Building an Enterprise Starlink Management Platform

The Brief

In 2022, Clarus Networks Ltd engaged Liquidbinary Ltd to architect and develop a comprehensive management platform for their Starlink Enterprise reseller operations.

The requirements were ambitious: build a platform capable of managing 10,000+ terminals within the first 12 months, with the architecture to scale to 100,000+ terminals as the business matured.

They needed more than just software. They needed a complete enterprise solution that could handle multi-tier reseller hierarchies, real-time telemetry processing, usage-based billing, and white-label customer portals.

We became one of the first development teams globally to work with the Starlink Enterprise API when it launched in October 2022.

The Challenge

Building for scale that doesn’t exist yet is one of software development’s hardest challenges. Over-engineer and you waste resources on unnecessary complexity. Under-engineer and you hit scaling walls just as growth accelerates.

The platform needed to:

• Handle real-time telemetry from thousands of satellite terminals
• Process usage data for accurate billing across multiple reseller tiers
• Integrate with Starlink’s evolving Enterprise APIs
• Provide white-label portals for partners
• Support global deployment
• Maintain sub-second response times at scale
• Run cost-effectively even at lower utilisation

Our Approach

The Evolution: Years in the Making

This wasn’t a standing start. We brought architectural patterns and infrastructure approaches that had evolved over years of enterprise development at Liquidbinary.

We lived through the frontend framework wars. Years of Angular taught us what enterprise applications needed. Transitioning to VueJS gave us the micro-app architecture we used initially: individual applications knitted together, similar to how Microsoft structures Office 365. This approach let us build utilities quickly and iterate fast.

We started with this micro-app architecture, and it worked well for building out utilities quickly. But as the platform needed to grow into something where clients could log in and manage fleets, projects, and their own portfolios, we knew we had to evolve.

The platform was heading towards a multi-tier model where resellers and partners could manage a portfolio of their own users. We needed something that could scale globally, remain secure, and deliver exceptional performance.

The Hypermedia Decision

We continuously evolve our own micro-app templates, and we’d been moving toward a hypermedia-driven architecture which offered better efficiency for component reuse. As the platform grew in complexity and that work matured, we decided to cut a spike.

The results exceeded expectations.

No framework. Minimal JavaScript. The development velocity was extraordinary, and the simplicity made the platform remarkably adaptable to the fast pace of emerging satellite technology.

Instead of the conventional microservices approach, we chose a modular monolith architecture using:

• Node.js with Fastify for the core application
• MongoDB with optimised aggregation pipelines for complex reporting
• Redis for caching and session management
• HTMX for dynamic interactions without SPA complexity
• Handlebars for server-side templating

This architecture provided the simplicity to iterate quickly whilst maintaining the structure to scale massively when needed.

The Scaling Infrastructure

This is where Liquidbinary’s infrastructure expertise became critical.

We’d already developed infrastructure patterns that could scale from a single high-powered, vertically-scaled machine into a regional cluster, and from there to a global multi-cluster deployment with auto-scaling, high availability, and multi-cloud capability to mitigate vendor outages.

The secret? Elegantly simple:

• Stateless web applications
• Leader-follower mechanisms for coordination
• Local caching of images and assets
• Node.js apps designed for horizontal scaling
• Infrastructure-as-code for repeatable deployments

No magic. Just production-proven patterns we’d refined over years of enterprise development.

What We Delivered

We built to the specifications: 10,000+ terminal capacity in year one with architecture to scale to 100,000+.

At handover in December 2025, the platform was managing 3,500+ terminals deployed globally.

What we delivered:

• 10,000+ terminal capacity as specified
• 100,000+ scaling architecture ready to activate
• 99.9% uptime over the engagement period
• Sub-200ms response times globally
• 15-minute deployment capability to new regions

The Handover

Handing over a complex platform built on emerging satellite technology requires meticulous preparation. In December 2025, we completed a professional handover to the client’s new development team.

The codebase was delivered fully documented and tested. Comprehensive documentation ensured that the system architecture, deployment processes, and operational procedures were clearly captured.

We worked together to ensure a smooth professional transition and we wish them well as they take the platform forward.

What’s Next for Liquidbinary

We’re building the next generation of Starlink management platforms from the ground up on Starlink’s API 2.0.

We’re also launching video courses, deep dives on API 2.0 patterns, and tutorials for developers who want to build in this space.

Time to build products and businesses — together.