Grab • Nov 6, 2025

Grab’s Mac Cloud Exit supercharges macOS CI/CD

M2 Related OWASP risk: Inadequate Supply Chain Security Learn more →

Article Summary

Grab moved 250+ Mac minis from a US cloud to a Malaysian data center. The results? 40% faster builds and $2.4M saved.

Grab's engineering team details their journey from renting cloud macOS infrastructure to owning a colocated cluster in Southeast Asia. This deep dive covers the economics, technical decisions, and execution strategy behind their infrastructure migration.

Key Takeaways

Build times improved 20-40% by moving closer to Git servers
Projected $2.4M savings over 3 years versus cloud rental
Zero-touch provisioning via Jamf MDM enables rack-to-production automation
Bare-metal outperformed virtualization for their iOS CI/CD workloads
Progressive migration ensured zero stability compromise during cutover

Critical Insight

At scale (200+ machines), owning colocated infrastructure delivered both dramatic cost savings and performance gains without sacrificing reliability.

The article reveals why their last critical component wasn't servers or switches, but something far simpler that nearly delayed the launch.

About This Article

Problem

Grab's iOS CI/CD workload grew from 1 Mac Pro to over 250 Mac minis, with peak usage hitting 200 machines and expected to reach 400+ by 2025. At that scale, renting machines from cloud providers became too expensive.

Solution

Grab looked at colocation, cloud, and on-premises options. They chose a Malaysian data center and set up zero-touch provisioning using Jamf MDM and ADE. This automated device enrollment and configuration without any manual work.

Impact

Build times improved significantly. The Grab app saw a 39.72% improvement at p50, and the Grab Driver app pipeline improved 44.68% at p50. Over three years, the company saved $2.4 million compared to cloud-based rental.