‍Navigating the Challenge

With hundreds of new services being introduced, Motive encountered several critical infrastructure challenges. A large monolithic codebase hindered efficient testing and release processes, while limited visibility into API performance metrics further complicated management. Additionally, the SRE team found themselves overloaded with manual, repetitive tasks. The stakes for uptime were extremely high, given the critical nature of compliance and financial transaction data. Luis described the impact succinctly: “Every time someone needed to make a change—adding a new API, adding a new routing table—they required the SRE team to come in.”

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The Kubernetes-Driven Solution

Shifting gears to a Kubernetes-native infrastructure was Motive’s bold play. At the heart of this transformation was an enterprise-class API gateway that empowered teams with newfound independence.

“We evaluated multiple vendors... [but Gloo] was basically a match made in heaven because it had Kubernetes-native support and allowed teams to control their own silos,” Luis recalled. Gloo Gateway’s key superpowers for Motive included:

- Developer empowerment: Teams could now manage their routing through GitOps, easing the SRE team’s workload.

- Instant insights: Native observability integration delivered real-time performance data.

- Safe experimentation: Canary deployments and traffic mirroring allowed safe, accelerated service rollouts.

- Security first: Enhanced rate limiting and external authorization tightened controls critical for financial and compliance security.

Even when faced with a sudden DDoS attack, the Solo.io team jumped into action. “We implemented multiple things and we were successful, but the Solo team was there to help,” Luis recounted.

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Crossing the Finish Line in Style

Motive’s innovative API strategy quickly delivered impressive results:

- Sky-high reliability: Availability soared from roughly 98% to an impressive 99.99%, “going for a fifth nine,” according to Luis.

- Developer independence: Engineers embraced self-service provisioning, often surprising the SRE team with their proactive brilliance.

- Rapid innovation: Motive seamlessly launched hundreds of new microservices, fueling next-gen AI insights for fleet safety and efficiency.

Luis’s enthusiasm captured the transformation perfectly: “Some teams even surprised us,” Luis shared. “They got so good at configuring their services that they showed us a few tricks!”

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The Road Ahead

Now in high gear, Motive is primed to conquer new markets, armed with a robust infrastructure that’s built to scale effortlessly. “We are expanding into more markets… [but] by now, all the basic reliability problems have been solved,” Luis confidently shared.

With Solo.io’s Gloo Gateway in place, Motive continues to deliver real-time fleet intelligence and powerful AI insights, keeping drivers safer, trucks more efficient, and fleet managers happier.

Luis summed up the journey with a clear vision: “As soon as our teams can self-serve, that’s success.” For Motive, the road ahead is wide open—and they're just getting started.

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