Case Study

Building a Unified Developer Platform with Backstage While Eliminating API Documentation Costs

Services We Delivered

Devops

Industry

Automotive

The Client

A US-based automotive enterprise operating a large-scale digital platform for used-car sales, connecting dealers and individual sellers with buyers nationwide.

The Challenge

As the platform evolved toward an event-driven architecture, the organization began to outgrow its existing tooling.

Stoplight supported REST APIs but lacked the capabilities to document and manage 800+ event-driven systems at scale.
Developers relied on multiple tools across documentation, infrastructure, and collaboration, leading to inefficiencies and constant context switching.
API documentation costs continued to grow without supporting evolving architectural needs, making the investment increasingly inefficient.
With 80+ microservices, inconsistent documentation practices created visibility gaps and increased onboarding complexity.
Any transition needed to ensure zero impact on developer productivity and ongoing development workflows.

The Solution

The organization adopted Backstage as a centralized developer platform to unify APIs, events, and developer workflows into a single interface.

A platform-led, automation-driven migration approach enabled the team to:

A centralized developer portal was introduced to bring APIs, events, services, and documentation into a single interface.
Existing OpenAPI specifications enabled a smooth transition of REST APIs with minimal changes required.
Event documentation was formalized across services, enabling better visibility into event-driven architecture.
AI-assisted workflows, including GitHub Copilot and custom scripts, accelerated documentation at scale.
A platform-led approach ensured minimal impact on developers while maintaining continuity during migration.

Results

The migration delivered measurable improvements across cost, scalability, and developer experience

The organization reduced API documentation expenses to zero by replacing Stoplight with Backstage.
800+ event documents were structured and made discoverable across all microservices using AsyncAPI.
A single platform replaced fragmented tools, improving visibility and reducing context switching.
Developers continued working without disruption, ensuring a smooth and successful adoption.

Looking to Modernize Your Developer Platform?

If you're exploring ways to modernize your developer ecosystem or enable event-driven architecture at scale, we can help you design and implement the right solution.