Client's Testimonial

"The team at Developers.dev didn't just solve our immediate scaling problems; they fundamentally changed how we think about the relationship between cost and performance. Their FinOps expertise is unmatched. They found savings we didn't know were possible, and the SRE practices they implemented have made our platform rock-solid."

Sarah Rodriguez, VP of Engineering

Client Overview

A strategic-tier ($15M ARR) SaaS company in the marketing automation space, serving mid-market customers in the USA. Their platform was growing rapidly, but their AWS bill was growing even faster, eating into their gross margins. They also experienced frequent performance degradation during peak usage hours, leading to customer complaints.

Problem

The client's infrastructure was over-provisioned and lacked cost visibility. Developers had no guardrails for spinning up resources, and there was no proactive monitoring for cost anomalies or performance bottlenecks. Their monthly AWS spend had increased by 200% in one year, while their customer base had only grown by 80%.

Key Challenges

Spiraling Cloud Costs

Lack of visibility and governance was leading to significant waste.

Poor Performance Under Load

The application would slow down during US business hours, impacting user experience.

Reactive Firefighting

The operations team was constantly reacting to alerts rather than proactively improving the system.

No Data for Decisions

They lacked the observability needed to understand which parts of the system were slow or expensive.

Our Solution

We assigned a "Site-Reliability-Engineering / Observability Pod" to tackle the dual challenges of cost and performance through a data-driven SRE and FinOps approach.

🔍 Comprehensive Cost Audit

We used AWS Cost Explorer and third-party tools to analyze their spending, identifying unused resources, inefficient instance types, and data transfer costs.

⚙️ Implementation of SRE Principles

We worked with their team to define Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for key user journeys and established error budgets to balance reliability work with feature development.

🔭 Enhanced Observability Stack

We deployed an OpenTelemetry-based solution to gather metrics, logs, and traces, feeding them into a centralized Grafana dashboard for full visibility.

📉 Cost Optimization Strategies

We implemented a multi-faceted cost-saving plan, including rightsizing instances, implementing AWS Savings Plans, using EC2 Spot Instances for stateless workloads, and setting up automated shutdown scripts for non-production environments.

Implementation and Execution

Strangler Fig Pattern Migration

Started with a 2-week "Cloud Cost Optimization Sprint" to identify quick wins, immediately saving them 12%.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Set up weekly FinOps review meetings to track spending against forecasts.

CI/CD Pipeline

Instrumented their application code with OpenTelemetry for detailed performance tracing.

Real-Time Data Streaming

Built shared Grafana dashboards for both engineering (performance SLOs) and finance (cost allocation).

Load Testing

Used Ansible to automate the process of rightsizing instances across their fleet.

SOC 2 & ISO 27001 Compliance

Conducted knowledge transfer sessions to empower their team to maintain the FinOps and SRE practices.

Positive Outcome

💸 Reduced Monthly Cloud Spend by 30%

Resulting in over $450,000 in annualized savings.

🚀 Improved P95 Latency by 60%

The application remained fast and responsive even during peak load.

🔇 Reduced Alert Noise by 80%

By focusing on SLO-based alerting, the team could ignore insignificant blips.

🧠 Data-Driven Culture

The entire engineering organization now uses the observability platform to make decisions about code changes and infrastructure.

Why Choose Us

✅ Verifiable Process Maturity

Our systematic approach to auditing and optimization delivered predictable results.

🧠 An Ecosystem of Experts

Our pod included specialists in both SRE and FinOps.

🏠 100% In-House Talent

The team's deep knowledge of AWS cost structures was key.

🤖 AI-Augmented Delivery

We used AI-powered anomaly detection to spot cost spikes.

💡 Radical Transparency

The client had a real-time view of our progress and the savings achieved.

🎯 Guaranteed Talent Fit

Our experts integrated seamlessly with their finance and engineering teams.

🛡️ De-Risked Engagement

The initial sprint proved the value before a longer-term contract.

💼 Full IP & Code Ownership

All automation scripts and dashboard configurations were theirs to keep.

⭐ Proven Enterprise Experience

We applied lessons learned from larger clients to their mid-market needs.

Conclusion

Developers.dev provided a holistic solution that addressed both the technical and financial aspects of running a SaaS platform at scale. By embedding SRE and FinOps into their culture, the client is now able to grow their business profitability and deliver a world-class experience to their customers.

Implementing FinOps and SRE to Drive Profitability and Reliability for a High-Growth SaaS Platform

Industry B2B SaaS