Life360

Zero-Disruption EKS Migration with Full-Stack Visibility

How Life360 modernized from EC2 to EKS in 6 months, turning weeks-long migration tasks into single-day efforts.

Zero
significant disruptions during migration
Weeks → Days
migration task acceleration

Life360 connects over 90 million families, pets, and valuables through advanced location-tracking technology. Committed to digital safety, the company coordinates emergency response efforts—dispatching ambulances every 8-10 minutes after detected accidents to protect users during critical moments.

When reliability is literally life-or-death, infrastructure changes carry enormous stakes.

The Challenge

Migrating Critical Infrastructure Without Visibility

Life360 had grown rapidly, and their AWS infrastructure had grown with it — but not efficiently. Cloud costs were increasing faster than revenue, visibility across environments was fragmented, and the platform team was stretched thin managing day-to-day operations instead of driving modernization.

Previous optimization efforts had delivered incremental wins, but the team lacked the bandwidth and specialized expertise to tackle the architectural changes required for sustainable savings. Meanwhile, leadership was under pressure to improve margins without sacrificing reliability or velocity.

They needed a partner who could execute quickly, bring proven playbooks, and guarantee measurable results — not just recommendations.

The Approach

Unified Observability as the Migration Foundation

EverOps implemented Datadog's observability suite as the central monitoring solution for the migration. Rather than treating observability as an afterthought, we made it the foundation—ensuring the team had full visibility before, during, and after every infrastructure change.

The implementation focused on replacing sprint-based validation with continuous insights, giving engineers real-time feedback on how changes affected application behavior. This shortened feedback loops dramatically, allowing the team to detect and resolve issues in hours instead of waiting until the next sprint review.

Throughout the engagement, EverOps worked alongside Life360's infrastructure team to build dashboards, configure alerts, and establish the practices that would sustain observability beyond the migration.

Technologies & Tools:
Datadog APM · Distributed Tracing · Custom Dashboards · AWS EKS · EC2

Technologies & Tools:

No items found.
The Approach

Embedded Expertise with a Clear Roadmap

EverOps embedded a 3-person FinOps Pod directly into Life360's platform team. Within the first week, our engineers had access to their AWS accounts, joined their Slack channels, and began a comprehensive cost analysis using our proprietary Opportunity Finder methodology.

The engagement followed a structured approach: two weeks of discovery and prioritization, four weeks of execution on high-impact optimizations, and two weeks of governance implementation to sustain savings. Throughout, the Pod operated as an extension of the internal team — attending standups, collaborating in real-time, and transferring knowledge continuously.

Unlike consultants who deliver reports, our Pod executed the changes directly — rightsizing instances, eliminating waste, renegotiating reserved capacity, and implementing automated cost controls.

The Solution

Full-Stack Visibility Across Infrastructure and Application Layers

EverOps delivered a comprehensive observability implementation that gave Life360 the confidence to execute their migration without disruption.

Key Initiatives:

  • APM & Distributed Tracing — Implemented full-stack visibility that allowed real-time tracking of performance changes, correlating infrastructure updates with application behavior so the team could see exactly how each migration step affected the system.
  • Custom Dashboards — Built unified views across infrastructure and application layers, enabling faster detection and response to anomalies. Engineers could see the full picture in one place instead of jumping between fragmented tools.
  • Real-Time Alerts & Diagnostics — Configured proactive alerting that enabled issue resolution before users were impacted, dramatically reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR).
  • Shortened Feedback Loops — Replaced sprint-based validation with continuous insights, accelerating deployments while maintaining stability. What previously required waiting for a sprint review now happened in real-time.
The Results

Migration Confidence at Scale

Within 6 months, Life360 completed a smooth EC2 to EKS migration with no significant disruptions—a remarkable outcome for a platform where reliability directly impacts user safety.

The observability foundation transformed how the team approached infrastructure changes. Migration tasks that previously took weeks were compressed into single-day efforts. Early issue detection and faster MTTR improved overall system reliability. Most importantly, engineers gained confidence to make infrastructure changes backed by real-time, data-driven decisions instead of hoping for the best.

Life360 now has the visibility and agility to continue modernizing confidently while delivering on its mission of safety and reliability.

Zero significant issues
Migration Disruptions
Weeks → Single days
Task Acceleration
6 months
Timeline
50M+ families
Users Protected
Client Experience

"Leveraging existing tools for enhanced observability was a game-changer for our EKS migration."

Head of Infrastructure, Life360
CLIENT EXPERIENCE

"Leveraging existing tools for enhanced observability was a game-changer for our EKS migration."

— Head of Infrastructure, Life360
What's Next?
With the EKS migration complete and observability foundations in place, Life360 continues to expand their platform capabilities—confident that they have the visibility to move fast without compromising the reliability their 50 million users depend on.