Emergency Legacy Rescue: A Case Study

When a Fortune 500 insurance provider's critical claims processing system began failing in production, they needed immediate help. Here's how we stabilized their system within 48 hours.

The Crisis

A legacy .NET Framework 4.5 application was experiencing cascading failures during peak load. Claims were being delayed, agents were frustrated, and executives were demanding answers.

Initial Assessment (Hour 0-4)

We immediately deployed our emergency response team to analyze logs, profile performance bottlenecks, and identify the root cause. The issue: a memory leak in a third-party library combined with inadequate connection pooling.

Immediate Stabilization (Hour 4-24)

Implemented emergency patches to fix the memory leak and optimized database connection management. Deployed hot fixes to production during off-peak hours with extensive monitoring.

Performance Optimization (Hour 24-48)

Added application-level caching, optimized database queries, and implemented circuit breakers to prevent cascade failures in the future.

Long-Term Remediation Plan

Delivered a comprehensive roadmap for migrating to .NET 8 and modernizing the architecture to prevent future incidents.

Results

System stability improved from 92% uptime to 99.9%. Claims processing speed increased 3x. The client avoided an estimated $2M in lost business and regulatory fines.

Lessons Learned

Emergency situations demand rapid response, but sustainable solutions require addressing root causes. Our sprint-based modernization approach allows organizations to see results quickly while building toward long-term stability.