Reading time - 1.9 min.
Boost SMB Performance with AWS Well-Architected Framework Review
Reading time - 1.9 min.
Boost SMB Performance with AWS Well-Architected Framework Review
Are you looking for ways to enhance your business performance while cutting costs?
Background :
Background :
Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) often face a challenge—balancing cost savings with performance improvements. At Brain Station 23 (BS23), we encountered this recurring theme in our conversations with SMB customers. To address this, we initiated a campaign leveraging AWS Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR) for industries like e-commerce, retail, art & culture, fashion, and tourism. The goal? To precisely identify and resolve performance and cost issues, leading to a successful outcome that exceeded expectations.
Campaign objectives and milestones:
Campaign objectives and milestones:
Our mission during the campaign was clear: to demonstrate how AWS Well-Architected Framework Review could optimize customer systems across various scenarios, maximizing performance while reducing costs.
Key Insights:
- Resource Optimization: We discovered that many companies were operating at excessive capacity, leading to unnecessary costs. By analyzing six months of operational data, we developed a capacity planning model that reduced costs by up to 8% without compromising performance.
- Cost Management: While some companies had security measures in place, they lacked a structured cost management approach. We emphasized the importance of integrating a cost structure within the architecture, enabling SMBs to select the most cost-effective resources. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculations played a pivotal role in setting realistic budget thresholds.
Measures taken to reduce the cost:
Measures taken to reduce the cost:
- Tagging the resources properly
- Right sizing the resources based on need
- Enabling AutoScaling (case to case varies)
- Budget and forecasting
- TCO calculation
- Metrics are defined for understanding the health of the workload
- Use of Spot Instances/ Reserved Instances based on case
Result:
Result:
Post-remediation, our customers experienced a significant boost in system performance, with some systems handling up to 97% of peak loads. The overwhelming success led our customers to request regular WAFR reviews every six months.
The AWS Well-Architected Framework Review is like a health checkup for your cloud architecture. Regular reviews ensure that your systems are secure, cost-optimized, and performing at their best. With BS23’s expertise, we’ve helped SMBs optimize costs and enhance security, leading to satisfied customers who now recommend these reviews as a standard practice.
