From ESB to Microservices: How Ghent is reshaping digital collaboration & inclusion

Cities today are more than just places to live; they’ve transformed into digital ecosystems
where technology makes life easier for everyone. Think of quick, easy access to city
services, safer streets, or smarter energy use.

But for this to work, technology must be accessible to everyone—from city workers to young families, and even elderly couples who may not be digitally savvy. Only then can we truly say that technology leads to improved everyday living conditions.

The role of District09 in Ghent’s smart city vision

In Belgium, cities and the government are using a wide range of digital applications and platforms to promote this digital inclusivity. In Ghent, District09 takes this further by powering the city’s digital ecosystem, from IT infrastructure to application development, digital innovation, and e-inclusion. They provide services like parking, police, the low emission zone, billing, and data searches, creating a smooth digital experience for everyone.

 

The key to connecting Ghent’s services with each other—and linking them with Flanders’ and Belgium’s digital tools—lies in smart integration, ensuring data exchanges are safe, fast, and efficient.

 

District09 knew this meant more than technical expertise; it meant building a partnership to truly put Ghent on the digital map—secure, forward-thinking, and inclusive.

 

Integration is essential to District09’s operations. If the integration layers fail, the entire city feels it—it’s the engine of Ghent’s digital operations,” says Antoine Wils, Senior Integration Engineer.

“That’s why we brought in expertise in API management, DevOps, architecture, and microservices,” adds Samuel, Managing Partner at i8c.

From ESB to Microservices – how District09 connects Ghent’s key services

From AI-supported city services to SMS alerts for visually impaired users on transit updates, District09 offers a range of digital solutions. These services, used by businesses, citizens, and backend systems, rely on a network of applications. Each app has unique user needs, technologies, and data access rules. To ensure applications worked together smoothly and data flowed easily, an ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) was introduced. Acting as a bridge, the ESB enabled seamless data exchanges and quick access to Magda, keeping the whole system running efficiently.

However, the ESB layer became outdated. With the push toward an agile future— a digital modernization became essential. Shifting from a monolithic setup to a microservice architecture became an obvious choice for District09.

Why Microservices are key to Ghent’s digital growth

Shifting to a microservices architecture is a major step, requiring a complete redesign of the digital landscape—a journey we took together.

 

To support District09 in this transition, our team took on multiple roles. We assist in maintaining the ESB layer, designing the new architecture, migrating to microservices, enhancing security, and automating DevOps and infrastructure,” explain Phil, Jari and Piet, Integration Engineers.

 

When we partnered with District09 to transition to a microservices architecture, our shared focus was on:

  • Stability: Isolating services to ensure that issues in one area wouldn’t impact the entire system.
  • Security: Implementing tighter, more detailed controls for each service.
  • Flexibility: Developing and scaling services independently for faster updates.
  • Automation: Reducing manual tasks to save time and streamline operations.
  • Maintainability: Allowing updates or fixes to specific services without disrupting the whole system.

 

To facilitate this migration, our integration experts took on multiple roles; supported by Red Hat products:

  • ESB management and support: Ensuring smooth operations of the legacy ESB layer through support, maintenance, and updates.
  • Event broker: An asynchronous communication layer that enables fast and scalable exchanges between microservices and other applications.
  • API management: Operating and maintaining the API gateway and portal while implementing best practices in design and security.
  • Security is central: At District09, security awareness and implementation are embedded in every aspect of our work. We prioritize security by collaborating closely with all IT departments.
  • Migrating legacy ESB to microservices: Designing, building, and delivering integrations on a microservices architecture using Apache Camel on Quarkus, a cloud-native, lightning-fast runtime.
  • DevOps: ensuring seamless communication between components with Jenkins en ArgoCD.

How everyone’s daily life is improved

Migrating to microservices makes life easier for developers, benefits users, and ensures technology is accessible and secure for everyone.

 

With no reliance on the ESB, developers can launch new services faster, driving innovation and supporting digital inclusion. They can build, test, and deploy microservices quickly using a plug-and-play approach. Automated infrastructure and streamlined deployments enhance system stability, reduce manual work, and boost efficiency.

 

Government agencies, city administrations, and staff can easily access important information, helping them work together better and serve citizens more effectively.

 

Citizens enjoy easy, secure access to technology. For example, buying a bus ticket is faster and more reliable because the ticketing app operates independently, so updates won’t disrupt other systems.

 

District09’s complete microservice architecture rollout is planned for May 2025.

Conclusion

When it comes to smart and digital cities, Ghent is definitely one of them. Known for being progressive, this extends to its digital landscape as well. The entire system has undergone a complete transformation to ensure maximum efficiency, scalability, security, and, most importantly, accessibility. After all, a digital ecosystem is only as strong as the people within it. And in a city, that means every single person. To be continued!

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