How QloudX Cut 15-20% AWS Cloud Costs While Strengthening Security for a Retail Enterprise
Executive Summary
QloudX engaged with a leading global retailer to deliver comprehensive Managed Services for their AWS operations. The engagement focused on security governance, identity modernization, compliance reporting, and cost optimization.
Key initiatives included centralizing access management with Azure AD–AWS SSO, improving IAM governance (MFA, user cleanup, security group hardening), and enhancing security visibility through AWS Security Hub, Config, and GuardDuty. On the FinOps side, structured tagging, Savings Plans, and rightsizing delivered sustainable cost reductions, while daily/weekly compliance reporting and monthly consolidated MSP reports ensured full transparency.
As a result, the customer achieved a significant uplift in AWS Security Hub scores, 15–20% monthly cost savings, and improved operational maturity across multiple AWS accounts. QloudX’s proactive, automation first MSP model provided the retailer with continuous improvements and measurable business outcomes.
About Our Customer
Our customer is a major player in the global retail industry, with a strong presence across multiple geographies. Leveraging AWS Cloud to support its operations, the company is dedicated to innovation and customer experience. To scale efficiently, the organization entrusted QloudX as its Managed Services Provider (MSP) to ensure secure, cost-optimized, and continuously available AWS workloads.
The Challenge
As customer accelerated digital transformation, its teams faced operational and security complexities in managing AWS workloads.
- Key challenges included:
- Lack of proactive security monitoring across workloads and services.
- Need for seamless integration with enterprise identity systems (Azure AD for SSO).
- Gaps in security visibility and compliance enforcement.
- Manual and inconsistent IAM management practices.
- Absence of daily compliance reporting for timely remediation.
- Inefficient cost governance, requiring structured tagging, optimization, and rightsizing.
- Resource sprawl without a strong governance framework.
These hurdles demanded a comprehensive Managed Services model to strengthen security, improve visibility, and optimize cost efficiency.
The QloudX partnership
QloudX partnered with customer as their Cloud Managed Services Provider, applying a structured, automation-first framework to strengthen governance, improve security posture, and enable proactive cost management.
MSP LifeCycle
QloudX delivered Managed Services using its Plan–Build–Run–Optimize model:
Plan
Baseline assessment of workloads, IAM practices, tagging, and monitoring.
Defined governance models for cost, security, and compliance.
Build
— Established cost and security monitoring by deploying necessary AWS services.
— Integrated Azure AD with AWS SSO, ensuring streamlined access management.
— Designed tagging strategy and being followed for tagging compliance.
— Introduced compliance dashboards for proactive oversight.
Run
— Enabled daily/weekly compliance reporting to detect and remediate non-compliant resources.
— Conducted IAM user cleanup, enforced MFA, and strengthened security groups.
— Monitored S3 policies, lifecycle management, and CloudWatch log retention.
— Continuous cost monitoring with Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, and rightsizing actions.
Optimize
— Increased AWS Security Hub score from 55% baseline to 85–90%+ across their multiple AWS accounts (9+), sustaining posture.
— Implemented cost optimization strategies, reducing cloud spend while improving performance.
— Enhanced governance through proactive reporting and regular stakeholder reviews.
— Pushing for SPP.
This lifecycle ensured Customer AWS environment remained secure, efficient, and continuously optimized.
Key Deliverables & Capabilities
Proactive Operations: Monitoring & Automation
— Deployed AWS Security Hub, Config and GuardDuty via Audit account to centralize security monitoring and reduce operational overhead.
— Established SNS alerting for GuardDuty findings.
— Established Cost monitoring with Budgets, Billing Alarms and Cost Anomaly Detection.
Governance & Compliance: Security Posture Hardening
— Enabled daily/weekly compliance reporting.
— IAM user cleanup, MFA enforcement, and strong password policies.
— Security group hardening for network defence.
— Continuous improvement of AWS Security Hub score.
Identity & Access Management
— Seamless Azure AD–AWS SSO integration, centralizing identity control.
— Precise permission and access protocols to reinforce security.
Value Realization: Cost Optimization & FinOps
— Structured cost governance model with tagging enforcement.
— Adopted Savings Plans and Reserved Instances to optimize predictable workloads.
— Rightsized EC2 instances and optimized S3 lifecycle policies.
— Achieved 15% to 20% cost reductions while improving performance.
Collaboration & Transparency: Reporting
— Delivered monthly Cloud Usage, Cost Optimization, and Security Reports.
— Provided clear visibility into utilization trends, compliance gaps, and cost-saving opportunities.
AWS Lays the Foundation:
QloudX leveraged AWS-native services to deliver proactive governance, security, and cost management.
AWS services
Operational Efficiency & Automation
— AWS Systems Manager for task automation and consistency
— CloudWatch & Systems Manager for monitoring and automation
Security & Compliance
— AWS Security Hub & AWS Config for security visibility and compliance enforcement
— IAM, MFA, and Security Groups for a strong security baseline
Identity & Access Management
— IAM integrated with Azure AD SSO for centralized and scalable identity management
Monitoring & Logging
— CloudWatch for infrastructure monitoring and log management
Storage Optimization
— S3 Policies and Lifecycle Management for data governance and cost efficiency
Cost Management & FinOps
— AWS Budgets, Cost Explorer, Savings Plans, and Reserved Instances for structured cost optimization
Outcomes
Operational Resilience & Efficiency
— Automated daily /weekly compliance reporting
— IAM cleanup, MFA enforcement, and security group hardening
— Reduced manual effort, enabling teams to focus on strategic initiatives
Enhanced Security Posture
— Improved AWS Security Hub scores from 55% to 85–90%+ across accounts
— Continuous monitoring and remediation for sustained compliance
— Strengthened security baseline with IAM, MFA, and Security Groups
Modernized Identity & Access Management
— Centralized access via Azure AD–AWS SSO integration
— Eliminated manual IAM overhead
— Ensured alignment with enterprise security standards
Resource & Storage Optimization
— EC2 rightsizing and S3 lifecycle policies for efficient resource utilization
— Reduced waste and improved performance
Cost Optimization & FinOps Maturity
— Structured FinOps practices: Budgets, Billing Alarms, Cost Explorer, Anomaly Detection
— Achieved 15–20% AWS cost reduction through Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, and EC2 rightsizing
— Improved forecasting and early anomaly detection
Governance & Executive Visibility
— Monthly consolidated reports for clear visibility into usage, cost, and security
— Enabled data-driven decision-making and proactive planning
— Established tagging compliance and long-term governance guardrails
Conclusion
Through this Managed Services partnership, QloudX enabled CUSTOMER to transform AWS operations into a secure, cost-optimized, and continuously improving environment. By combining proactive monitoring, security hardening, FinOps governance, and transparent reporting, CUSTOMER gained measurable business benefits — lowering costs, strengthening compliance, and achieving operational maturity across its AWS footprint.
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