The Problem

As a mobile security company, Lookout’s database environment is crucial to providing customers with security assurance for mobile devices. Their databases store  critical data for their mobile security applications. Lookout uses the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform with Aurora as their main database software.

“While we are security experts, Lookout doesn’t necessarily know everything about databases. As we streamlined operations and increased our business, we were looking for ways to simplify and optimize our AWS deployment,” said Michael Fortson, Director of Engineering at Lookout.

“Database uptime is crucial for us and our customers – our applications need to be responsive at all times, without exception.”

Lookout needed to ensure that as they grow and increase their customer base, their database environment remains responsive and available – with an eye to increasing efficiency and more effectively using their AWS deployment.

The Solution

Lookout chose Percona to help them investigate how to best ensure uptime and reduce overhead. They found
Percona through its reputation as a leader in database and cloud environment optimization techniques. Lookout engaged Percona ExpertOps to check their systems and determine whether everything was configured and integrated according to best practices.

The first step was a Percona Database Performance Audit. Percona cloud database experts pinpointed ways to reduce Lookout’s cloud footprint. Their initial configuration involved 35 sharded primary/replica pairs. They decided to move their architecture from a sharded primary/replica topology to a micro-services-based infrastructure. As the transition was made, Lookout also needed to be able to keep track of key database metrics in order to verify that the user experience wasn’t compromised. For this, they employed Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM).

PMM gave Lookout thorough time-based analysis or their AWS environment to ensure that their data was working as efficiently as possible. Lookout used PMM to:

• Examine query and metric information
• Display current queries and highlight potential query issues
• Map queries against metrics

With PMM, Lookout could see when sections of their database environment were experiencing bottlenecks and
slowdowns.

Key Takeaways

Percona recommendations and expertise helped successfully migrate Lookout’s AWS configuration from 35 primary/replica pairs to only 10 server instances. This not only simplified their environment, but it saved them significant OPEX costs – nearly $500,000 per year.

Lookout engaged Percona to:

• Audit the database environment architecture and performance
• Reduce their cloud footprint to lower costs and complexity
• Monitor crucial database environment metrics in order to guarantee uptime

About Lookout

Lookout takes a mobile-first approach to security. The company protects mobility for some of the world’s largest enterprises, critical government agencies, and tens of millions of individuals worldwide. They have achieved this by partnering with leaders in the mobile ecosystem globally. Lookout is laser-focused on creating mobile-first, cloud-first products not just for IT administrators and CISOs, but for individuals as well.