A safer, better-run AWS environment, at about 25–35% lower cost

Executive summary

A growing small and medium business ran its production workloads on AWS with limited visibility into system health, inconsistent backups and rising costs. It needed stronger security and audit readiness without affecting performance or availability. DevOps TechLab reviewed the environment area by area, put the right controls in place and applied cost optimisation, reducing AWS costs by approximately 25–35% and aligning the environment with AWS Well-Architected best practices.

Client

SMB running production workloads on AWS (not named)

Business problem

Limited visibility, inconsistent backups, audit gaps and rising cloud costs.

What we delivered

A secured network design, monitoring, automated backups, audit trails and cost optimisation.

Cost outcome

AWS costs reduced by approximately 25–35%

Standard

Aligned with AWS Well-Architected best practices

The business challenge

The client’s AWS environment had grown without the controls a production business needs. There was limited visibility into system health, backup practices were inconsistent, costs were rising, and stronger security and audit readiness were needed, all without hurting performance or availability.

Why it mattered

• Limited visibility

  There was limited visibility into system health, so problems were harder to spot early.

• Recovery at risk

  Inconsistent backups put the ability to recover from a failure in doubt.

• Audit exposure

  There was no central record of activity to show auditors or customers.

• A bill that kept growing

  Cloud costs were rising without a clear plan to control them.

What the client set out to achieve

1. Strengthen security and access controls.
2. See system health before problems reach customers.
3. Make backups automatic and verifiable.
4. Be audit-ready, with a central record of activity.
5. Reduce AWS costs without affecting performance or availability.

The solution: fix each risk area, then optimise cost

DevOps TechLab reviewed the environment area by area and put a specific control in place for each gap.

Key design choices

• Network isolation first

  A dedicated VPC with public and private subnets, restricted security groups and controlled SSH access.

• Monitoring that warns early

  Amazon CloudWatch alarms for CPU, memory and disk.

• Backups you can prove

  Automated backups for EC2 and managed databases, with monitoring and retention checks.

• Pay less for steady workloads

  Reserved Instances for steady production, development servers stopped outside business hours, and storage lifecycle policies to cheaper tiers.

Security and governance

Security and audit readiness were built into the environment, not added afterwards.

• Private by default

  Workloads sit in private subnets with restricted security groups.

• Controlled access

  SSH access is controlled and limited.

• Full audit trail

  AWS CloudTrail and VPC Flow Logs record activity centrally.

• Verified recovery

  Backups are monitored and retention is checked regularly.

Architecture on AWS

Click to enlarge

How we delivered

1. 01Discover

   Reviewed infrastructure and workload patterns, network and access exposure, backup, monitoring and logging gaps, and cost drivers.

2. 02Re-architect

   Dedicated VPC with public and private subnets, restricted security groups, controlled SSH and automated backups.

3. 03Operate

   CloudWatch alarms, centralised logging and audit trails, and backup monitoring with retention checks.

4. 04Optimise cost

   Reserved Instances, dev servers off out of hours, and storage lifecycle policies.

Business outcomes

The business now runs on an environment it can trust, at a lower monthly cost.

• ✓
  AWS costs down about 25–35%

  Reserved Instances, scheduling and storage tiering reduced the bill.

• ✓
  Security posture significantly improved

  Network isolation, restricted access and least-privilege controls.

• ✓
  Problems seen early

  Proactive monitoring and alerting on system health.

• ✓
  Backup and audit readiness

  Verified backups and a central audit trail.

• ✓
  Well-Architected alignment

  The environment follows AWS Well-Architected best practices.

What’s next

With the foundations in place, the environment is ready for further growth. DevOps TechLab continues to review cost, security and reliability as the workload grows.