<img src="https://r2cdn.perplexity.ai/pplx-full-logo-primary-dark%402x.png" style="height:64px;margin-right:32px"/>

# Lets expand on this into a dev plan and for starters we are going to use a shared server, with c-panel and node.js app install capabilities, also has database capabilities and domain and dns management:

X — Horizontal Scaling: Containerize with Docker, deploy backend via Kubernetes or Railway autoscaling, add Redis caching for dashboard data, and implement CDN asset delivery for builder-published sites

Phase X is where you design for **“shared server now, horizontally scalable later”**: containerize the app, choose an autoscaling target (Railway first, Kubernetes later), add Redis caching for heavy dashboard reads, and push static assets for published sites behind a CDN.[^1][^2][^3][^4]

***

## 1. Containerization of the Node backend

Even while you’re still on cPanel, define a **production Docker image** so you can later deploy the same artifact to Railway/Kubernetes.

- Create a multi-stage Dockerfile using Node LTS (even version) and an Alpine/slim runtime image.[^5][^6][^4][^1]

Example outline:

```dockerfile
FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
ENV NODE_ENV=production
COPY --from=builder /app/package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --omit=dev
COPY --from=builder /app/dist ./dist
USER node
CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]
```

Best practices: deterministic builds (`npm ci`), install only prod deps in runtime image, run as non-root, and keep image small.[^6][^3][^4][^1]

- In parallel, keep your cPanel deployment, but use Docker locally and in CI so you’re ready to move.

***

## 2. Horizontal scaling target: Railway first

Instead of jumping straight to Kubernetes, use **Railway** as the first autoscaling target:

- Railway can:
    - Deploy your Node app directly from GitHub (with or without Dockerfile).[^2][^7]
    - Auto-scale vertically and let you increase replica count for horizontal scaling.[^2]
    - Manage env vars and secrets (DB URL, Redis URL, API keys).[^2]

Plan:

1. Keep cPanel as primary for now.
2. Add a Railway environment:
    - Same Node app (via repo).
    - Same DB (or a managed Postgres there when you’re ready).
3. When stable, flip DNS (via Cloudflare) to point main traffic to Railway, leaving cPanel as fallback/admin for a while.

Kubernetes can come later when you genuinely need multi-cluster control; Railway covers early autoscaling with far less ops work.[^7][^2]

***

## 3. Redis caching for dashboard data

To protect your database and be horizontally ready, add **tenant-scoped Redis caching** around heavy dashboard endpoints.[^8][^9][^10]

- Use a managed Redis (Railway, Upstash, etc.) when you move; locally, run Redis via Docker.
- Namespacing:
    - Always prefix keys by tenant, e.g. `tenant:${tenantId}:dashboard:summary:${range}` to avoid leakage across tenants.[^9][^10][^11][^12]
- Wrap your dashboard services:

```ts
const key = `tenant:${tenantId}:dashboard:summary:${range}`;
const cached = await redis.get(key);
if (cached) return JSON.parse(cached);
// fetch from DB
const data = await computeSummary(tenantId, range);
await redis.set(key, JSON.stringify(data), 'EX', 60); // 60s TTL
return data;
```

This follows multi-tenant caching advice: namespace keys by tenant, keep TTLs small for freshness.[^10][^8][^9]

Focus caching on:

- Overview summary.
- Trend data.
- Aggregate counts used on the homepage.

***

## 4. CDN asset delivery for builder-published sites

For **Phase H/U** published pages and media:

- Static assets:
    - HTML of published pages (still served by app or from S3/R2).
    - CSS/JS bundles.
    - Images and other media (from your S3/R2 asset manager).[^13][^14]

CDN strategy:

1. Put S3/R2 (where assets live) behind a CDN (Cloudflare, or another static CDN).[^14][^15][^16]
2. Use a dedicated asset domain, e.g. `assets.aiistech.com`.
3. When publishing pages:
    - Ensure all asset URLs are rewritten to `https://assets.aiistech.com/...` instead of app-relative paths.[^17][^13]
4. Configure aggressive caching for static assets (CSS/JS/images), with cache-busting via hashed filenames.

This echoes practices in static site/CDN setups: upload assets to an origin bucket, then serve them via a CDN domain referenced in your built HTML.[^17][^13][^14]

***

## 5. Milestones

1. **X1 – Dockerization \& local parity**
    - Production-ready Dockerfile for the Node backend.[^4][^1][^5][^6]
    - CI pipeline building and pushing images (even if not yet used in prod).
2. **X2 – Redis caching layer**
    - Introduce Redis client and tenant-prefixed cache keys.
    - Cache the heaviest dashboard calls with short TTLs.[^8][^9][^10]
3. **X3 – CDN for static assets**
    - Serve builder-published assets (from S3/R2) via a CDN-backed domain.
    - Rewrite asset URLs on publish.[^13][^14][^17]
4. **X4 – Railway autoscaling**
    - Deploy the containerized app to Railway from GitHub.[^7][^2]
    - Configure env vars (DB, Redis, S3, AI keys).
    - Test scaling replicas and traffic distribution.

At that point you’ll still run initially on a shared cPanel server, but your app will be container-ready, cache-backed, CDN-optimized, and one switch away from horizontal scaling on Railway or Kubernetes.

Do you want to prioritize **Docker + Redis** first, or jump directly to a minimal Railway deployment while keeping Redis/CDN as follow-ups?
<span style="display:none">[^18][^19][^20][^21][^22][^23][^24]</span>

<div align="center">⁂</div>

[^1]: https://github.com/Ko1103/nodejs-docker/

[^2]: https://docs.railway.com/guides/deploy-node-express-api-with-auto-scaling-secrets-and-zero-downtime

[^3]: https://www.docker.com/blog/9-tips-for-containerizing-your-node-js-application/

[^4]: https://docs.docker.com/guides/nodejs/containerize/

[^5]: https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/blob/main/docs/BestPractices.md

[^6]: https://snyk.io/blog/10-best-practices-to-containerize-nodejs-web-applications-with-docker/

[^7]: https://dev.to/alex_aslam/deploy-nodejs-apps-like-a-boss-railway-vs-render-vs-heroku-zero-server-stress-5p3

[^8]: https://github.com/Sidhanta-Samantaray/multitenant-redis-caching

[^9]: https://www.zelifcam.net/blog/the-zelifcam-difference-1/building-multi-tenant-saas-architecture-decisions-that-scale-49

[^10]: https://redis.io/blog/data-isolation-multi-tenant-saas/

[^11]: https://github.com/aws-samples/aws-saas-factory-s3-multitenancy

[^12]: https://dev.to/abhivyaktii/multi-tenant-image-uploads-to-s3-via-a-generic-api-gateway-in-nestjs-1d97

[^13]: https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/moving-all-static-files-assets-to-external-cdn-input/20061

[^14]: https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/best-cdn-static-websites-static-file-delivery

[^15]: https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/get-started/s3/

[^16]: https://developers.cloudflare.com/learning-paths/r2-intro/series/r2-3/

[^17]: https://github.com/vercel/next.js/discussions/66717

[^18]: https://github.com/brenordr/next-plugin-cdn

[^19]: https://github.com/railwayapp-templates/datadog-agent-railway-starter

[^20]: https://github.com/tenancy/multi-tenant/issues/309

[^21]: https://github.com/Maximization/scaling-nodejs-with-docker

[^22]: https://github.com/viralganatra/docker-nodejs-best-practices

[^23]: https://github.com/redis/go-redis/discussions/3300

[^24]: https://redis.io/blog/multi-tenancy-redis-enterprise/

