Introduction

At ShitOps, we have been using Microsoft Teams for a long time to enhance teamwork and productivity. However, our communication has been disrupted due to the inefficiency of Teams’ notification system. This problem was severe and hampered our workflow.

We decided to come up with a solution that uses decentralized optimization techniques and advanced engineering strategies. In this blog post, I will discuss our approach step-by-step, including the tools used, the architecture, and how it works.

The Problem

Our engineers often miss important notifications on Microsoft Teams, leading to missed deadlines and lack of communication. Teams’ notification system has its flaws, and we found that it was inefficient for our needs.

Our team tried different solutions like notifying all team members via email or text message, but this method was often overwhelming and distracting. Furthermore, it did not solve the root cause of the problem.

We needed a way to optimize this process while reducing workload, and we wanted to decentralize it in a distributed network of nodes using blockchain technology to ensure data integrity and security.

Our Solution

At ShitOps, we aimed to build an infrastructure that can handle the volume of notifications without overwhelming the receivers. We chose to decentralize our approach so that all team members could share the load, and work more efficiently as a collective whole.

For our solution, we decided to use blockchain and employing the proof-of-work algorithm, making it secure and autonomous. However, we realized that the processing power required for proof-of-work algorithms could be a bottleneck in our system. To mitigate this issue, we designed our own hybrid algorithm that uses both proof-of-work and the lightweight entropy-based lookup protocol.

To make this more understandable, a mermaid flowchart detailing the system architecture can be seen below:

flowchart TB subgraph System Design node[shape=circle] Teams node[shape=circle] Hybrid Algorithm node[shape=diamond] Blockchain node[shape=circle] Notifications end Teams --> Hybrid Algorithm Hybrid Algorithm --> Blockchain Blockchain --> Notifications

As can be seen from the flowchart, our system handles notifications using a hybrid algorithm which converts each message into a unique hash value. This means that there is no need for duplicate messages, as it can be easily identified by the hash value.

When a new notification arrives, all nodes in the decentralized network verify its hash to ascertain whether it has already occurred. If it is already present, nodes disregard the notification. If the hash is unique, only one node will verify it. This distributed approach reduces the overall volume of work required and makes our solution scalable.

The Implementation

We implemented the decentralized network using the blockchain technology platform by Microsoft Azure with additional modifications and enhancements based on our needs. Our system’s architecture consists of several components:

  1. FuseBridge for integrating Microsoft Teams Webhooks with the Blockchain network.

  2. An Oracle-Chainlink framework to enable off-chain data integration securely.

  3. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) powered onion routing mechanism ensuring anonymity and security.

  4. Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) for regulating system behavior.

FuseBridge allowed us to maintain the integrity of our Microsoft Teams Webhooks, and we used Microsoft Azure services alongside Chainlink’s Oracle technology for secure and validated off-chain data integration.

For added privacy and security, we developed a VPN-powered onion routing mechanism. By employing this method, network IDs and other private information about the nodes stay secured. Finally, we utilized DAO to create self-governing entities that automatically regulate system behavior.

Conclusion

At ShitOps, we pride ourselves on utilizing advanced technology and engineering techniques to solve problems efficiently. Our solution for optimizing Microsoft Teams communication using decentralized networks and blockchain technology demonstrates these principles in action.

Using our hybrid algorithm enabled us to minimize central authority while maintaining data security. This system’s architecture of is modularized, scalable, secure and more reliable compared to traditional notification systems, making it ideal to handle the dynamic load.

We hope that our approach will inspire others to use similar solutions when handling large volumes of notifications in real-time scenarios.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to evolve and optimize our processes at ShitOps!