Grab's Mac Cloud Exit supercharges macOS CI/CD

This post details Grab's migration of its macOS CI/CD infrastructure from a US-based cloud vendor to a colocation cluster in Southeast Asia. The primary drivers were to reduce network latency, improve performance, and cut operational costs. The migration involved a detailed cost-benefit analysis comparing cloud, colocation, and on-premises options, leading to the selection of bare-metal Mac minis in a Malaysian data center. The execution involved a progressive migration strategy, monitoring job failure rates, performance, and reliability. The results show significant performance improvements (20-40%) and projected cost savings of over $2.4 million USD over three years. The post also touches upon the challenges of macOS compute costs, Apple's EULA, and the trade-offs between virtualization and bare-metal setups.