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Thrive Market Optimizes AWS Infrastructure and Reduces Costs with Mission Cloud

Executive Summary

Mission Cloud partnered with Thrive Market, a leading e-commerce platform for healthy and sustainable products, to optimize its AWS infrastructure and reduce costs. Through a collaborative effort, Mission Cloud provided expert guidance and support in managing Thrive Market's AWS environment, helping them establish an optimized baseline spend and leverage cost-saving programs like the AWS Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) and Mission Cloud’s Reserved Instance Operations (RIO) program. The partnership has resulted in a 25% year-over-year reduction in AWS costs, amounting to $300,000 in savings, while also improving performance and uncovering bottlenecks.

About the Customer

Thrive Market is a leading e-commerce platform offering healthy and sustainable products at affordable prices. With a mission to make healthy living easy and accessible to everyone, Thrive Market provides a curated selection of organic, non-GMO, and eco-friendly products to its members. The company is committed to promoting sustainability and supporting local communities through various initiatives and partnerships.

Background: Rapid Growth and Cost Challenges

Thrive Market, a rapidly growing e-commerce platform, faced challenges in managing their AWS infrastructure and controlling costs. With a small DevOps team focused on day-to-day operations, Thrive Market recognized the need for a strategic partner to help optimize their environment and identify cost-saving opportunities.

As a company committed to making healthy living accessible and affordable, Thrive Market had experienced significant growth in its membership base and product offerings. This growth, however, brought with it the complexities of managing an expanding AWS infrastructure. 

Challenge: Overprovisioned Infrastructure and Rising Costs

As Thrive Market expanded, their AWS costs began to escalate disproportionately. The company knew it needed to gain a clear understanding of its infrastructure needs. If it did not, the result would be overprovisioning of AWS resources and other inefficiencies. This would also make it difficult to plan for promotional spikes and identify performance bottlenecks. Thrive Market sought a partner who could provide the necessary expertise and bandwidth to tackle these challenges head-on.

Additionally, due to the rapid AWS environment growth, Thrive Market's DevOps team found themselves increasingly consumed by routine tasks, leaving little time for strategic planning and optimization efforts.

Thrive Market knew that to sustain their growth and maintain cost-efficiency, they needed a partner with deep AWS expertise and a proven track record of optimization success.

Why Mission Cloud: Proven Track Record and Premier Support

Kunal Agrawal, a key stakeholder at Thrive Market, had previously worked with Mission Cloud at mPulse Mobile and experienced firsthand the value of their partnership. Mission Cloud's proven track record of delivering cost optimization, premier support, and ability to align with customer goals made them the clear choice for Thrive Market.

Why AWS: Flexibility, Scalability, and Innovation

AWS's flexible and scalable infrastructure allows Thrive Market to adapt to their growing needs and handle promotional spikes with ease. The breadth of services offered by AWS, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, Amazon S3, and AWS Lambda, enables Thrive Market to build a robust and efficient e-commerce platform.

Additionally, AWS's commitment to innovation, exemplified by offerings like Amazon Bedrock for generative AI and machine learning, aligns with Thrive Market's vision of enhancing customer experiences and streamlining operations.

Solution: Cost Optimization and Strategic Guidance

Mission Cloud worked closely with Thrive Market to optimize their AWS infrastructure and establish a cost-efficient baseline. Over a 6-month period in 2022, Mission Cloud provided recommendations on S3 lifecycle policies, upgrading to newer instance types like Graviton, and converting EBS volumes to gp3. They also assisted Thrive Market in enrolling in the AWS Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) and leveraging Mission’s Cloud RIO program for reserved instance management, resulting in additional savings for the company.

Mission Cloud's team conducted regular optimization reviews, analyzing Thrive Market's AWS usage and identifying opportunities to reduce costs, harden security, and improve performance. They provided detailed, actionable recommendations and worked hand-in-hand with Thrive Market's team to implement changes.

Results: Significant Cost Savings and Improved Performance

Through their partnership with Mission Cloud, Thrive Market achieved a 25% year-over-year reduction in AWS costs, resulting in savings of approximately $300,000. The cost optimization efforts helped Thrive Market establish an optimized baseline spend and gain a better understanding of their true capacity needs.

The infrastructure rightsizing uncovered performance bottlenecks in certain services, which were previously obscured by overprovisioning. This allowed Thrive Market to address these issues and improve overall system performance.

Kunal Agrawal, director of engineering at Thrive Market, highly recommends Mission Cloud, stating, "Mission is a great partner to work with. It's definitely the value for the money that you're looking for, and the support. I've always gotten the attention and support I need."