Executive Summary

A company acquired a SaaS product from external developers and discovered they'd bought code - but not control. The infrastructure was a black box running on Azure Container Apps with no documentation, no access controls, and unknown costs.

We rebuilt the entire infrastructure from scratch on Kubernetes, migrated all workloads, implemented FinOps practices, and delivered complete documentation - giving the acquirer true ownership of what they purchased.

The Challenge

Post-Acquisition Reality

The acquisition closed, but the infrastructure remained a mystery. External developers still had access. Costs were unpredictable. Nobody knew how anything actually worked.

What They Inherited

  • Zero documentation - No architecture diagrams, no runbooks, no deployment guides
  • External dependencies - Original developers still needed for any changes
  • Azure Container Apps limitations - Platform constraints preventing needed customizations
  • Unknown costs - No visibility into what was driving cloud spend
  • No deployment pipeline - Changes deployed manually with no audit trail
  • Security concerns - Unclear who had access to what

Our Solution

Complete Rebuild

Rather than patch the existing mess, we rebuilt the infrastructure properly - designed, documented, and deployable from day one.

12-Week Transformation

Week 1-2

Discovery & Assessment

Mapped existing infrastructure, identified all components, documented current state, assessed migration risks.

Week 3-4

Architecture Design

Designed target Kubernetes architecture, planned migration strategy, defined CI/CD pipelines, established FinOps framework.

Week 5-8

Infrastructure Build

Provisioned Kubernetes cluster, implemented networking, set up monitoring, deployed CI/CD pipelines, configured security controls.

Week 9-10

Migration Execution

Migrated workloads incrementally, validated functionality, performed parallel running, executed final cutover.

Week 11-12

Documentation & Handover

Completed all documentation, conducted training sessions, performed knowledge transfer, decommissioned old infrastructure.

Key Components Delivered

  • Kubernetes cluster - Production-grade, fully managed, properly sized
  • CI/CD pipelines - Automated deployments with approvals and rollback
  • FinOps dashboard - Real-time cost visibility by service and environment
  • Monitoring stack - Prometheus, Grafana, alerting configured
  • Complete documentation - Architecture, runbooks, deployment guides
  • Access controls - RBAC, audit logging, security hardening

Results

Aspect Before (Inherited) After (Rebuilt)
Documentation None 100% documented
Deployment control External dependency Full internal ownership
Cost visibility Unknown spend Real-time FinOps dashboard
Platform flexibility Container Apps limits Full Kubernetes control
Time to production Weeks (external) Hours (self-service)
Security posture Unknown access RBAC, audit logging

"We thought we bought a product. What we actually bought was a black box. Now we finally own what we paid for - and we understand every piece of it."

- VP Engineering, Acquiring Company

Key Takeaways

  • Acquisition does not equal ownership - Code without infrastructure control isn't really yours
  • Rebuild can be faster than fix - Sometimes starting fresh is more efficient than patching
  • FinOps from day one - Cost visibility prevents surprises and enables optimization
  • Documentation is infrastructure - Undocumented systems create external dependencies