Hack The Box redefines cybersecurity upskilling with a scalable data backbone

To support over 4.3 million platform members and massive growth in real-time simulations, Hack The Box (HTB), the leading cyber readiness platform for the agentic era, modernized its data architecture by migrating to Aiven. By leveraging Aiven for ClickHouse for high-performance analytics and Aiven for Apache Kafka, HTB eliminated the operational burden of managing complex data clusters. The integration via Kafka Connect ensures seamless data flow, allowing HTB’s engineers to focus on creating cutting-edge hacking content and services, rather than infrastructure maintenance. The result is a highly resilient, scalable platform that delivers a world-class gamified learning experience with zero lag.

Bringing together the global cybersecurity community

HTB started with a simple idea: give people something real to hack. Over time, this evolved into a leading cybersecurity readiness platform battle-testing and upskilling both humans and AI agents, and trusted by Fortune 500 enterprises, government organizations, and MSSPs to build effective cyber resilience at scale. As the community grew to millions of users, the underlying data requirements for tracking user progress, lab performance, and real-time event analytics became increasingly complex.

As the company continues its 2026 journey, its mission has expanded to include advanced AI initiatives and proprietary benchmarking models. To support this vision, HTB requires a data infrastructure that is not only resilient but also flexible enough to handle massive surges in event data without exponential cost increases.

Scaling beyond manual infrastructure management

HTB has relied on Apache Kafka to power data-intensive services. However, as HTB scaled, managing its own data clusters not only became increasingly expensive but it also distracted from its core mission. The team needed a way to handle massive ingestion rates for log data while maintaining the low-latency performance required for competitive "Hacking ecosystems "

“We were on the verge of migrating to a different tier in our previous provider, because our usage was reaching the limits—the thresholds—of the existing tier,” explains Thiseas Meggos, VP of Infrastructure at Hack The Box. “That meant around a 30% to 40% increase in costs.”

Instead of accepting a significant price hike for the same level of service, HTB sought an alternative that offered pricing transparency and better resource allocation.

Building a high-performance pipeline with Aiven

HTB turned to Aiven to manage their critical data services. The architecture centers on Aiven for Apache Kafka as the central nervous system, handling thousands inbound event streams.

“The staging and production environments were done within a couple of days,” says Meggos. “The transition from traditional providers to Aiven was done within a couple of days.”

The results were immediate and impactful:

• 50% TCO Reduction: HTB didn't just avoid the 40% increase; they halved their existing spend. “We saved 50% of what we were using on the tier of our previous provider,” Meggos notes.
• Increased Headroom: Moving from a constrained "tier" model to Aiven’s managed setup provided more resource headroom and a larger performance buffer.
• No Vendor Lock-in: Aiven’s ability to run across AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean allows HTB to maintain a true hybrid and multi-cloud strategy.

Real-time analytics for the AI era

HTB isn't just streaming data; they are analyzing it in real-time to power their AI roadmap. By integrating Aiven for ClickHouse with Kafka, the team enabled high-speed analytics for security benchmarking.

“The differentiator is the underlying infrastructure,” says Meggos. “the layer that makes the difference is that of the infrastructure. Aiven created a really cost-effective and robust set-up for our business-critical data infrastructure.”

From operational toil to innovation

By migrating these services to Aiven, HTB has experienced a shift from "firefighting" infrastructure issues to driving forward momentum.

• Engineering Capacity: HTB’s team can now work proactively on platform improvements instead of reacting to cluster failures.
• API-First Efficiency: Aiven’s API-driven approach allows HTB to integrate service management directly into their own internal deployment workflows, increasing developer productivity.
• Scalable Cost Structure: The move to a managed, usage-based model aligns with HTB’s growth, ensuring they only pay for the resources they need as their user base expands.

Securing the future of cyber training

With the migration to ClickHouse and Kafka complete, HTB is positioned to continue its rapid global expansion. The platform now has a unified, cloud-native foundation that can support the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. The savings generated from infrastructure optimization are being reinvested into user-facing features and AI innovation.

“Choosing Aiven was a win-win,” concludes Meggos. “We have the providers behind us to support the vision of the company under the AI roadmap that we have together. It cannot happen otherwise, to be honest.”

By strengthening its technical foundation with Aiven, Hack The Box ensures it can continue to serve its mission: Empower individuals and teams to build real-world cybersecurity skills, strengthening resilience across every organization.