Kimoby Slashes Costs 63%, Boosts Reliability Migrating from AWS to ClusterControl on Bare Metal
By transitioning from AWS Aurora to bare-metal infrastructure managed through ClusterControl, Kimoby reduced database costs by 63%, improved failover handling by 50%, and minimized operational stress. ClusterControl now serves as the backbone for Kimoby’s high-performing, resilient MySQL environment supporting customer engagement across North America.
Kimoby provides a Dealership Engagement System (DES) that optimizes every customer interaction for North American auto dealers. The platform integrates tightly with dealership management systems to boost satisfaction and efficiency, streamlining everything from appointments to payments.
With growing data demands and customer expectations, Kimoby sought to move off AWS RDS and Aurora to a more cost-efficient bare-metal infrastructure without losing reliability, visibility, or ease of management.
Kimoby’s Challenge
Kimoby needed a way to properly manage their multi-node, multi-terabyte MySQL cluster on bare-metal servers. Their main challenges included:
- Simplifying cluster configuration and failover management.
- Creating replicas and backups easily and reliably.
- Maintaining visibility into MySQL performance metrics.
The switch to bare-metal servers was a better fit for us from a cost perspective.
Philippe Vezina, Tech Lead
Previously, the company relied on AWS RDS and Aurora for database management. While functional, the costs reached as high as $144,000 annually — and flexibility was limited.
Selecting ClusterControl
After researching alternatives, including Percona Monitoring and Management and Orchestrator, Kimoby chose ClusterControl for its full-featured automation, reliability, and ease of use.
Top selection criteria:
- Ease of use
- Full-featured management and monitoring suite
- Reliability and responsive support
Key ClusterControl capabilities in use:
- Load Balancer configuration
- Automated failover
- Replica creation
- Backup scheduling and management
Experience highlight: 63% cost reduction
ClusterControl was deployed on bare-metal servers, bringing Kimoby’s database management costs down to around $53,500 annually — a 63% cost reduction compared to Aurora. Implementation took only a few days, with direct support from Severalnines engineers.
Measurable results and benefits
Since adopting ClusterControl, Kimoby has achieved measurable gains in both performance and operational efficiency:
- 63% cost savings from migrating off Aurora to bare-metal servers with ClusterControl.
- Failover speed improved to between a few seconds and 5 minutes (depending on transaction load), representing an estimated 50% reduction in downtime during incidents.
- Reduced manual intervention: before ClusterControl, the team manually changed IPs during failovers. With ProxySQL managed through ClusterControl, failover is now fully automated.
- Improved reliability: only 1–2 incidents per year, typically lasting less than 10 minutes.
- Less operational stress for the DevOps team, with easier monitoring and reduced risk when making configuration changes.
ClusterControl has greatly simplified database management internally. It has made database management more straightforward and intuitive for our team. For instance, it is less stressful to make configuration changes with better visibility on the changes we make — it has delivered on all our requirements.
Philippe Vezina, Tech Lead
ClusterControl’s unified monitoring and automation capabilities have made it easier for Kimoby’s team to manage critical database operations confidently.
Looking forward
Kimoby continues to rely on open-source technologies where they provide clear business value. The company plans to maintain its current ClusterControl setup while exploring future Severalnines solutions such as Elasticsearch and ClickHouse once available.
Looking to improve your on-prem or hybrid data ops’ reliability? Explore ClusterControl and install it in 10 minutes to launch your first cluster with our 30-day free trial today!
Summary
Cost efficiency
Kimoby reduced database management costs by 63% after moving from AWS Aurora to a bare-metal environment managed by ClusterControl.
Operational reliability
Automated failover and improved monitoring reduced downtime by approximately 50% and eliminated manual intervention during failover events.
Team confidence
Simplified configuration and enhanced visibility have lowered operational stress and made database management more intuitive for the DevOps team.
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