About Calix
Calix, Inc. is a telecommunications company that specializes in providing software platforms, systems, and services to support the delivery of broadband services. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. Calix was formerly known as Calix Networks Inc
Background:
Our team at Core Infra, operating on behalf of Calix, was tasked with a high-stakes mission: to rapidly deploy production environments in us-central1 (US) and northamerica-northeast1 (Canada) within an extremely short timeframe. The catch? We had virtually no initial knowledge transfer or KT about the existing setup.
The Challenge:
Calix expected the team to clear the existing backlog while simultaneously building new environments—an extremely demanding requirement within the given timelines. This meant that the team had to balance two major responsibilities: addressing historical issues and executing new scope engagements. Given the constraints, it became essential to realign expectations with the customer to prevent potential escalations.
Additionally, we were tasked with deploying Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters and all supporting infrastructure components entirely through Infrastructure as Code (IaC), with zero manual steps. It was truly a race against time, and despite the challenges, the team remained fully committed to delivering high-quality, production-ready outcomes.
The Solution:
Our Onix team immediately rose to the challenge, applying deep expertise in Terraform, Terragrunt, and Infrastructure-as-Code best practices. From day one, the focus was on building a fully automated, reliable, and repeatable deployment pipeline designed to eliminate manual intervention and ensure consistency across all environments.
We codified every component—from network foundations to GKE clusters, node pools, IAM, and supporting infrastructure—using Terraform modules orchestrated through Terragrunt for clean and scalable environment management. Bitbucket served as the central version-controlled repository, while ArgoCD functioned as the GitOps engine that synchronized infrastructure and application configurations. This automation-first approach enabled rapid iteration, validation, and deployment with complete traceability.
By combining disciplined processes, strong coding standards, and modern DevOps tooling, we met aggressive timelines and delivered a hardened, production-ready environment in record time. The final outcome was a fully operational GKE ecosystem that was stable, scalable, and 100% reproducible—setting a benchmark for future deployments.
The Outcome
The customer was thrilled. Despite the initial lack of KT, our team’s dedication and ability to adapt were highlighted in customer calls and internal updates. We received formal appreciation, underscoring the successful partnership and the value of our automated, code-driven approach.
