"PerfectScale gave us the answers we needed on a silver platter. The insights saved us time and money." — Jason Berk, Platform Operator, K1x
K1X Snapshot
- Industry: Tax Technology
- Location: New Jersey, USA
- Tech Stack: Azure AKS, ArgoCD, Terraform
K1x is a high-growth startup, an AI-powered tax software provider that spun out from an enterprise organization to bring their innovative tax solutions to market at scale. As part of its transition, K1x migrated several Kubernetes clusters, which provided a strong starting point; however, they did not retain any of the team members who were previously running them. They quickly found out that the clusters required significant optimization to meet the unique needs and lean operations of K1x. Jason Berk, K1x’s lead platform operator, stepped in to refine the architecture and support a dynamic engineering team.
PerfectScale Results Snapshot
- Reduced monthly cloud spend by thousands of dollars
- Phased out over-provisioned node pools
- Improved developer collaboration with data-backed insights
K1x Identifyied Significnt Overprovisioning
"We had nodes in our cluster running at a minimum scale that was two or three times what we actually needed. They never auto-scaled up, but we were using less than 10% of the resources and we needed them to scale down. It was a huge waste."
When Jason joined K1x, he discovered that the Kubernetes environment had many optimization opportunities, which included:
- Over-provisioned resources: Node pools were oversized and wasted significant resources.
- Improper workload allocation: Workloads were deployed without fully aligning with best practices, leading to inefficiencies.
- Limited observability: Tools like Prometheus showed raw metrics but gave no actionable insights. “It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
- Costly infrastructure: Expensive compute-optimized nodes were used unnecessarily and wasted thousands of dollars each month.
K1x Replaced Hours of Manual Tuning with Instant, Actionable Insights
"I told my CTO: it will take me hours figuring it all out—what to measure, how to measure it, and whether I’m even doing it right—or we can just buy PerfectScale. It’ll solve the problem faster and cheaper.”
Jason needed a solution that could quickly identify optimization opportunities and provide actionable recommendations. PerfectScale delivered.
- Actionable Insights: “PerfectScale gives you the answer: ‘Here’s the workload, here’s the right settings.’ If those don’t work, it keeps refining the recommendations until it’s right.”
- Visibility: “When I open PerfectScale, I’m either looking at node utilization or diving into workload settings to make sure everything is tuned correctly.”
- Efficiency: The tool simplified Kubernetes optimization, saving Jason valuable time.
K1x Transformed Kubernetes Management with PerfectScale
PerfectScale revealed inefficiencies in K1x’s Kubernetes environment immediately, highlighting areas where Jason could take quick action to drive results.
“PerfectScale made me ask the right questions—like, ‘Why are we running this workload on this node pool?’ Within a couple of months, I shut those node pools down completely and saved us thousands of dollars a month.”
Jason and the K1x team were able to improve Kubernetes management by:
- Eliminating idle resources: PerfectScale identified unused resources at the node-level, allowing Jason to shut down unnecessary infrastructure and save thousands of dollars.
- Right-sizing workloads: PerfectScale flagged over-allocated resources and provided developers clear recommendations to adjust workloads’ memory and CPU allocations without impacting performance.
- Finding critical issues: PerfectScale exposed memory leaks and other problems, including one app that restarted 4,000 times in a month before Jason fixed it.
- Streamlining processes: Jason relied on PerfectScale’s automation to handle tuning, freeing him to focus on other priorities.
Monthly Cloud Costs Slashed by Optimizing Node Usage
"Within a month, we shut down entire node pools. The money we saved—thousands of dollars a month—went right back into our budget."
With PerfectScale, K1x achieved measurable improvements:
- Cost savings: Reduced monthly cloud spend significantly by optimizing node pools and workload allocation.
- Improved resiliency: PerfectScale eliminated inefficiencies that caused workload instability, such as memory leaks and resource bottlenecks.
- Simplified management: The tool allowed Jason to effectively manage Kubernetes with a smaller team.
Why PerfectScale Works for K1x - Beyond Technology
PerfectScale empowered Jason to transform K1x’s Kubernetes to a highly optimized environment. With insights, automation, and ongoing support, Jason can quickly and effectively have information at his fingertips to recommend and take action on strategic improvements.
Beyond technology, Jason sees PerfectScale as an important partner in his daily work with Kubernetes.
"I’ve been blown away by the one-on-one support I’ve gotten from PerfectScale. They answer my questions quickly and even walk me through problems when I need help. For someone in my position, it’s been a lifesaver."
Ready to optimize your Kubernetes environment like K1x?
Book a demo with PerfectScale today to cut costs, boost performance, and simplify Kubernetes management.
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