The situation
In 2026 the platform had run for 18 years and was on PHP 7.4, with gateways on a design from 2010: a VPN, an old web-service protocol (SOAP) and polling. It had to be brought up to date without stopping the alarms.
What Joakim did
- Took it from PHP 7.4 to 8.4 by moving to a new server: one test suite ran on both versions, and production cut over when one IP address moved.
- Found and rewrote the slowest queries on the live database.
- Built gateway 2.0: each box registers once and gets its own secret, reports over HTTPS with short-lived tokens and takes commands over a connection it opens itself.
- Did the 2026 work with an AI coding agent, reviewing what it wrote.
What came of it
The server move left every gateway as it was, and the fleet is now being moved to gateway 2.0.
More cases
All cases in this streamTermoSense, 2009Linux gateways replaced the laptops, after a live trialAt SensiNet, each installation used a full laptop to reach a temperature receiver over USB and pass the readings on to a server. In 2008 Joakim was asked whether small Linux boxes, reflashed for a home-automation hobby, could take over that job.Read the case TermoSense, 2011The data model followed the new hardwareIn 2011 SensiNet brought out hardware with several sensors per device. The platform assumed one sensor per device, so the model had to change with it.
Over 23 million reports moved to the new model
Read the case