Clearwater Analytics' Kubernetes applications remained resilient, scalable, and uninterrupted, even as they benefited from reduced operational costs

Clearwater Analytics’ Kubernetes applications remained resilient, scalable, and uninterrupted, even as they benefited from reduced operational costs

Industry

Software Development

Location

Boise, Idaho

Challenge

In managing their EKS costs

Featured Service

EKS, Karpenter, Commitment Management banner logo

Industry

Software Development

Location

Boise, Idaho

Challenge

In managing their EKS costs

Featured Service

EKS, Karpenter, Commitment Management banner logo

Executive Summary

Clearwater Analytics is a software-as-a-service fintech company that provides automated investment accounting, performance, compliance, and risk reporting for insurance companies, asset managers, corporations, banks, governments, and other institutions.

Challenge

Clearwater Analytics faced a significant challenge in managing their EKS costs. They were incurring high costs from relying predominantly on on-demand instances. This reliance not only led to escalating expenses but also hindered the efficiency of their cloud operations. Furthermore, the complexity and risk involved in manually switching to lower-cost options, like Spot instances, posed a substantial barrier. The challenge was to find a solution that could seamlessly integrate cost-effective computing without compromising the reliability and performance of their critical workloads.

Solution

For Clearwater Analytics, addressing the complexity and risk associated with using AWS Spot Instances was paramount. The solution, tailored to their needs, focused on EKS integration with Karpenter, offering stability with Spot Instances, effective utilization of commitments, and reducing complexity in implementation and management.

The strategy began with deployment of our nKs agent within the EKS cluster. This agent was responsible for continuously reconfiguring the Karpenter provisioner, ensuring that it remained aligned with Clearwater Analytics’ evolving needs and AWS commitments. The agent’s role was crucial in maintaining the balance between using Spot Instances for cost efficiency and leveraging reserved instances or Savings Plans to meet their committed usage. Using the ML-powered termination detection model, nKS predicted the likelihood of a Spot Instance being terminated within the next hour. This prediction provided ClearWater Analytics valuable lead time to shift their workloads and select alternative instance types that are

Benefits – Speed, Agility, Cost Effectiveness and Enhanced Security

Partnering with nOps and AWS the deployment of nOps Compute Copilot for AWS EKS at Clearwater Analytics yielded significant benefits, marking a milestone in their cloud infrastructure optimization. The standout achievement was the remarkable cost savings of $24,000 in a single year, a testament to the solution’s effectiveness in efficiently managing Kubernetes workloads. This cost reduction was driven by the smart utilization of Spot instances, replacing more expensive on-demand options, thereby maximizing the cost-effectiveness of their Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) environment. Beyond financial gains, this strategic move enhanced operational efficiency, ensuring that Clearwater Analytics’ Kubernetes applications remained resilient, scalable, and uninterrupted, even as they benefited from reduced operational costs. This successful integration of cost savings with robust performance underscored the adaptability and forward-thinking approach of Clearwater Analytics in leveraging advanced cloud management solutions for their EKS

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