Leading US Collectibles Marketplace Migrates from AWS RDS to Tessell for 53x Performance and 33% Savings
Looking to optimize its growing SQL Server environment, a leading US collectibles marketplace migrated its database estate to Tessell in 1.5 months - gaining 53x performance, ~33% cost savings, and built-in high availability.
About
The customer is a leading player in the US collectibles marketplace, providing authentication and grading services for high-value collectibles across trading cards, memorabilia, coins, currency, and video games.
A large, established company with a valuation in the billions and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue, the customer employs over a thousand people and has authenticated and graded tens of millions of collectibles.
As the customer finalized their data center migration to AWS, they required a database-as-a-service solution to automate day-to-day operations and cost-effectively manage their SQL Server infrastructure supporting critical business applications.
The Challenges
Escalating AWS RDS Costs
AWS RDS costs were rising due to premium IOPS/storage charges and restrictive instance sizing. With RDS contract renewals approaching and their SQL Server footprint growing, the customer needed a cost-effective alternative without vendor lock-in.
Fragmented Database Operations
Self-managed SQL Server instances across AWS EC2 lacked centralized management. Manual cloning, inconsistent data masking, and varied backup procedures created operational bottlenecks and compliance risks.
Performance Limitations and Licensing Constraints
The customer needed 1.6M IOPS for peak workloads, but AWS RDS couldn't deliver this without prohibitive costs. More critically, SQL Server Standard Edition HA was unavailable in RDS, forcing costly Enterprise Edition licensing or accepting downtime risks.
The Tessell Solution
Tessell HPC NVME Shapes: Higher IOPS at a Fraction of the Cost
Tessell's database-as-a-service platform on AWS EC2 with High-Performance Compute (HPC) NVME shapes—a Tessell-exclusive feature—delivered 1.6M IOPS, a 53x improvement from the baseline 30k IOPS, while reducing infrastructure costs by 33%. Unlike AWS RDS's rigid instance types, Tessell's flexible compute and storage separation allowed optimization for specific performance and cost requirements
Standard Edition HA and Unified Database Management
Tessell delivered SQL Server Standard Edition with built-in High Availability, eliminating the need for costly Enterprise Edition licensing.
The unified platform automated database provisioning, standardized data masking and cloning workflows, and provided single-pane-of-glass visibility for monitoring, scaling, resiliency, and maintenance across all SQL Server workloads. These automated capabilities freed the database team from time-consuming manual tasks.
Successful Migration Drives Additional Workload Expansion
The migration to Tessell was completed within 1.5 months with zero data loss and minimal downtime, meeting critical contract deadlines. The success of the initial migration led the customer to expand their use of Tessell, migrating additional workloads and consolidating their entire SQL Server estate on Tessell's unified database management platform.
The Results
53x Performance Improvement
The customer scaled from 30k IOPS to 1.6M IOPS on Tessell's High-Performance Compute (HPC) NVME shapes, delivering dramatically faster application performance.
~33% Annual Cost Savings
The customer achieved approximately 33% in annual savings across AWS infrastructure and database management costs while maintaining AWS EC2 discount benefits.
Resilient Architecture with Multi-AZ High Availability
Tessell provided multi-availability zone high availability (Multi-AZ, HA + DR), improving RPO/RTO and preventing outages. SQL Server Standard Edition with built-in HA eliminated the need for expensive Enterprise Edition licenses.
Increased Operational Efficiency
Automated backups, refresh, and restores replaced manual processes. The unified platform centralized management across all SQL Server workloads, freeing the database team for strategic initiatives.
One Platform for All Cloud Database Use Cases
Tessell unified all of the customer's cloud database use cases on a single platform, standardizing teams and overall delivery across the organization.
Rapid Migration in 1.5 Months
All workloads migrated successfully within 1.5 months, meeting RDS contract deadlines. Success led to continued expansion with additional workloads migrated to Tessell.
Looking Ahead
With the successful migration of their SQL Server workloads to Tessell, the customer is positioned to continue expanding their database infrastructure on a unified, cost-effective platform.
The company plans to leverage Tessell's multi-cloud and multi-engine capabilities as their data needs evolve, exploring opportunities to optimize additional workloads and database types.
As the customer continues to scale their authentication and grading services, Tessell's automated management and high-performance infrastructure will support their growth without the constraints of vendor lock-in or escalating costs.
Want to see what Tessell could do for your databases? Talk to our team→