You don’t need Kubernetes: Scaling API Layers without the theatrics

We containerised because Docker gave us clean, consistent shipping and deployment without drama. But we drew a hard line between containerisation as a deployment tool and orchestration as a scaling strategy. That distinction matters more than most teams realise before they have already committed to the heavier path. This talk walks through how we scaled a production .NET financial system and its API layer without over-provisioning or container orchestration, using what the .NET ecosystem already gives you before reaching for anything exotic. We will cover how we identified where the real bottlenecks actually were, how we kept the API surface clean under growing requests, and what we learned about the true cost of complexity when you are the one maintaining it at 2am. This is a talk for .NET engineers who have felt the pressure to adopt heavyweight infrastructure and wondered whether there was a more deliberate path. Venue This meeting is at Betfred in Steam Packet House, 72 - 76 Cross St, Manchester M2 4JG. There will be signs at the street door or someone in the lobby to tell you how to get to the right floor. This is a free event - there is no charge for a ticket. We often get enough RSVP's for there to be a waiting list; the list has always cleared by the early part of the week of the talk, but this relies on you releasing your ticket if you can no longer attend. Please remember to do this if your plans change.