How COMPLY Saved $460K on AWS with Mission Cloud

Executive Summary

COMPLY, a compliance software solution provider, faced skyrocketing AWS expenses each month after acquiring three firms with varying AWS footprints. Facing the expiration of its AWS enterprise discount program (EDP), COMPLY needed assistance to renew it and realize greater value. The deadline and acquisitions made the process a complex and time-sensitive project.

Mission Cloud, in partnership with K1, COMPLY’s private equity firm, developed a solution that offered greater savings and value for all portfolio companies, including COMPLY. The solution included enterprise support, a designated technical account manager (TAM), and a FinOps cloud analyst. 

In addition to this support, Mission Cloud added value by providing meaningful insights and recommendations on ongoing cost optimization, continuous consultation on best practices and long-term strategy, all for the same price as AWS Business Support.

COMPLY saved $460,000 in AWS spend in just eight months with the help of Mission Cloud. There was no lapse in EDP coverage, and the amount saved on reserved instance optimization (RIO) costs freed up COMPLY’s capital and time to focus on other initiatives.

Full Customer Success Story

Background: Experiencing AWS Growing Pains

COMPLY is a compliance software solution provider used by more than 1,400 institutions to identify risk and address regulatory compliance challenges. The company’s software helps compliance professionals identify, manage and report on employee conflicts of interest and compliance risk activities. 

After acquiring three similar firms with varying AWS footprints, COMPLY was experiencing burgeoning AWS costs. Given the large monthly spend and expiring agreement, COMPLY sought out support in obtaining greater cost savings, realizing more value from their investments and ensuring that the transition process was smooth.

Challenge: Managing a Complex and Time-Sensitive Solution

COMPLY was facing tight timelines. Its existing enterprise discount program (EDP) was through a previous private equity (PE) firm, Vista, and was rapidly approaching expiration. COMPLY needed to avoid a lapse in EDP coverage, which would result in the loss of their discount. In addition to the upcoming deadline, the complexity of integrating the newly acquired environments brought additional challenges. It was critical to manage these integrations appropriately to ensure the new EDP was right-sized.

There was little time to analyze and identify cost-saving opportunities while ensuring the new environments were integrated smoothly and efficiently. This delicate, time-sensitive project would require a combination of technical expertise, project management skills and effective communication and collaboration. 

The company also wanted a solution that would add value outside the EDP alone. It wanted a partner to provide ongoing support with an optimized solution that wouldn’t compromise the performance of their software.

The EDP process is inherently messy and long, and the recent acquisitions made the project incredibly complex. In the case of COMPLY, this process required moving more than a hundred AWS accounts, a delicate and time-intensive process. 

Solution: Reducing Costs and Expanding Support 

Mission Cloud approached the customer with K1 (COMPLY's PE firm), as well as the AWS K1 PE account manager. Initial conversations centered on COMPLY'’s existing PE EDP and how Mission Cloud could offer greater savings while adding value.

This solution would provide COMPLY with greater cost savings as well as value add services, including monthly meetings to proactively identify cost optimization opportunities and share best practices and recommendations. This provided COMPLY with an opportunity to leverage Mission Cloud’s customer-obsessed approach, expertise and support while continuing to work closely with AWS.

Mission Cloud provided Mission Cloud Foundation, its service for cost optimization and foundational best practices. Through this service, Mission Cloud provided AWS enterprise support, a designated technical account manager (TAM), and a FinOps cloud analyst - all for the same price as AWS Business Support. The TAM was attractive to COMPLY for advising on a range of issues, including complexities arising from acquiring and merging companies.

Mission Cloud took the lead among AWS, K1 and COMPLY. When the timeline needed to be expedited, Mission Cloud worked with AWS to find an alternative to the consent-to-assign (CTA) process. This eliminated the typical three- to five-week timeline for the CTA process and kept the project on track. 

Mission Cloud also helped convert Amazon EBS volumes from GP2 to GP3 and provided substantial discounting via EDP and its reserved instance optimization (RIO) program.

Results: An Optimized Environment Without a Lapse in Coverage

COMPLY saved $460,000 in AWS spend in just eight months with the help of Mission Cloud. Despite the short timeline and the amount of work to be done, there was no lapse in EDP coverage. The amount that Mission Cloud’s RIO program saved COMPLY capital and time to focus on other initiatives. 

After recognizing the value Mission Cloud offers beyond cost optimization, COMPLY has indicated the desire for additional help to navigate the recent acquisitions, as well as help with optimization and modernization initiatives. This will include migrating their GCP environment into AWS, which will further reduce operational costs, help streamline their environment and improve scalability. 

By partnering with Mission Cloud, COMPLY has gained valuable expertise and support that goes beyond cost optimization. They’re now better positioned for growth and to pursue new projects to drive even greater value for their organization.