04/23/25 | EverOps
When your platform helps dispatch ambulances within minutes of detecting a car crash, reliability is not optional, but essential. Life360, the location safety app trusted by more than 50 million users worldwide, faced mounting pressure to scale as demand surged and new features were introduced.
To make that move without compromising performance, Life360 partnered with EverOps, known for leading complex infrastructure transitions in high-stakes environments. Together, they implemented an observability-first strategy using Datadog, enabling real-time insights into system behavior. The result was a smooth migration completed in a fraction of the expected time, with no service disruptions.
This article will provide insight into how the right observability strategy transformed Life360’s approach to migration. We will explore the visibility challenges they faced, how EverOps helped them mitigate those risks, and the long-term value of leveraging observability as a strategic advantage.
Life360’s mission extends far beyond convenience, and delivering peace of mind goes hand in hand with delivering immediate support during critical moments. The platform plays a direct role in coordinating emergency responses, triggering ambulance dispatches every 8 to 10 minutes upon detecting accidents. This level of responsibility requires an infrastructure that is not only fast but also failproof.
As the platform evolved and usage surged, cracks in their EC2-based infrastructure began to show. The system lacked the agility and efficiency needed to support new capabilities and increasing demand. Transitioning to Kubernetes with Amazon EKS promised more flexibility and control, but also introduced new layers of complexity, especially without deep visibility into how such a change would impact performance.
With a complex web of APIs and shared services, the Life360 team had limited insight into how applications would perform once containerized. Without a clear view of system behavior, predicting outcomes or preventing disruptions was nearly impossible.
Their existing monitoring tools provided only surface-level data and lacked sufficient information to guide a transformation of this scale. The team was essentially operating blind, unable to track the ripple effects of changes, troubleshoot issues in real time, or validate progress with confidence.
For a platform responsible for life-saving interventions, that level of uncertainty was a nonstarter. However, before any migration could begin, Life360 needed a way to illuminate every layer of its infrastructure and application stack.
To eliminate guesswork and reduce risk, Life360 partnered with EverOps to develop a robust observability strategy before initiating the migration. At the heart of this strategy was Datadog, which was selected as the central monitoring solution to provide real-time insights across the organization’s infrastructure and application stack.
The implementation centered around three key priorities, each designed to equip Life360’s team with the visibility and control needed to migrate with confidence.
EverOps deployed Datadog’s Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and distributed tracing capabilities to provide full-stack visibility across Life360’s environment. This enabled Life360 to track how infrastructure changes impacted application performance in real-time. By establishing performance baselines before migration and continuously monitoring during the transition, the team could immediately flag and resolve any issues as they emerged.
Custom dashboards consolidated infrastructure and application data into a single view. With all relevant logs, metrics, and traces presented in context, teams no longer had to toggle between tools or piece together fragmented information. This streamlined approach significantly accelerated issue investigation and resolution, enabling operations teams to stay ahead of potential disruptions.
Sophisticated alerting and diagnostic capabilities empowered the team to spot anomalies before they impacted users. Early detection reduced mean time to resolution (MTTR) and ensured that performance issues could be addressed long before they posed a threat to service reliability. For a platform where every minute counts, this proactive approach was crucial.
With these capabilities in place, Life360 no longer had to rely on retrospective analysis or reactive fixes. Every infrastructure change was monitored in real-time, every impact measured immediately, and every decision was grounded in data. Observability became the key that turned a complex, high-stakes migration into a controlled and continuous evolution.
The results of Life360’s observability-first approach were both immediate and transformative. Within just six months of implementing Datadog, the company successfully completed its migration from EC2 to EKS with no significant disruptions to service. For a platform responsible for emergency response, that level of continuity was mission-critical.
Critical outcomes of this infrastructure transformation included:
Most importantly, the migration laid the groundwork for a new operational rhythm. Instead of reacting after the fact, Life360 could proactively manage infrastructure with clarity, speed, and control. Observability in this case helped them move faster, making every step of that journey safer and smarter.
The success of Life360’s migration was not just a result of using the right tools, but it was a direct outcome of how those tools were delivered.
EverOps did not operate at a distance. Instead, they worked closely with Life360’s internal teams, embedding themselves within day-to-day operations to gain a deep understanding of both technical realities and business priorities.
This integrated approach ensured that observability was not simply deployed but fully adopted across the organization. Solutions were tailored to Life360’s unique needs, knowledge transfer was seamless, and technical decisions were always made in context. As a result, the migration was not only faster and more stable, but it also laid the groundwork for long-term infrastructure ownership and continued innovation from within.
The Life360 migration offers valuable lessons for any organization undertaking significant infrastructure changes, reflecting how strategic alignment, visibility, and speed can transform high-risk projects into growth opportunities.
The key takeaways here are:
Life360’s decision to invest in full-stack visibility before beginning their migration significantly reduced operational risk and gave teams the confidence to move faster and with greater precision.
The shorter the delay between making a change and seeing its impact, the faster your team can respond. Real-time observability allowed Life360 to compress weeks of trial and validation into single-day deployments.
Uninterrupted service requires more than robust systems. It requires early detection and resolution. Life360’s proactive monitoring helped maintain consistent performance during a complex transition.
This migration wasn’t just about adopting EKS and the ultimate goal was to create a more reliable and scalable foundation to support Life360’s mission of protecting families when it matters most.
Together, these lessons illustrate that successful infrastructure transformation is not just about the destination. It’s about how you get there. With the right strategy, tools, and mindset, even the most complex migrations can become catalysts for long-term resilience, agility, and innovation.
With their successful migration to EKS and robust observability foundation in place, Life360 is well-positioned to continue evolving its platform. The company can expand its safety offerings, improve location tracking precision, and develop new ways to connect families with the confidence that their infrastructure will support these innovations.
As the Head of Infrastructure at Life360 mentioned,
“Leveraging existing tools for enhanced observability was a game-changer for our EKS migration.”
For a company dedicated to safety and reliability, that enhanced observability continues to enable innovation while maintaining the service quality their users depend on.
Want a deeper look at how it all came together?
Life360 lacked visibility into how applications would perform in a containerized environment, making it challenging to predict issues or ensure stability. Their legacy monitoring tools were also unable to support the complexity of a high-stakes migration.
Datadog enabled full-stack visibility, real-time performance tracking, and faster diagnostics through APM, tracing, and custom dashboards, giving Life360 the insight needed to migrate confidently and resolve issues proactively.
The migration was completed in six months without service disruptions, with task timelines reduced from weeks to days. Life360 also improved system reliability and gained the confidence to make rapid, data-driven decisions about its infrastructure.
EverOps embedded with Life360’s teams to implement Datadog’s observability tools, enabling a tailored, real-time monitoring strategy that transformed the migration into a low-risk, high-visibility process.
Life360 now operates on a scalable, cost-efficient infrastructure with faster deployment cycles and ongoing visibility into system performance, positioning the company for continuous innovation.
The upgraded infrastructure strengthens Life360’s ability to deliver reliable, real-time emergency services and safety features, directly supporting its mission to protect families, pets, and valuables during life’s most critical moments.