Rust in Production: Lessons from Migrating Critical Infrastructure

Organizations migrating critical infrastructure to Rust are reporting significant improvements in reliability and performance, though the learning curve remains steep. Companies like Discord, AWS, and Microsoft have shared their experiences replacing C++ components with Rust, citing memory safety guarantees and fearless concurrency as game-changers. Common migration patterns include gradual FFI-based integration, leveraging Rust for new microservices, and rewriting performance-critical paths. While compile times and ecosystem maturity present challenges, teams consistently report fewer production bugs and improved developer confidence. The article explores practical strategies for introducing Rust into existing codebases.