R7 Modernizes Kubernetes Infrastructure with AWS and Pier Cloud

Accelerating Kubernetes modernization with Amazon EKS, automation, and cloud-native practices

As digital demand continues to grow, organizations operating large-scale Kubernetes environments need infrastructure that can scale quickly without increasing operational complexity.

R7 partnered with AWS and Pier Cloud to modernize its Kubernetes environment, moving from a self-managed kops architecture toward Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS). Through an AWS Experience-Based Acceleration (EBA) engagement, the teams validated a scalable, automated, and cost-conscious approach designed to support the company’s next stage of cloud-native growth.

The one-day engagement brought together AWS, Pier Cloud, and R7 teams in an immersive technical session focused on architecture validation, hands-on execution, and removing the operational barriers associated with self-managed Kubernetes.

The challenge: Scaling Kubernetes without increasing operational complexity

R7 operates a large-scale digital ecosystem, supporting hundreds of containerized workloads across production and non-production environments and serving more than 80 million unique users per month.

Before the modernization initiative, its Kubernetes environment was based on kops and required significant operational effort from the platform team. Infrastructure provisioning, upgrades, scaling, high availability, backups, disaster recovery, and incident response depended heavily on internal expertise and manual processes.

The environment also presented several scalability and efficiency challenges:

• Approximately 8 hours per month were dedicated to routine infrastructure maintenance.
• The platform experienced more than two control plane incidents per year.
• Provisioning additional infrastructure capacity typically took 5–10 minutes.
• Average node utilization was approximately 60%, creating opportunities to improve resource efficiency.
• Application builds and deployments could take hours.
• Scaling and infrastructure lifecycle activities required manual intervention.

As traffic patterns and application requirements evolved, R7 needed a modernization path that could improve operational efficiency while providing greater elasticity, reliability, and cost control.

A collaborative modernization approach

AWS, Pier Cloud, and R7 worked together through an AWS ModAx EBA engagement focused on the Move to Containers pathway, combining modern DevOps and cloud-native practices with hands-on technical execution.

Rather than treating modernization as a theoretical architecture exercise, the teams worked directly on the target environment to validate the technologies, workflows, and operational patterns required for the transition.

The engagement focused on five key areas:

Amazon EKS and Infrastructure as Code
The teams provisioned an Amazon EKS cluster using Terraform, establishing a repeatable foundation for the target Kubernetes architecture.

Automation and GitOps
GitLab CI/CD and ArgoCD workflows were validated to automate application delivery and reduce manual deployment effort.

Standardized Kubernetes operations
Reusable Helm charts and platform add-ons were introduced to create greater consistency across workloads.

Autoscaling and elasticity
HPA, KEDA, and Karpenter were validated to support workload-driven scaling, event-based autoscaling, and more efficient compute provisioning.

Observability and cost optimization
The target architecture incorporated metrics, dashboards, centralized logging, and monitoring using tools including Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch, Fluent Bit, and Datadog. The teams also evaluated Spot Instance strategies to improve compute cost efficiency.

From architecture validation to measurable outcomes

The hands-on engagement demonstrated how the target architecture could address several of the operational constraints of the existing environment.

Faster infrastructure scaling

The modernization approach reduced the demonstrated infrastructure provisioning time from approximately 5–10 minutes with kops to 30–60 seconds with Amazon EKS.

This faster provisioning capability creates greater elasticity and reduces the need to maintain excess capacity in anticipation of traffic spikes.

Reduced operational burden

By moving Kubernetes control plane management to Amazon EKS, R7 can reduce the amount of infrastructure maintenance handled directly by its platform team.

This creates an opportunity to redirect engineering capacity from infrastructure operations toward automation, application modernization, and higher-value initiatives.

Improved resilience

The EKS architecture reduces reliance on manually operated Kubernetes control plane infrastructure and provides a more consistent foundation for availability and operational resilience.

During the EBA, the teams also validated a zero-downtime modernization approach, enabling workloads to be progressively transitioned while maintaining service continuity.

More efficient resource utilization

Dynamic provisioning, autoscaling, and improved workload distribution provide a path toward increasing infrastructure utilization and reducing idle capacity.

Karpenter and Spot Instance strategies also demonstrated opportunities to select compute capacity more efficiently based on workload requirements and available pricing options.

Faster application delivery

The modernization approach automated key steps in the application delivery process through CI/CD and GitOps.

Processes that previously required hours could be completed in minutes, improving deployment consistency, release velocity, and developer productivity.

A repeatable foundation for application modernization

The engagement established a validated modernization pattern that can be applied to additional workloads.

A total of 45 applications were identified for modernization, creating a repeatable path for R7 to continue its transition toward a more scalable and cloud-native operating model.

Building together: AWS, Pier Cloud, and R7

The success of the engagement was driven by close collaboration across the three teams.

AWS brought cloud architecture expertise and Amazon EKS capabilities. Pier Cloud contributed its FinOps and cloud optimization expertise, helping incorporate cost efficiency, automation, and operational visibility into the modernization strategy. R7 brought deep knowledge of its applications, infrastructure, and operational requirements.

The immersive format enabled the teams to work side by side, resolve blockers in real time, and validate technical decisions against actual workloads and operational requirements.

Five major blockers were removed during the engagement, while the teams also established a clear set of next steps for continued modernization.

What we witnessed yesterday during the live demonstration of the AWS EBA project was spectacular. We exceeded all expectations in both the preparation and the technical execution, delivering something of the highest quality in real time. A huge round of applause to everyone involved! We didn’t just deliver a project — we took a fundamental step and established the foundation for the future of our infrastructure. — Regis Lopes, IT and Infrastructure Coordinator, R7

Key results

What comes next

With the target architecture validated, R7 can continue expanding the modernization approach across its Kubernetes workloads.

The next phase includes extending Spot provisioning across multiple instance families and sizes, strengthening observability and audit capabilities, and continuing application modernization using the validated Amazon EKS architecture as a repeatable model.

For R7, the initiative represents more than a Kubernetes migration. It establishes a foundation for a more automated, scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient cloud operating model.

Through the collaboration between R7, AWS, and Pier Cloud, Kubernetes modernization moved from an architectural objective to a validated and executable path for the future.