EKS Resilience: The ShopDev Transformation
reduction in downtime
increase in peak traffic capacity
average response time post-migration
daily automated deployments
The Challenge: Downtime, Waste, and Scaling Limits
ShopDev’s monolithic application running on ECS suffered cascading failures, costly maintenance, and massive resource waste. Only 30% of the codebase handled actual load during peak traffic, yet the entire monolith had to scale as one unit, causing over-provisioning, slow releases, user churn, and high outage costs.
Our Approach: A 3-Phase Microservices Migration
A structured three-phase migration strategy that enabled ShopDev to move from a fragile monolith to resilient, scalable microservices with zero downtime.
Decomposition
We identified bounded contexts—such as Auth, Catalog, and Cart—and refactored them into independent microservices with dedicated databases for clean separation.
Strangling & Routing
New services were deployed on EKS while Amazon API Gateway selectively routed relevant traffic from the monolith to the new microservices, enabling zero-downtime migration.
Decoupling
Once traffic was fully migrated, the monolithic components were safely decommissioned, completing the transition to a service-isolated microservices architecture.
Resolving Core System Constraints
A look at the core operational failure points and how the EKS + Istio architecture resolved them.
Cascading Failures
Problem
A single failure could crash the entire system.
Solution
Service isolation and circuit breaking stopped failures from spreading.
Resource Waste
Problem
The monolith scaled unnecessarily, wasting compute.
Solution
Microservices enabled granular autoscaling aligned with real load.
Slow Recovery
Problem
Outages required manual fixes and took hours to recover.
Solution
Kubernetes probes enabled instant auto-healing within seconds.
Risky Deployments
Problem
Releases were slow, tightly coupled, and caused instability.
Solution
Canary deployments made updates safer and allowed daily releases.
Quantifiable Business Impact
The migration to EKS microservices created dramatic improvements in platform stability and performance. Downtime was reduced by 90%, peak traffic capacity increased by 150%, and average response time improved to 200ms. Automated healing and resilient Istio routing cut recovery time from hours to seconds, while granular scaling eliminated wasted compute resources. These improvements lifted customer satisfaction and reduced churn, directly contributing to measurable business growth and operational efficiency.
Technology Stack
From Monolith to Modern Architecture
The transition from a brittle monolithic system to a resilient EKS microservices architecture fundamentally transformed ShopDev’s operational stability. By eliminating cascading failures, enabling automated remediation, and supporting daily deployments, the new setup improved reliability, scalability, and performance across the entire platform. This modernization not only stabilized mission-critical workflows but also unlocked long-term capacity for innovation, faster releases, and sustainable engineering velocity.