Gabriel Pires, Technology Director, Isobar Brazil: Spotlight on Technical Architecture

In the second part of our ‘Spotlight on Technology’ series, we spoke to Isobar Brazil’s Technology Director, Gabriel Pires, to reveal all about tech architecture.

First up, simply, what is technical architecture?

Technical architecture is the list of components that are connected in order to create a system.

Every system has an architecture. A mobile application like Über uses databases, server application, mobile application and push notifications. All of these elements together create a system, or, technical architecture.

When we create a system, we are always looking for scale and performance, so it’s a very important project phase.

Isobar Brazil is known for its creative culture. How does technology fit into this culture?

For sure, technology is more important than ever before. In a quick analysis of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity shortlist, for example, majorly awarded projects all use technology.

So nowadays, we need to be prepared for all kinds of ideas. From physical integration, creating new devices, providing cognitive software, websites and mobile applications are now commodities and to reach the extra mile, we need to put all cards on the table.

What would you say is the most challenging thing about your job, and how do you work through those problems?

From my point of view, we currently have two major challenges. The first one is fast and accurate delivery.

To stay competitive, agencies and clients have to be aggressive in delivering on time to market. So we are always looking for new tools, technologies, patterns and process to help us with that.

The second one is, like I said before, to be prepared for all kinds of situations. From integration with a legacy system, to a new device that we create — we need to be prepared.

How big is the tech team at Isobar Brazil?

The tech team at Isobar Brazil is composed of 33 members. From developers, to team leaders and directors.

What projects are you working on at the moment, and what’s great about working on them?

We currently have several projects on going, and most of them are confidential so I can’t be detailed. But, one special project in particular involves massive route calculations between street elevation and distances from different capital cities all over the world… That’s all I can say!

Isobar Brazil’s creative work combines big ideas with big tech builds — what’s the best project you have worked on whilst you have been at Isobar?

My two favourite projects are:

• SKY TIP: SKY TIP is a Google Chrome extension that uses the user behavior (website navigation and content) to identify and suggest a TV show.
• NIVEA SPOTIFY #CANTACOMIGO. #CANTACOMIGO is a project that helps Spotify users to find the perfect match based on music taste. So we analysed all of the user information, like most played song, favourite artist and music style then compared this data with other users to find the best match. We developed this application for the Brazilian Valentine’s day.

Finally, other than your discipline, what would you say is the most special thing about working at Isobar Brazil?

The people, and also the challenge of providing game changing solutions for our clients.

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