The challenges
The modernization effort required two large-scale infrastructure transitions:
Our client needed to migrate more than 10,000 applications off a legacy, Heroku-style CI/CD platform built on Mesos onto a modern GitHub → Jenkins → Docker → Kubernetes toolchain.
Many apps were dormant or poorly maintained, leaving the platform brittle, inconsistent, and costly to operate.
Instability had turned builds into bottlenecks, slowing developer productivity and release velocity.
Migration was the only path forward but carried risks: downtime, broken dependencies, and disruption for thousands of developers.
12,000 racks across 17 data centers required top-of-rack switch replacements, driven by a 9-month end-of-life (EOL) deadline and licensing constraints.
The challenge: execute this massive hardware upgrade with precision, managing global logistics and coordination.
At the same time, the team had to ensure zero disruption to production traffic or service availability.
Ops Werks' solution
Platform migration
At the outset, OpsWerks led a comprehensive discovery and classification effort across 10,000+ applications.
✔ Safely decommissioned ~60% of apps through automated reporting, spin-downs, and archiving.
✔ Retiring apps immediately cut resource consumption and operational overhead while reclaiming infrastructure.
For the remaining 40% of applications, OpsWerks provided white-glove migration support, combining precision planning, stakeholder coordination, and automation-driven execution.
To minimize friction and risk during the migration, the team:
✔ Built custom Dockerfiles to replicate legacy environments.
✔ Developed tailored build scripts and monitored cutovers for complex cases.
✔ Created runbooks and self-service guides.
✔ Automated backups so teams retained critical database data beyond standard retention windows.
This blend of automation and hands-on expertise streamlined the platform and enabled a smooth transition to the modern CI/CD toolchain.
Hardware upgrade
OpsWerks engineered a rack-by-rack execution strategy to modernize 12,000 racks across 17 data centers.
To safeguard the process and maintain efficiency, the team:
- Developed a custom Python health validation framework for pre- and post-upgrade checks.
- Built real-time dashboards to track upgrade status and completion.
- Automated Slack alerts and scheduled cutovers aligned with production freeze windows.
- Orchestrated cross-datacenter logistics, including rack-by-rack scheduling, to keep upgrades consistent and predictable.
These measures ensured 12,000 racks were upgraded on schedule with no service disruption — modernizing the network backbone while maintaining business continuity.
