Client: Elad Aviv, Director of Cloud Infrastructure at TraxIndustry: AI and Computer Vision for Physical RetailSolutions: Rapydo Proxy and Scout
Overview
Trax, a leading AI and computer vision company for the physical retail sector, needed a solution to manage unpredictable database performance across hundreds of clients. With each client operating under different Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and usage patterns, ensuring consistent performance was a constant challenge. Scaling databases in response to performance issues led to soaring costs, without addressing the root of the problem. Rapydo provided Trax with an innovative solution that not only optimized performance and reduced costs but also significantly enhanced their ability to meet stringent SLAs while providing real-time visibility across their databases.
The Challenges: SLA Compliance in an Unpredictable Environment
As a data-driven AI company working in the retail sector, Trax faced two critical challenges. First, their hundreds of clients operated under unique Service Level Agreements (SLAs), each requiring different levels of performance, availability, and response times. Managing this variability was becoming increasingly difficult, especially as the unpredictable database performance added a layer of complexity to the situation. These performance issues stemmed from numerous factors: inefficient queries, poorly optimized indexes, and repetitive, resource-intensive operations on the database. For Trax, the default method to ensure SLA compliance was to scale their cloud database infrastructure—typically Amazon RDS—to handle peak loads. However, this approach significantly increased cloud costs and still left them vulnerable to performance bottlenecks during traffic spikes, making it hard to guarantee SLAs across all clients consistently.
Additionally, Trax lacked real-time visibility into their database infrastructure. Without an integrated view of how individual queries or database operations were performing, it was nearly impossible to identify issues before they affected SLA compliance, leaving their team reactive rather than proactive.
The Solution: Rapydo’s SLA-Driven Optimization and Full Database Visibility
Rapydo introduced Trax to two key products—Rapydo Proxy and Rapydo Scout—which transformed how Trax managed both performance and SLA compliance.
Rapydo Proxy: Consistent SLA Performance Without Scaling
Rapydo’s Proxy product was integrated in front of Trax’s most critical customer-facing databases. One of the immediate benefits was that the proxy could handle unpredictable traffic spikes in real-time, smoothing out performance without the need for manual intervention or scaling the database. This allowed Trax to optimize performance at the query level, ensuring consistent response times even during peak usage, which was critical for maintaining SLA commitments.
The Proxy solution worked seamlessly with Trax’s infrastructure and supported the same types of queries they were already handling, including high-volume, complex queries that needed to be processed within the SLA timeframes. By reducing bottlenecks, improving query handling, and ensuring a smooth failover in case of any issues, the Rapydo Proxy enabled Trax to meet their SLAs without the burden of continuously increasing their cloud footprint. This optimization not only reduced operational costs but also gave Trax the ability to provide more predictable and reliable database performance for their clients. Rapydo’s non-intrusive approach was especially valuable for legacy systems, where making any modifications to application code could risk disrupting critical services. By operating at the database layer, the proxy was able to deliver these improvements without any changes to the application code, a crucial factor in ensuring Trax’s infrastructure remained stable while improving SLA compliance.
Rapydo Scout: Real-Time Database Visibility for SLA Assurance
To complement the Proxy, Rapydo introduced Scout, a real-time database monitoring and visibility tool. Scout gave Trax unprecedented insight into the performance of their entire database environment. Through a centralized dashboard, Scout provided a comprehensive view of all queries and operations across hundreds of databases. This allowed the Trax team to see real-time performance metrics at both a macro and micro level.
One of the most significant improvements was that problematic queries—such as long-running or inefficient ones—could be identified and flagged immediately. Scout’s real-time alerts meant that performance issues could be addressed before they affected customer SLAs, allowing the team to act proactively rather than reactively.
For Trax, this level of visibility was transformative. Previously, they had been operating with limited insight into specific database operations, making it difficult to trace the root causes of performance degradation. With Scout, Trax could now monitor database health in real-time and identify bottlenecks as soon as they occurred. This was crucial in managing SLA compliance, as they could respond to issues before they affected client services, ensuring 99.99% uptime and response time targets were consistently met.
Scout’s intuitive interface also made it accessible to non-database-savvy team members. This democratized database monitoring, enabling not just the DBA team but also developers and even operations staff to understand and act on performance insights. As a result, collaboration across teams improved, and everyone involved in the application’s lifecycle—from development to deployment—had a clear view of database health and performance.
Key Features of Rapydo’s SLA and Visibility Solutions:
- Real-Time Performance Optimization: Rapydo Proxy ensured consistent performance under heavy loads, allowing Trax to meet SLA commitments without scaling databases.
- End-to-End Database Visibility: Rapydo Scout provided real-time monitoring of all queries and operations across hundreds of databases, offering complete transparency.
- Proactive SLA Management: With real-time alerts for performance degradation, Trax could address issues before they breached SLAs, ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction.
- Democratized Monitoring: Scout’s intuitive interface allowed team members from various departments to collaborate on database health, making database optimization a shared responsibility.
- Cost Efficiency: By addressing performance at the query level and avoiding unnecessary scaling, Trax reduced their cloud expenditure significantly while maintaining their SLAs.
The Outcome: SLA Compliance, Reduced Costs, and Full Visibility
By implementing Rapydo Proxy and Scout, Trax experienced significant improvements in SLA compliance, cost reduction, and database performance:
- SLA Compliance: Trax achieved consistent performance across hundreds of databases, ensuring their diverse client base continued to receive the service levels promised under their contracts. With the proxy mitigating traffic spikes and query inefficiencies, Trax could guarantee uptime and response times, regardless of unpredictable usage patterns.
- Real-Time Database Visibility: With Scout, Trax gained unparalleled visibility into their database environment. They could now monitor query performance across the board and detect issues before they impacted clients. This proactive approach drastically reduced the risk of SLA violations and downtime.
- Cost Savings: By avoiding the need to scale databases in response to performance challenges, Trax reduced their cloud spending by 40%. The Proxy’s ability to optimize queries in real time meant that Trax could do more with their existing infrastructure, rather than adding expensive resources.
- Team Collaboration and Efficiency: The comprehensive visibility provided by Scout fostered greater collaboration between developers, DBAs, and operations staff. With a shared understanding of database performance, the team could work together more efficiently to optimize their environment.
The Outcome: SLA Compliance, Reduced Costs, and Full Visibility
By implementing Rapydo Proxy and Scout, Trax experienced significant improvements in SLA compliance, cost reduction, and database performance:
Client Testimonial
Elad Aviv, Director of Cloud Infrastructure at Trax, shared the following about the success of the Rapydo solution:“Rapydo’s Proxy and Scout products gave us real-time control and visibility over our database infrastructure. We can now manage unpredictable performance, ensure SLA compliance, and do it all without needing to constantly scale our databases. The team’s expertise and dedication made a huge difference, and I’d recommend Rapydo to anyone managing large-scale, mission-critical environments.”
