Atlassian transferred 4 million Postgres databases to minimize Amazon Web Services (AWS) costs
In the realm of technology, two significant developments have caught the attention of industry watchers this week. On one hand, Atlassian, the Australian software company behind popular projects like Jira, Trello, and Confluence, announced a large-scale migration of its PostgreSQL databases to Amazon Web Services' (AWS) Aurora. The move, aimed at reducing costs, enhancing reliability, and improving performance, has yielded promising results. On the other hand, Australian airline Qantas has admitted to a cyberattack, exposing records of six million customers, and is currently assessing the impact of the incident.
Atlassian's migration strategy has been meticulously planned. By switching from m5.4xlarge instances on AWS's Relational Database Service (RDS) for PostgreSQL to r6.2xlarge on Aurora PostgreSQL, Atlassian was able to reduce the size of its AWS instances by half while maintaining the same memory capacity. This change not only decreased costs but also optimised migration speed and cost, as the company was able to balance infrastructure investment regionally.
The benefits of this migration extend beyond cost savings. Aurora PostgreSQL offers a higher Service Level Agreement (SLA) uptime than RDS, improving from 99.95% on RDS to 99.99% availability on Aurora. This enhanced reliability is a key driver for Atlassian’s migration decision, enabling more stable Jira customer database operations globally across 13 AWS regions.
Performance-wise, Aurora provides better autoscaling capabilities and improved performance for Atlassian's large, distributed Jira database fleet. Despite challenges such as the sheer number of databases and file counts per instance causing timeouts and requiring novel orchestration techniques, the final outcome was not only cost savings but also improved reliability and performance.
Meanwhile, Qantas, Australia's national carrier, has been hit by a cyberattack that exposed records describing six million customers. The airline has promised to inform customers about the types of personal data that were contained in the system and has implemented additional security measures to prevent future incidents. Qantas has not been contacted by anyone claiming to have the data from the cyberattack and believes it has plugged the gap in its security that led to the intrusion.
In other news, Xerox last week announced it completed the acquisition of printer-maker Lexmark from Ninestar Corporation, PAG Asia Capital, and Shanghai Shouda Investment Centre. The deal, valued at $1.5 billion, aims to strengthen Xerox's product portfolio and "build a broader global print and managed print services business better suited to meet the evolving needs of clients in the hybrid workplace."
References: [1] Atlassian's Migration to Aurora PostgreSQL: Cost, Reliability, and Performance Improvements (atlassian.com) [2] Atlassian's Migration to Aurora PostgreSQL: Balancing Infrastructure Investment (atlassian.com)
In the technology sector, Atlassian's migration of its PostgreSQL databases to Amazon Web Services' (AWS) Aurora emphasis the integration of AI in database management. Aurora PostgreSQL offers advantages such as cost savings, enhanced reliability, and improved performance, aiding data-and-cloud-computing operations. Meanwhile, the Australian airline Qantas grapples with a cyberattack, underscoring the importance of security in space-and-astronomy, technology, and science. Xerox, on the other hand, bolsters its product portfolio and enhances its presence in the technology industry through its acquisition of printer-maker Lexmark.
Crypto also plays a part in the evolution of technology, as the success of Atlassian's migration strategy demonstrates the potential of blockchain technology in database management. The move towards cloud-computing and technology, coupled with increased emphasis on security, highlights the need for advances in AI, databases, hardware, and software to adapt to the evolving needs of industry and consumers alike. Qantas' incident serves as a reminder that as progress is made in the realms of space-and-astronomy and technology, so too must efforts be made to safeguard sensitive data from cyber threats.
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