LINK Services is a cloud native application, which means it is built on a container-based architecture — services packaged in lightweight, independent containers (in this case, Docker containers). Email notifications, for example, are handled by a containerized microservice deployed on elastic infrastructure that can expand and collapse based on spikes in demand. This scale-out/scale-in capability allows the computing infrastructure to be optimized. Most legacy applications, on the other hand, are architected as one monolithic system around the one or two parts with the highest concurrent usage.
LINK uses a collection of microservices that can be modified over time without affecting the rest of the application, and can be distributed across different types of clouds (private, public, hybrid) as needed. The file management microservice (file uploads/downloads) can leverage the AWS public cloud infrastructure to provide global scalability and performance, especially important for large files that may otherwise need to traverse the Atlantic Ocean from suppliers in Southeast Asia.