Cultivating Cloud Innovation

Neatleaf is an autonomous robotic platform that enables agricultural production in indoor and greenhouse cultivation environments.

Using data analytics, machine learning, and AI, Neatleaf's core product, Spyder, helps producers sustainably optimize yields at higher quality and lower cost.

Neatleaf developed Spyder as a front-end crop monitoring and cultivation management application. It was driven by a machine-learning pipeline and a back-end data store. Spyder had a hardware infrastructure adequate for prototyping and demonstrations, but it was not ready to process data for meaningful, actionable insights. The system needed a comprehensive cloud-based environment and DevSecOps methodologies to support the company's anticipated growth.

Neatleaf hired Opreto to take its solution to the next level to deliver value to its customers. Opreto would architect and implement new technology to process and manage the vast volume of complex data that would seamlessly scale with the business.

Opreto conducted a deep analysis of Neatleaf's use case. Recognizing the opportunity for scalable growth, Opreto proposed building a cloud-based infrastructure using the robust capabilities of AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). This code-first framework enabled Opreto to simplify the overall development and create reusable component templates, allowing efficient system maintenance with limited resources. AWS CDK also equipped Neatleaf with the same programming languages for infrastructure management and the rest of its system.

Opreto identified the need for performant and cost-effective cloud data storage and processing pipelines. Opreto implemented Hasura to serve as a query interface to the PostgreSQL database to enable efficient queries and rapid iteration of custom logic from front-end components. Along the way, Opreto experimented with various storage solutions, including TimescaleDB, to ensure the most fitting and scalable architecture was chosen. Ultimately, separate database clusters were provisioned for development and production, built around a pure PostgreSQL setup.

Throughout the engagement, Opreto provided Neatleaf with technical guidance and solution implementations. These included release management tools for Neatleaf's entire technology stack — the front-end management applications, platform software, and database schema, and automated management of DNS records for those components.