Modernizing infrastructure and deployment workflows with Kubernetes and GitOps for an insurance SaaS provider
Long deployment cycles and fragile infrastructure slowed product delivery and limited scale-up performance.
About
The client is an insurance SaaS provider that relied on an AWS Elastic Beanstalk setup to support its underwriting platform. As product demand increased, the system struggled to keep up with scale expectations and operational updates. The platform became harder to maintain, and critical workflows slowed as deployment cycles grew longer.
Applications frequently required long scale-up periods, delaying response to load changes and impacting teams dependent on timely performance. Infrastructure-as-code and configuration processes became cluttered and difficult to adjust, creating additional friction for engineering teams and slowing iteration cycles.
The organization recognized the need for a more resilient foundation that could support rapid deployment, simpler maintenance, and predictable scaling. Lumenalta partnered with the client to redesign the platform around Kubernetes, GitOps, and modern CI/CD practices to improve operational speed and reliability.
<30 seconds
application scale up time, reduced from 20 minutes
Simplified
IaC & configuration management
95%
deployment time reduction
Challenge
Growing platform usage exposed the limits of the existing infrastructure. Delays in scaling, complex configuration management, and slow deployments created operational strain across engineering workflows. The system lacked the resilience and simplicity required for consistent product delivery.
Core challenges included:
- Application scale-up times as long as 20 minutes, reducing responsiveness under load
- Deployment cycles ranging from 20 to 40 minutes, slowing feature release and iteration
- Convoluted IaC and configuration structures that were difficult to maintain or update
- Limited orchestration flexibility within the legacy Elastic Beanstalk environment
- Lack of unified observability and consistent operational insight across services
- Scaling operations that required heavy manual effort and frequent intervention
These issues made platform reliability and speed harder to sustain, signaling the need for a modernized architecture capable of supporting long-term growth.
Solution
Lumenalta joined the client’s infrastructure team as Kubernetes specialists to stabilize their existing clusters and optimize performance. Once core environments were reliable, the engagement expanded to include a full infrastructure redesign centered on improved deployment, orchestration, and maintainability.
The platform was migrated to Amazon EKS to support consistent scaling, stronger orchestration, and cleaner separation of services. GitOps with FluxCD and Kustomize ensured system state was stored in Git repositories, reducing configuration complexity and providing clear, versioned control. Helm charts supported easier lifecycle management with predictable updates and rollbacks.
A new CI/CD pipeline built on GitLab streamlined code integration and deployment, reducing manual steps and improving consistency. Service mesh capabilities through Linkerd, plus Datadog and PagerDuty integrations, strengthened communication, monitoring, and incident management. These updates created a durable foundation for maintaining performance through product growth.
Results
The redesigned infrastructure improved deployment speed, simplified maintenance, and created a scalable platform able to support the client’s long-term roadmap. Engineering teams gained more predictable operations and a cleaner workflow for updates and releases.
Key outcomes included:
- Application scale-up time reduced from 20 minutes to under 30 seconds
- Deployment time reduced by 95%, improving delivery speed and team productivity
- Simplified IaC and configuration management through GitOps and reusable Helm charts
- Robust CI/CD pipelines established with GitLab for consistent deployments
- Improved infrastructure scalability and resilience through EKS and service mesh integration
- Stronger observability and incident response through Datadog and PagerDuty integrations
These improvements gave the engineering team a more reliable platform with clear operational workflows, supporting faster iteration and more confident product expansion.
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