Global service company achieves 25% Azure cost savings with SHI

With SHI's expert guidance and optimization strategies, a global service company achieved 25% savings on Azure costs in 5 months.

Challenge:

An industry-leading workforce management platform provider executed several acquisitions and expanded their offerings in a short period of time, ushering in a new era for the organization.

This growth introduced challenges. Their infrastructure was predominately run on AWS, so when they acquired a company that was established on Azure, there were immediate roadblocks and soaring costs. They needed a partner with a greater understanding of Azure and a solution that would allow them deeper insight into their cost allocation to prevent unnecessary overspend. SHI was that partner.

Solution:

First, SHI reviewed the configuration of the Azure tenant to gain insight into its structure. We configured CloudHealth for Azure to collect cost and usage metrics and provide a thorough analysis of their spend and performance. Once CloudHealth was established, we provided training and ongoing support to ensure the team’s understanding of the Azure environment.

To address cost concerns, SHI established policies for cost governance, allowing for flexible cost allocation, budgeting, and chargeback reporting. We provided an actionable workbook with targeted recommendations to guide governance and architectural improvements for cost reduction. One of our certified cloud optimization consultants also conducted monthly analyses and reviews, which ensured a consistent focus on optimization. Finally, we provided a detailed list of the top areas of spend month over month for greater transparency and understanding of their cloud costs.

Outcome:

Utilizing SHI’s services, the customer gained valuable insight into their cloud environment, including detailed cost information for every line item. We implemented a 25% savings in just 5 months with a total identified savings of 35%.

SHI also developed a FinOps best practices strategy for the customer to implement in their day-to-day operations, enhancing their financial management of cloud resources and empowering them to make more informed decisions.