CASE 150 · XENITH · 2023
RDS minor versions that update themselves.
A healthcare claims company had 28 RDS instances across the org, with minor versions ranging from 2 to 14 versions behind. Audit had flagged it. We rolled out automated minor-version upgrades with a tiered cadence and prerequisite rehearsals.
Healthcare claims
RELIABILITY
2023
RESULTS
What changed, by the numbers.
INSTANCES ON LATEST MINOR
28 / 28
PATCH LAG
< 30d
UNPLANNED RESTARTS
0
AUDIT FINDINGS
CLEARED
HOW IT WENT
The behind-by-14-versions instance was the standout — it had been running through three audit cycles. The team’s reluctance was straightforward: each upgrade had historically been a manual project with unclear blast radius. So nobody started one without good reason.
We split the fleet into tiers (production-critical, production-standard, non-production) and gave each a maintenance window cadence. Non-production upgraded auto-pilot; production-standard upgraded after non-production had run a week clean; production-critical upgraded after rehearsals on Aurora blue/green clones.
All 28 instances on the latest minor version within twelve weeks. Patch lag stabilised at under 30 days post-release. The audit finding cleared. The team has the same instances they had before — just with current patches and a documented process.
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