Software Development

We support our clients with everything from the most basic technical task through building their own technical organizations. We are vendor and technology neutral, which allows us to recommend the appropriate open source or proprietary technology, or even to supply a custom solution in a language suited to the customer environment. We have experience on all contemporary hardware and operating system platforms.

Example. A four-person MSB team implemented a fault-tolerant billing system for a large-scale managed service provider, based on Cisco netflow input (25 gigabytes per day in the busiest data center, 5 data centers around the world) and an Oracle 8 database to handle skyrocketing growth, when a pre-existing in-house system collapsed under the load and a packaged accounting solution was being installed and brought up to a level sufficient to handle the growth. Eventually the client discarded the third-party accounting package and kept the MSB system in production.

Example. An MSB team designed and implemented a prototype system for OffRoad Capital, supporting private capital investment by qualified investors, using Stronghold (a commercialized version of the Apache web server), initially with PostgreSQL as the database back end, upgraded to Oracle after OffRoad raised its startup money. MSB participated in the further development of OffRoad's system, through the "public launch" on March 29, 1999. Much of the prototype was still in place, though enhanced to support a large volume of users.

Example. Three MSB engineers, acting as a tiger team, developed the software for a DSL Internet access product. Tasks included:

  • Selecting and installing the Wind River Tornado development environment and WindNet SNMP management,

  • Porting a VxWorks board support package to custom target hardware,

  • Debugging Tornado problems with Wind River Technical Support,

  • Engineering a management protocol with a third-party integrated router,

  • Creating a proxy SNMP MIB conforming to security constraints of telephone operating companies.