A flexible cloud engineering team that scaled with a fast-growing SaaS business

Executive summary

A fast-growing SaaS company was managing several cloud environments and customer workloads at once, and needed engineering capacity quickly without growing permanent headcount much. DevOps TechLab deployed a flexible four-member cloud engineering team that worked as an extension of the client’s engineering team for 12 months, with engineers used as the workload required.

Client

High-growth SaaS and software company (not named at its request)

Business problem

The company was growing fast and needed more engineering capacity while managing several cloud environments and customer workloads.

Team placed

4 engineers: AWS Cloud Engineer, Azure Cloud Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Cloud Support Engineer

Engagement

12 months · Flexible

Cloud

AWS and Microsoft Azure

The team we placed

• Engineers4
• Length12 months
• ModelFlexible
• SkillsAWS + Azure + DevOps + Cloud support

• 1AWS Cloud Engineer
• 1Azure Cloud Engineer
• 1DevOps Engineer
• 1Cloud Support Engineer

The business challenge

The company was growing fast and needed more engineering capacity while managing several cloud environments and customer workloads. It needed people quickly, without a large increase in permanent headcount.

Why it mattered

• Growth outpaced hiring

  Customer and workload growth needed more engineers than hiring could deliver.

• Several environments to run

  Multiple cloud environments and customer workloads had to be supported at once.

• Headcount discipline

  The business did not want a large increase in permanent headcount.

• Two clouds, one team

  The work spanned both AWS and Azure.

What the client set out to achieve

1. Add experienced engineering capacity quickly.
2. Avoid a long permanent-hiring process.
3. Cover the cloud and DevOps skills the internal team lacked.
4. Work as part of the existing team, not a separate project.
5. Scale the team up or down with the work.

The solution: engineers who join your team

DevOps TechLab deployed a flexible four-member cloud engineering team that worked as an extension of the client’s engineering team. The engagement was built around the client’s workload, so engineers were used as needed.

What the team handled

• AWS and Azure infrastructure

  AWS and Azure cloud infrastructure and application environment support.

• DevOps and releases

  DevOps, CI/CD and production deployments.

• Monitoring and incidents

  Cloud monitoring, infrastructure troubleshooting and technical incident resolution.

• Resilience and performance

  Backup and recovery support and performance optimisation.

How the engagement worked

1. 01Understand the need

   Agreed the skills, seniority and length of engagement with the client’s technology leaders.

2. 02Place the team

   Provided 4 experienced engineers matched to the work.

3. 03Work as one team

   The engineers joined the client’s existing team, its tools and its ways of working.

4. 04Adjust over time

   Capacity was flexed to the client’s project requirements.

Business outcomes

The client gained the engineering capacity it needed, when it needed it, without adding permanent headcount.

• ✓
  Rapid access to specialised talent

  Cloud engineers joined without a hiring cycle.

• ✓
  More development and infrastructure capacity

  The team could take on more work across both clouds.

• ✓
  Faster delivery of cloud and DevOps initiatives

  Projects moved faster with the right skills in place.

• ✓
  Improved production support

  Monitoring, troubleshooting and incident resolution were strengthened.

• ✓
  Flexible capacity, no long-term commitment

  Less recruitment and onboarding overhead, with no long-term headcount commitment.

What’s next

Resource augmentation lets technology leaders add skills for exactly as long as they need them. DevOps TechLab can extend, reduce or change the team as priorities change.