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Case Study: 1Password achieves a 10x reduction in mean time to change with Spacelift

1Password Case StudySourced & dated by Case Study Desk
Key facts · TL;DR
Company
1Password
Industry
Computer & Network Security
Challenge
Only a small platform team could manage IaC, creating weeks-long queues
Headline result
1Password cuts mean time to change 10x and reaches ~60 daily deployments

Key results

10x
Reduction in mean time to change / review
90%
Cheaper than initial first choice
up to
60
Daily deployments
up from 3–4 max

The challenge

1Password's strong security posture meant only its small cloud platform engineering team could manage the company's IaC operations. This protected customer data but limited collaboration and made IaC administration laborious, with teams waiting weeks for queued work.

The solution

1Password adopted Spacelift and used its policy engine with OPA's Rego to safely delegate IaC management to the teams that own it, democratizing access without changing existing patterns.

By using Spacelift's guardrails and security, we were able to confidently delegate much of IaC management to the individuals that owned it. This also allowed our teams to transform into service teams, not just remote hands for other teams and move from gatekeeping AWS to providing expertise.

MD
Maxx Daymon
Staff Cloud Platform Engineer, 1Password

The results, in context

Spacelift proved up to 90% cheaper than 1Password's initial first choice and delivered a 10x reduction in the mean time to change and time to review. Daily deployment frequency rose from a maximum of three or four to an average of 60, and teams that previously waited weeks can now run changes themselves.

Products used

Spacelift Spacelift