. Bastion to SQL Server (VNet 2) – Secure connection to SQL Server.
7. App Server to SQL Server – Application servers connect to the SQL server.

Summary of commonly used ports:

Service	Typical Port Numbers
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)	TCP 3389
HTTPS (secured web/admin)	TCP 443
SQL Server	TCP 1433

Architecture and connections with 5 developers or more

Cloud development environment reference architecture

Connections:

1. Developer to Internet – Connects to the bastion environment via public internet.
2. Internet to External Firewall – Incoming connection hits an external firewall.
3. External Firewall to Bastion (VPN) – Traffic passes into the bastion environment (VPN).
4. Bastion to Internal Firewall – Traffic moves through an internal firewall into protected VNets.
5. Bastion to App Server (VNet 3) – Secure connection to application servers.
6. Bastion to SQL Server (VNet 2) – Secure connection to SQL Server.
7. App Server to SQL Server – Application servers connect to the SQL server.

Summary of commonly used ports:

Service	Typical Port Numbers
HTTPS (secured web/admin)	TCP 443
SQL Server	TCP 1433

Sizing (hardware cloud)

Recommended specifications (cloud):

Component	Azure	AWS	Google
VM (optional)	DS11 v2 (2 vCPUs, 14 GiB)	m6i.large (2 vCPU, 16 GiB)	E2-standard-4 (4vCPU, 16 GB)
SQL	Azure Managed Instance (4vCores, 20 GB)	AWS RDS db.m5.xlarge (4 vCPU, 16GB)	SQL server 4 vCPU, 16 GB
Indicium & Universal	AppService Basic B2	Elastic Beanstalk t3.large	Cloud Run (Memory: 1 GB) Storage Bucket Class data: Default Class Standard

Cloud environment setup

For more information about setting up a cloud environment, see:

• Azure setup
• AWS setup
• Google Cloud setup
• Containerized setup

On Premise

Architecture and connections

On-premise development environment reference architecture

Connections:

1. Developer to Internet – The developer initiates a connection to the VPN gateway through the Internet.
2. Internet to Firewall – The request reaches a firewall that filters inbound VPN traffic.
3. Firewall to VPN Gateway – Traffic allowed by firewall rules passes to the VPN Gateway.
4. VPN Gateway to Internal Networks – After authentication, the VPN Gateway routes traffic securely into internal networks.
5. Client Network to Application Server (Network 2) – Developers or clients from internal networks access applications hosted on the Application Server.
6. Client Network to SQL Server (Network 1) – Direct interaction from developer/client machines to the SQL Server (management tools, database queries).
7. App Server to SQL Server – Application Server accesses the databases hosted on SQL Server.

Summary of commonly used ports:

Service	Typical Port Numbers
HTTPS (secured web / VPN SSL)	TCP 443
SQL Server	TCP 1433
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)	TCP 3389

Sizing (hardware on premise)

Recommended hardware specifications (IIS Server):

Component	Configuration
CPU	4 vCPUs
Memory	16 GB RAM
Storage	100–200 GB
OS	Windows Server 2019/2022

Recommended hardware specs (SQL Server):

Component	Configuration
CPU	4 vCPUs
Memory	16 GB (1–5 developers) 32 GB (6–10 developers)
Storage	Windows/SQL installation: 200 GB SQL Data: 200 GB SQL Log: 100 GB Best practice is to separate the installation, data and log locations
OS	Windows Server 2019/2022
SQL	SQL Server 2019/2022 Standard or Enterprise

On-premise environment setup

For more information about setting up an on-premise environment, see:

• On-premises (Windows) setup.