Kubernetes Knowledge Delivers No-Disruption Migration

Project Overview

RepairPal is a focused on bringing trust and transparency to auto care by providing resources to help consumers take care of their cars.

The RepairPal Certified Network shows trusted shops that guarantee car repairs are done at fair prices with quality parts and an expert, attentive staff, and according to RepairPal, the RepairPal Fair Price Estimator ensures a customer never has to overpay for car repair again.

RepairPal Scaling Quickly

RepairPal’s engineering team was eager to use Google cloud technologies. Why? Because they believed they could further optimize their website, scaling to accommodate growth and traffic fluctuations while enhancing performance monitoring. In their consideration to move to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), the team also realized they could lower cloud costs.

The RepairPal team was already well versed in using AWS and ECS (Elastic Container Service) but wanted more experience with GCP and Kubernetes.

The team understood that the right partner would drive a smoother and faster migration, minimizing customer disruptions. RepairPal chose Redapt for its Kubernetes expertise and relationship with Google.

Cloud Migration and System Elegance Realized

Redapt identified that running on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) would provide the best platform for microservice density and scalability and worked closely with RepairPal to lead the migration. 

With the Kubernetes approach now in production, RepairPal achieved its goal to build an architecture that could elegantly scale with traffic growth and fluctuations. Jim Castillo, vice president of engineering at RepairPal, commented, “Redapt’s knowledge of Kubernetes put us on the right path and carried us forward.”

RepairPal now also uses Google Stackdriver to monitor logs and metrics to gain robust insight into infrastructure performance.

A Smooth Migration for Customers

The most rewarding outcome was that RepairPal moved its entire architecture from one cloud to another without any interruption to the customer experience. 

Jim Castillo shared his analogy of the project:

“It was like moving your house from one end of the country to the next. You pick up the house itself – not just the contents – but the foundation and the structure, and you move it across the country. Your goal is not to disturb anyone inside of the house – the people inside the house are your customers.  Well, we did that with our architecture – we did a full and complete lift of it and during the entire process none of the customers noticed a single thing. Partnering with Redapt on this project, we were able to avoid disturbing anybody inside the house.”

Redapt provided the RepairPal team with Kubernetes expertise and insight and focused on sharing Kubernetes knowledge so the RepairPal team would be fully enabled once the project was completed. In addition, Redapt’s daily project communication discipline ensured visibility on project status and goal alignment.

“My team really enjoyed working with Redapt. It’s clear they are a knowledgeable, dedicated group with a great attitude,” stated Jim Castillo.