DevOps Engineers Transformed Leading Auctioning Platform’s Infrastructure for Scalability, Stability, Cost Savings

TBAuctions (TBA), Europe’s leading auctioning platform for B2B used industrial equipment, was growing rapidly through acquisitions. They sought to standardize its infrastructure to smoothly conduct integration of newly-acquired platforms and accommodate an increasing number of users, auctions, and transactions. With the help of DAC.digital they were able to create a scalable and secure environment while reducing their cloud costs.

The Challenge: a Solution for Managing a Complex, Multi-Platform Auctioning Environment

TBAuctions, a rapidly expanding auction platform operating on Microsoft Azure, faced a significant challenge: integrating newly acquired auctioning platforms that operated on different technologies, programming languages, and infrastructures. They were often built on outdated or on-premise solutions with little to no cloud optimization. As a result, TBAauctions required a solution to consolidate all of them into a single infrastructure without disrupting operations.

The Solution: DevOps-Driven Automation and Standardization

Transition to Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Model for Rapid, Seamless Migrations

TBA’s entire infrastructure was transitioned to an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) model using Terraform. This allowed for the full automation of deployments. Now, all newly acquired companies easily migrate to TBA’s environment without the need for manual configuration. This translates to faster integration time and shorter onboarding times.

Dynamic Infrastructure with Auto-Scaling for Cost Efficiency

Since the DAC.digital DevOps engineers created dynamic infrastructure, workloads have been able to scale automatically based on demand. This reduces unnecessary resource consumption during lower-traffic periods and guarantees optimal performance during peak loads. With autoscaling, the client pays only for the resources they actually need rather than for idle machines.

Tech stack we used: Azure native scaling options where possible, ensuring well documented process and enterprise proven mechanisms. Cost Management, Azure Advisor.

CI/CD Pipelines for Faster, More Predictable Deployments

Another important aspect of this project was the implementation of CI/CD pipelines. Now, acquisitions of new companies are more predictable and replicable, which makes the process simpler. Additionally, these pipelines have reduced manual interventions in deployments through automating repetitive tasks.

Tech stack we used: Azure DevOps integrated with Defender, Sonar.

Standardized Security Across All Acquisitions

TBA also minimized risks associated with inconsistent security practices by adopting uniform security protocols that apply to all newly acquired platforms. Prior to that, each company had different security standards which could have caused operational security gaps.

Centralized Monitoring and Reliability Engineering for Proactive Anomaly Detection

Another key aspect of the collaboration was the improvement of monitoring systems. Before partnering with DAC.digital, TBA’s monitoring was fragmented, and incident response was often reactive. DAC.digital’s DevOps engineers introduced Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices, integrating real-time monitoring, proactive alerting, and automated incident response. Consequently, system stability improved, and potential issues are now detected and addressed before they cause outages.

Tech stack we used: Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Azure Monitor, Grafana Syntetic Monitoring.

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The Impact: Stable Infrastructure, Scalable Growth, Operational Stability, and Cost Reduction

This structured approach to DevOps helped TBA improve infrastructure stability, facilitate acquisitions, and support rapid growth. Thanks to a comprehensive strategy covering automation, scalability, and standardization, TBA reinforced their position as a leader in the auctioning industry. As a result, the client could expand seamlessly without compromising operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Thanks to DevOps TBA Saves Around €120,000 Per Year on Infrastructure Costs

Given the complexity of TBA’s infrastructure, strategic cost optimization is crucial. Our DevOps team was able to assess infrastructure usage to provide the client with insights on what exactly is running and which machines might be underutilized. Based on these insights, the client can right-size cloud compute resources to match actual workload requirements and implement auto-scaling mechanisms to prevent over-provisioning.

Furthermore, TBA’s DevOps transformation led to cost reductions by refining the way infrastructure is provisioned and managed. Initially, the company relied on pay-as-you-go virtual machines, which incurred costs as long as they were running, often leading to unnecessary expenses when machines remained active for extended periods. TBA then shifted to reserved instances for particular cloud compute resources and secured a 40% discount over pay-as-you-go pricing.

However, this approach had some limitations because reserved instances are tied to specific VM families. To further optimize spending, TBA adopted a flexible approach and turned to usage-based purchasing models. They might be slightly more expensive than reserved instances but offer the advantage of dynamically allocating resources across different workloads.

Through these optimizations, TBA has consistently identified cost-saving opportunities, sometimes reducing expenses by as much as €10,000 per month, which equates to annual savings of €120,000.

DevOps Also Helped Standardize Development Operations

With 1,200+ employees and a constantly growing IT team, an additional challenge faced by TBA was managing the developers with varying levels of cloud expertise. New specialists from recently acquired companies would come from different technology stacks. By embracing DevOps principles, TBA was able to implement standardized infrastructure across teams, making deployments and new feature rollouts more consistent and less complex. Thanks to the adoption of Kubernetes and Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, they could quickly adapt to TBA’s infrastructure without disrupting workflows.

Ultimately, DevOps transformed TBA’s IT environment by introducing a culture of collaboration, automation, and reliability.

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