Explore a compelling tech debt case study in this 30-minute conference talk from SREcon21. Discover how one company tackled a major technical re-architecture project spanning multiple years, centered around an overloaded database. Learn valuable lessons on managing technical debt as the speaker recounts the journey from 15,000 database connections to under 100. Gain insights into distributed systems, advanced architectural concepts, and strategies for handling large-scale infrastructure challenges. Ideal for mid-level engineers and above with a solid understanding of tech debt, this talk also offers interesting perspectives for beginners in the field.