Codebase Optimization and Hosting Migration
Stabilized a legacy-heavy platform and executed a zero-downtime migration to WPEngine — cutting infrastructure costs and improving performance.
Client
National media publisher with a high-traffic content platform
Role
Migration Strategist & Performance Optimizer
Timeline
~1 month
Stack
AWS (legacy), WPEngine (target), CI/CD, CloudFront, PHP, Bitbucket Pipelines
The Challenge
The platform was bleeding money on AWS. Legacy code was slow, fragile, and over-scaled to compensate. WPEngine was the target — but the code and infrastructure weren’t ready. Migration risks were high: downtime, broken features, and unstable UX.
My Role
I stabilized the codebase and led a zero-downtime migration — cutting infrastructure costs and laying the groundwork for scalable, low-risk deployment.
Solutions Delivered
- Ran a backend optimization sprint to kill major performance bottlenecks
- Transitioned blocking scripts to lazy-loading, speeding up first render
- Rebuilt caching layers for frontend + server-side, tailored to WPEngine
- Cleaned up database bloat: autoloaded options, transients, and legacy cruft
- Implemented rollback-ready CI/CD with Bitbucket Pipelines
- Added observability and hardened error handling for smoother ops
- Standardized deployment processes for fast, safe releases
Business Outcomes
- Zero-downtime migration to WPEngine — millions of visitors, uninterrupted
- Slashed infra costs by cutting AWS over-provisioning
- Faster deploy cycles, freeing engineers from dev-ops firefighting
- Legacy code stabilized — modernization-ready foundation in place
- Fewer emergencies, more headroom to focus on actual growth