Serverless IoT Architecture for a Circadian Lighting Company

Startups with genuinely novel technology face a specific kind of challenge. The intellectual property is real, the market opportunity is real, and the early customers are often demanding. But turning that into a working production system, at a cost structure a startup can sustain, requires getting the architecture right from the start rather than paying the cost of rework later.

This company held patents on circadian lighting technology and had secured partnerships with professional athletics programs that expected reliable, high-quality service. The requirements were broad: cloud infrastructure that could scale without growing the operations team, IoT device management for hardware deployed in the field, custom firmware to support proprietary lighting algorithms, and a mobile application that could serve customers across platforms and geographies.

VergeOps built the complete technical foundation.

100% Serverless on AWS

The cloud architecture was built entirely on AWS serverless infrastructure, using Lambda as the compute layer throughout. This was not the default choice for every use case, but for this system it was the right one. The client base is retail consumers and professional athletics, which meant usage patterns were concentrated around specific schedules and could spike significantly around events and training sessions. Serverless meant the platform scaled automatically to match actual demand rather than requiring the team to provision and manage capacity in advance.

API Gateway handled external-facing endpoints. DynamoDB provided the low-latency data layer needed for real-time lighting control. An Athena-based analytics layer gave the team real-time visibility into platform usage and device behavior, which was critical for the white-glove support model the client base expected.

Fully automated build and deployment pipelines meant the platform could be updated and extended without operational risk. The same infrastructure that started small could support international expansion without architectural changes.

IoT Device Management and Firmware

The lighting hardware in the field required a management layer that could coordinate device state, handle firmware updates, and process customer-initiated events as well as the scheduled lighting patterns that the circadian technology depended on. VergeOps built managed IoT things that handled this device coordination at scale, with world-wide device support across geographies.

The firmware work was technically distinct and critical to the product’s value proposition. The patented circadian lighting algorithms had to be implemented correctly in firmware across multiple product lines, including both standard bulbs and a travel light variant designed for the client’s mobile professional athletics clientele. Firmware customizations were tested against the proprietary algorithms to ensure the lighting behavior matched the science behind the product.

Mobile Application

The mobile application was built with a code-once architecture using Ionic, targeting web, Android, and iOS from a single codebase. This was the right approach for a startup: maintaining separate native codebases for three platforms would have multiplied the ongoing development cost significantly. Ionic provided the cross-platform reach without the overhead.

Custom plugins were developed to support the proprietary circadian lighting control technology, including the Bluetooth and network communication patterns that the hardware required. Language translations were built in for international markets, supporting users across multiple countries.

What We Built

The Outcome

The platform launched in 2020 and continues to support thousands of users with the reliability the client’s customers expect. The fully serverless architecture meant the operational cost scaled with actual usage rather than with provisioned capacity, which was critical for a startup managing its burn rate. The cross-platform mobile application reached customers on every major platform without the cost of three separate development tracks.

The combination of novel hardware, proprietary firmware, and a coherent cloud and mobile architecture gave the company a complete technical foundation that could grow with the business. The code-once mobile architecture, the serverless infrastructure, and the automated deployment pipelines were all built for a team that would need to maintain and extend the platform over time with limited resources.

Facing a Similar Challenge?

Most architecture firms are comfortable in one layer. Cloud, or mobile, or embedded systems. Getting all of them to work together as a coherent product is a different discipline. If your organization is building something that crosses those boundaries and you need a partner who has done it before, we would be glad to talk through what you are working on.

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