Global transportation leader achieves 25.7% AWS cost reduction with SHI

SHI's expert services optimized AWS usage with critical insight, achieving cost reduction and business growth.

Challenge:

A global leader in smart transportation struggled to manage their AWS environment due to a lack of visibility into their usage, costs, and optimization efforts. The complexity of the AWS infrastructure, combined with a shortage of specific expertise and personnel, made it difficult to effectively analyze their environment and be proactive.

They needed a reliable partner with advanced expertise to provide hands-on remediation and improve visibility and governance. This included elements such as tagging, account structure, alerts, report policies, and licensing.

Solution:

SHI provided a comprehensive range of IT asset management (ITAM) services to address the customer's challenges. Our experts initiated the process by reviewing the current setup and configuration of the AWS tenant. Then, we configured CloudHealth for AWS to collect cost and usage metrics for spending and performance analysis. The customer received access to the CloudHealth platform along with support and training.

SHI established cost governance policies to facilitate flexible cost allocation, budgeting, and charge-back reporting. Our team provided an actionable workbook that contained targeted recommendations for governance and architectural improvements to reduce costs. We also conducted a monthly analysis and review with a certified cloud optimization consultant and offered custom reporting tailored to the customer's environment. Optional remediation of waste identified within the AWS environment was also available as part of the solution.

Outcome:

The solutions provided by SHI had a significant impact on the customer's business outcomes and FinOps strategy. After an initial analysis of AWS, a potential monthly cost savings of 25.7% was found – resulting in a significant reduction in expenses. The learning curve for AWS optimization was shortened, leading to increased efficiency. Additionally, the customer learned more about savings plans and reserved instances, with expert guidance to support their purchase.

Thanks to the range of SHI’s customized and automated reports, the customer gained critical insight into usage, performance, and savings. Assistance was also provided to help them increase their AWS accounts from 18 to 38, including adding two additional payer accounts billed through SHI. As a result, the customer was able to reduce costs while simultaneously growing their AWS business from $154K in January 2022 to over $458K in December 2023.