We implemented a sophisticated AWS FinOps automation solution for a NASDAQ-listed security leader with multiple products, enabling them to identify and remediate idle cloud resources, centralize management across teams, and align with corporate policies for cost governance and operational excellence.

Problem Statement/Definition:

This global security powerhouse, listed on NASDAQ, operates a complex cloud infrastructure using AWS services such as DynamoDB, RDS, ElasticCache, and EC2, with numerous products, each functioning as a separate entity. Managing AWS cloud resources centrally while adhering to stringent corporate policies posed significant challenges. They struggled with excessive cloud waste across hundreds of accounts, facing difficulties in identifying and remediating idle resources such as underutilized RDS instances, fragmented S3 storage, and stopped EC2 instances. Ensuring that only relevant, actionable opportunities were addressed—without flagging false positives—was a key priority, given their need for precision and operational integrity.

Proposed Solution & Architecture:

Wiv.ai provided a tailored AWS FinOps automation platform designed to handle the complexity of managing multiple business units under one organization. The solution offered:

  1. Contextual Waste Identification: We implemented advanced algorithms to identify only the most relevant idle resources, such as underutilized AWS services like RDS and ElasticCache, fragmented S3 storage, and idle or stopped EC2 instances, ensuring alignment with the company’s stringent policies to avoid acting on false positives. This drastically reduced noise in the system, focusing solely on impactful remediation opportunities.
  2. Auto-Mapping Ownership Across Products: With each product operating like an independent company, our solution auto-mapped AWS cloud resources to their respective owners across different teams and product lines, ensuring accurate cost allocation and accountability. This centralized visibility across their vast AWS environment enabled consistent governance and resource optimization without disrupting day-to-day operations.
  3. Automated Approval and Continuous Auditing: For each identified AWS resource, our solution triggered a tailored approval process, aligned with the company’s security and compliance policies. Actions were not only approved but also audited continuously to ensure that the changes were in line with corporate governance frameworks, with full transparency for future reviews
  4. Intelligent Dev Environment Scheduling: We integrated a smart weekend scheduling solution for development environments based on account owner locations, automatically shutting down environments when they were not needed and restarting them only when necessary. This reduced AWS operational costs without disrupting developer workflows, especially across globally distributed teams.

Outcomes of Project & Success Metrics:

  • Cloud Efficiency at Scale: The tailored approach to waste identification, combined with auto-mapping of resource ownership, reduced AWS cloud waste by 65% in the development environment within the first six months.
  • Precision in Action: The reduction in false positives led to a 20% increase in the accuracy of remediation actions, aligning perfectly with their internal policies.
  • Optimized Resource Allocation: The smart scheduling of non-production environments saved an additional 25% in weekend cloud costs, further streamlining operations across product teams.
  • Centralized Management: Despite the decentralized structure of the company’s many products, Wiv.ai’s AWS solution brought all the product teams under a single, cohesive cost management strategy, without compromising the autonomy of each team.

Lessons Learned:

In complex organizations with decentralized teams, centralizing AWS cloud management while respecting individual team autonomy is key to success. Precision in identifying actionable items, avoiding false positives, and aligning automation with company policies ensures that optimization efforts are both effective and sustainable over time.