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. Please ensure we have an email address that you do look at, so we can let you know of any last minute changes; and please use your full name on the site as it's the only way we, or the fire service, can account for you in the case of an evacuation/emergency/fire etc. Catering will be provided, courtesy of our hosts. If you have any special dietary requirements please let us know via the event chat. If you would need assistance to leave the building in the event of an evacuation then please let us know via the event chat. Note for recruitment profession

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