A slender robotic arm in a production hall, picking up coins and placing them in a piggy bank-shaped cloud, while console screens in the background display cost-waste diagrams.

Supply chain management: Reducing cloud operating costs by 50 percent with FinOps

Leitfaden: Bis zu 30% Budget sparen und Cloud-Kosten reduzieren
HomeCase StudiesSupply chain management: 50% cloud cost reduction
Industry

Manufacturing

Application

On-demand supply chain management in the cloud

Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Setup

Global on-demand system with manual, non-transparent processes and difficult scalability

The project in brief

We have increased thescalability and reliability of the on-demand supply chain management of an international industrial company - through targeted process modernization, monitoring, automation and rightsizing. Our focus: reducing cloud operating costs, accelerating development processes, increasing operational efficiency:

Overall savings in cloud operating costs

An infographic shows the 53% reduction in cloud operating costs

Results in figures

  • Reduce cloud operating costs by 50 percent:

    Savings of approx. 400,000 euros per year.

  • Quickly to the new release:

    40 hours saved per week per release.

  • Improved secrets management:

    Daily waiting time reduced by 5 hours Value contribution: approx. EUR 47,000 saved per year.

  • Reduction of monitoring costs

    by more than 80 percent: from 300,000 euros to 60,000 euros per year.

  • More transparency and control

    by the customer thanks to the open source observability stack.

  • Sustainable optimization:

    Clear roadmap for further savings (including databases, non-prod environments).

The challenge: Costs due to oversizing and manual processes

The central challenge consisted of several interlinked problem areas. Firstly, the existing cloud environment caused extremely high costs due to time pressure and a lack of cloud expertise during the migration. The infrastructure was vastly oversized, resulting in ongoing expenditure in the upper six-figure range.

In addition, there were inefficient processes that significantly impaired the workflow of the development teams. Many processes, such as releases or secrets management, were carried out manually, which not only cost time but also created potential sources of error. There was also a lack of transparency within the complex microservice landscape. The standard monitoring via Azure Monitor proved to be expensive and cumbersome and did not provide sufficient insight into the system landscape, which made it difficult to monitor and control the systems efficiently.

Our solution

abstracted-linen-6

1. Automate and accelerate processes:

With GitHub Actions, we have automated error-prone manual work steps in the release pipeline. In Secrets Management, we have replaced the SOPS setup with the cloud-native External Secrets solution, reducing the time required per pipeline from 30-40 minutes to one minute.

Added value:

  • Savings of approx. 1 person-week per release process
  • Time saving of approx. 5 hours per day -> equivalent of approx. 47,000 € cost reduction per year
  • Reduction of operational risks

2. Establish individual monitoring and observability

3. Optimize resources (rightsizing)

How we proceeded

Our approach began with detailed analysis workshops in which we examined the existing platform together with the client, visualized the biggest pain points and prioritized them with the help of Miro boards and storyboards. We then carried out a comprehensive cost and process analysis. Using the Azure Cost Analyzer, we were able to precisely identify the largest cost blocks.

Based on this, we implemented the optimization measures step by step: We automated central processes, implemented efficient monitoring solutions and introduced rightsizing measures to adapt the infrastructure as required. At the same time, we worked closely with the client's development teams to transfer knowledge in a targeted manner, build up internal expertise and thus ensure the long-term and sustainable operability of the platform.

Technologies and services used

  • Cloud: Microsoft Azure

  • CI/CD & Automation: GitHub Actions

  • External Secrets

  • Observability & Monitoring: Grafana Loki

  • Grafana Tempo

  • VictoriaMetrics

  • Workshops & Methods: Creative Space

  • Story Boards

  • Miro

  • Cost Analyzer

What decision-makers learn

Cloud cost optimization is a continuous process

Ongoing review and monitoring are essential in view of constantly changing price models and requirements.

External expertise creates added value

A fresh look can reveal unused optimization potential that is often overlooked internally.

Automation reduces risks and costs

Error-prone manual processes can be massively streamlined with suitable tools.

Individual monitoring is crucial

Standard solutions often reach their limits; customized concepts improve transparency and efficiency.

Results & outlook

50 percent savings on cloud operating costs

Reduction from approx. 800,000 euros to approx. 400,000 euros per year.

Process gains

Automated release processes save a full person-week per release; several hours of waiting time are eliminated each day for secrets management.

Optimization of monitoring costs

Reduction of observability expenditure by more than 80 percent.

Lasting effect

The customer plans to further optimize costs by hosting its own databases and non-prod environments.

A large cloud in the shape of a piggy bank floats in the dark sky.
Would you also like to reduce cloud costs in your company, minimize operational risks and empower your IT teams?

We will show you how cloud transparency and FinOps can make an impact in just a few weeks - and guide you through the implementation step by step.

Our references & projects

A reference is worth more than 1,000 words. Fortunately, we have dozens of them. Click through a selection of our most exciting projects and see for yourself!

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    inCTRL Solutions: Modernization of the IoT platform for water treatment plants
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    in productive operation

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    ifm services: Remote maintenance of systems and machines
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    In 5 months

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    KUKA: UI/UX design for an app for load data analysis for industrial robots
    Method

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    20-year-old system, new digital future. We gradually migrated production software to a flexible architecture. After two years, central plants were running on the new solution - stable, fail-safe and ready for the challenges of tomorrow.

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    BMW Group: Replacement of a production-critical legacy system
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    Mid-2018 to the beginning of 2024

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    From the first draft to series production - BMW uses VR to visualize the entire development process. Based on the Unreal Engine, a uniform platform visualizes designs and processes. This saves on hardware prototypes and enables location-independent collaboration. MaibornWolff plays a key role in driving the development and integration of these VR use cases.

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    BMW Group: Virtual reality brings vehicle design to life
    3.2 years

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    See BMW Group reference
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    BMW Group: Remote software upgrade for vehicles

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    BMW Group: Remote software upgrade for vehicles
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    Bayernwerk: Knowledge management via teams

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    Target:

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  • A complex labyrinth of floating cloud paths that lead to a shiny, golden piggy bank in the middle.
    Travel information systems: 25 percent savings in cloud costs and stable operation thanks to FinOps

    Cloud transparency and FinOps governance for a networked travel information system - with clearly measurable savings and less operational risk.

    To the FinOps reference
    Travel information systems: 25 percent savings in cloud costs and stable operation thanks to FinOps
    Cloud operating costs

    reduced by 25%

    Reduction

    of the availability zones in the development environment

    Time-controlled switch-off

    of the development environment

    To the FinOps reference
  • A slender robotic arm in a production hall, picking up coins and placing them in a piggy bank-shaped cloud, while console screens in the background display cost-waste diagrams.
    Supply chain management: Reducing cloud operating costs by 50 percent with FinOps

    We have made the supply chain management system for an international industrial company more scalable and robust through process modernization, improved monitoring, automation and rightsizing. Targeted optimization of the infrastructure reduced oversizing and unnecessary resources - the platform is more stable.

    To the FinOps reference
    Supply chain management: Reducing cloud operating costs by 50 percent with FinOps
    Lowering

    of the cloud operating costs

    Fast

    to the new release

    More transparency

    and control

    To the FinOps reference

You can find background information on the topic of cloud cost reduction here:

An iceberg floats in the sea, illuminated by soft pink and blue lights reflecting off its surface.
Whitepaper "The hidden costs of the cloud"
A pile of golden coins rises above the clouds, illuminated by the sun's rays.
Practical guide "Cloud costs under control - quick wins & strategic levers for IT managers"

Why MaibornWolff?

As one of the most innovative IT service providers with a great passion for AI, we focus entirely on the project business and individual software development - without our own products. To stay at the forefront, we continuously invest in our team of digital technology engineers and develop digital solutions that are well thought-out, efficient and reduced to the essentials.

Our principle: simplicity instead of complexity. We only develop what is really needed - tailor-made, useful and reliable. Our results speak for themselves. With over 800 large-scale systems and more than 10,000 person-years of experience in high-end software engineering, we are one of the few who can reliably implement even the largest and most complex IT landscapes. Thanks to close partnerships with leading hyperscalers, our customers operate their solutions in today's most modern and powerful environments.

Less technology. Better Business.

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