---
title: "From Massive to Multitudes: Database management after breaking a monolith at Wise Payments"
canonical: "https://temporal.io/resources/on-demand/database-management-after-breaking-a-monolith-at-wise-payments.md"
source: "https://temporal.io/resources/on-demand/database-management-after-breaking-a-monolith-at-wise-payments"
resource_type: "Replay 2025"
published: "2025-03-17"
industry: "Financial Services"
platform: "Cloud"
company_size: "2000-10000"
---

# From Massive to Multitudes: Database management after breaking a monolith at Wise Payments

Presented by: [Samira El Aabidi](https://temporal.io/authors/samira-el-aabidi.md), [Yash Vanzara](https://temporal.io/authors/yash-vanzara.md)

[Watch the video](https://www.youtube.com/embed/lty7NuSnzjs)

### Abstract
With a customer base exceeding 16 million worldwide who entrust us with their finances and depend on our services for various transactions, Wise maintains an exceptionally low tolerance for downtime, measured in mere milliseconds, for critical databases. This demand has intensified following our migration to a microservices architecture, resulting in a significant increase in the number of databases, which now constitutes a vast fleet. Consequently, the effort required to ensure minimal downtime during essential database maintenance has become both immense and unsustainable.

We've made the strategic decision to leverage Temporal's capabilities to revolutionize our operations by enabling self-service and full automation, significantly boosting resilience in the process. While AWS database offering is designed for high availability, it can still experience downtime during minor or major upgrades. To address this, we are developing robust Temporal workflows that integrate with AWS and are designed to not only endure intermittent issues but also facilitate seamless rollback and recovery. By enhancing existing AWS database resilience, we minimize the need for human intervention, transforming the human role from an operator into a supervisor, and paving the way for an efficient self-service experience.

This talk explores the technical journey that made it possible. Dive into the database world and our architecture, gain insights into how we’re using Temporal, and take away actionable lessons for the challenges of today - and the opportunities of tomorrow.

## Related resources

- [Airwallex: Tucking In Your Legacy Tech Debt With Temporal](https://temporal.io/resources/on-demand/airwallex-tucking-in-your-legacy-tech-debt-with-temporal.md) — Replay 2025
- [Mollie Payments maximizes operational efficiency using Temporal](https://temporal.io/resources/case-studies/mollie-payments-maximizes-operational-efficiency.md) — Case Study
- [Replay 2025 Keynote: Modernise](https://temporal.io/resources/on-demand/replay-2025-keynote.md) — Replay 2025