In the journey of choosing a real-time metrics data store, Botmetric started with OpenTSDB but found it to be a headache due to its operational complexity and lack of reliable failover. They then tried Cassandra and KairosDB, which offered quick setup and less operational burden but had their own set of challenges such as batch loading issues and scalability problems. Finally, they migrated to InfluxDB, which proved to be a game-changer with its simplicity, ease of use, support for various client libraries, and great aggregation capability. InfluxDB's TICK stack deployment also simplified development and production operations, reducing overhead for engineering teams. With InfluxDB, Botmetric is now able to collect and process large amounts of time series data in real-time, enabling them to deliver intelligent cloud management solutions to their customers.