So, your in-house database servers have been running end-of-life versions of Debian and MySQL for almost a year. In addition, the configuration management tool used to automate the provisioning and maintenance of these servers has also reached end-of-life. Your principal database administrator is unfamiliar with the tooling used by the SRE team, and the last time the SRE team did any significant database work was three years ago. The security team is insisting on an urgent resolution due to compliance requirements. How do you devise a successful cross-team upgrade strategy?

In this talk, we’ll dive into the challenges of complex, intertwined infrastructure upgrades within a DevOps framework. We’ll explore real-world scenarios like the one described and discuss practical strategies for overcoming them. From assessing technical debt to managing stakeholder expectations, we’ll cover the key steps to take when faced with a legacy infrastructure crisis.