Database Platform Modernization (Neon Branching + Zero-Downtime Migration)
Context
Numerous incidents regarding elasticity of primary db cluster. 10x overprovisioning to account for burst traffic. Inability to properly test features due to the lack of production-like data resulting in $50k+ level incidents every few months.
Action
Led the vetting and adoption of Neon's branching database technology for instant production-like environments. Architected streaming RDS↔Neon replication for zero-downtime migration. Optimized connection pooling reducing overhead by 60%. Implemented automated backup strategy with point-in-time recovery. Developed an internal branch kubernetes operator to enable teams to manage branches with CRDs in microservices. Led the adoption of VPCE to reduce ingress/egress costs and enhance security.
Result
Reduced database experiment time from days to seconds. Feature testability with production-like data now exists across all environments. Over 40 clusters have point-in-time recovery and instant environment creation.