Week #26: Infra, Simplified: Weekly Wrap
Another week, another layer of the stack handled. This week we focused on reliability fixes, cost optimizations, and platform cleanup across several environments. From unblocking dev pipelines to resolving cold start issues and cleaning out legacy infra, the team kept things running fast and secure.
This week wasn’t about big launches—it was about laying solid groundwork. Behind the scenes, our team tackled nagging issues that quietly drain velocity: flaky pipelines, legacy leftovers, slow-starting infra, and those "should fix one day" backlog tasks. Consider them handled.
Resolved DNS & service issues on one of our dev websites that caused total downtime.
Fixed slowness in API services – identified bottlenecks affecting page loads and latency. Apps now respond faster.
Unblocked pipeline failures – restored deployment automation and CI/CD integrity.
Removed old dev environments to keep our workspace clean and avoid unnecessary costs.
Set up a new load balancer to improve traffic distribution for a core app.
Re-provisioned a stale environment to ensure a clean, working baseline.
Investigated Wagtail deployment issues – root cause traced to ingress misconfiguration.
Reviewed ingress annotations across clusters to prevent future inconsistencies.
Fixed out-of-sync Redis cache issue impacting session consistency.
Addressed cold-start issue with our runners that took ~10 mins to boot. Currently under review for caching/init changes.
Triggered Renovate updates for E2E test repos to ensure latest dependency coverage.
Renewed expiring SSL certificates to avoid production interruption.
"Ten-minute boot times? Not on our watch."
Reviewed dev & infra spend to identify underutilized assets.
Disabled VMs from 2023 still incurring charges.
Calculated projected costs to support migration and budget planning.
This wasn’t just about trimming fat—it’s about owning the cost/performance balance across environments.
Resolved high CPU alert evaluation errors in Prometheus due to DNS resolution failures.
Investigated missing Sentry logs in some projects – root cause under analysis.
Exported security scans (Prowler, BeagleSecurity) into central documentation for visibility.
Handled Aurora read IOPS anomalies triggered in CloudWatch – no user impact.
Our cold-start issue on the runners slowed down CI feedback loops significantly. Investigation revealed init script bottlenecks that we plan to optimize next sprint. Shaving minutes here means devs get faster feedback and fewer context switches.
Shorten CI/CD boot time across environments
Finalize compliance documentation migration
Tune monitoring persistence config across Grafana stack
Start with Infrastructure as Code: Use Terraform or Pulumi for all cloud provisioning
Build a Minimum Viable Platform: Not a platform team—a set of tools and templates that let others move fast
Use Open Standards: Pick tools with good docs, wide adoption, and clear upgrade paths
Create Developer Guardrails: Not gates. Secure defaults, templated deploys, automated checks
Track Infra Metrics: Use DORA metrics + cost dashboards
Talk to Users Weekly: Infra is only good if it helps ship value
"Great infra is invisible. It just works, and lets others work."
Props to the infra crew who jumped on alerts before they escalated, and to the ops team for keeping the cleanup train rolling.
Also, whoever coined "deleting is shipping" in Slack—instant classic. Might need to make stickers.
