Aldermore Bank Optimizes New Azure Infrastructure to Reduce Monthly Cloud Spend
Embracing the power of the cloud to deliver an excellent customer experience is a key part of Aldermore’s technology strategy. When the UK-based bank embarked on its first cloud migration, it needed a trusted partner with experience in financial services and running cloud at scale.
Sourced Group (Sourced) - an Amdocs company - was appointed for the project, which involved rebuilding Aldermore’s corporate website on Azure then managing ongoing cloud operations.
After the rebuild, Sourced’s Cloud Managed Services team ran a routine cost optimization exercise which resulted in:
- Identification of where and how standard cloud practices could be fine-tuned to reduce running costs.
- Verification that recommended changes would not have a detrimental impact on performance.
- Substantial reduction of monthly cloud spend.
Challenge: Identifying Cost Saving Opportunities in the Cloud
The rebuild of Aldermore’s website followed financial services cloud best practices and the relevant Microsoft blueprint for Azure App Services. However, blueprints do not reflect specific requirements and processes of individual organizations, and usage patterns only become apparent post-deployment. Cloud resources must be strategically aligned with actual need to prevent over-spend as use of cloud scales. Sourced’s Cloud Managed Services team helped Aldermore identify where cloud resources could be adapted to improve efficiency without harming performance.
Sourced provided us with help, guidance and best practice advice from the beginning of the project and understood that security and a great customer experience were paramount for us. Our new accessible, responsive and resilient platform has delivered an average page load time of 1.3 seconds and an uptime of 99.99% and can cope with 12,000 concurrent users. Following a review Sourced made recommendations for significant cost savings that would have no impact on the user experience. We adopted these recommendations which resulted in a reduction in run costs with no hit to our website performance.
Solution: Expert-led Cost Assessment Reveals Ways to Cut Cloud Spend
Optimizing cloud infrastructure to align with real need requires operational insights and deep cloud platform expertise. So, once Aldermore’s website had been deployed long enough to generate sufficient data, Sourced’s Cloud Managed Services team performed a detailed cost analysis exercise.
Insights on usage trends combined with Sourced’s expertise as a Microsoft Solution Partner for Digital and App Innovation on Azure underpinned cost optimization guidance. Each recommendation was fully assessed to ensure the changes would not compromise Aldermore’s high standards across security, compliance, and performance.
With the bank’s approval, cost optimization measures were implemented in several areas. This included removing unused elements from the cloud estate and optimizing the provisioning of virtual machines (VMs) in line with need. Sourced also recommended strategic use of reserved instances in Azure App Services based on Aldermore’s current and forecast usage patterns. This unlocked significantly discounted rates, up to 50% lower than pay-as-you-go prices.
Outcome: Advancements Boost Confidence and Cost-efficiency in the Cloud
Measures recommended and implemented by Sourced immediately delivered a substantial decrease in Aldermore’s monthly spend on its new cloud infrastructure. No adverse effects were experienced when the changes were made, and the cloud estate continues to operate smoothly. Senior leadership now have greater confidence that use of cloud can scale in a secure and cost-efficient manner.
This was Aldermore’s first cloud migration, and the cost optimization learnings have informed the bank’s subsequent builds on Azure. As use of cloud scales, Aldermore can operate with maximum efficiency and confidence from ‘Day 1’ of deployment.
