Federal Institution Optimizes AWS Cloud to Save More Than $2 Million

A large federal government organization in the United States was starting to gain a more established presence within AWS through migrations and cloud-native development. Still, like many organizations going into the cloud for the first time, they still had a lot of room for improvement. They weren't yet following all AWS best practices or taking full advantage of the cloud's capabilities in a cost-optimized manner. 

Our mission was to launch the client's cost optimization project, which included three initial phases:

1. Create a new optimization report mimicking what was already in place for the client's research team
2. Create consistent language across multiple reports so they may be applicable at a higher “system” level for the client
3. Evaluate cost reporting tools and offer recommendations
   
   

Throughout the course of this engagement, we used the client's pre-selected tool for high-level, cross-account reporting, and AWS Cost Explorer for lower-level, resource metrics and reporting. Neither tool could do everything by itself (which is why we would otherwise recommend Cloudsaver), so we used both to get the best of both worlds and paint a complete picture with the following features and capabilities:

• Switch between various charting styles
• Data breaks at significant business dimensions
• Support for AWS and Azure
• AWS built-in service
• Good dashboards
• Reserved Instance and Savings Plan recommendations

Based on our findings, we implemented Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices for the client. This resulted in instant savings. It also ensured that any resources they established in the future would be optimized for cost from the beginning.