Optimising Cloud Performance and Ensuring Peak Uptime for a National Retail & Ecommerce Brand

Azentra worked with a fast-growing retail and ecommerce brand struggling with rising cloud costs, slow application performance during peak demand, and an increasingly complex technology environment.

Their rapid growth had created operational strain, unpredictable cloud billing, and service instability — especially during high-traffic trading windows such as seasonal promotions and product launches.

The business needed a scalable, cost-controlled, high-availability cloud environment capable of supporting continuous growth.

The Challenge

The retailer was experiencing several critical issues impacting both customer experience and internal operations.

1. Rising and Unpredictable Cloud Costs

Rapid expansion across ecommerce, logistics, customer service, and analytics had created:

• uncontrolled cloud spending

• underutilised resources

• inconsistent workload sizing

• lack of tagging and allocation

• unexpected monthly cost spikes

This impacted profitability and financial forecasting.

2. Performance Issues During High-Demand Events

The ecommerce platform slowed under heavy load, causing:

• abandoned carts

• failed transactions

• customer complaints

• reputational damage

Peak demand created technical stress the environment wasn’t prepared for.

3. Fragmented Cloud Architecture

Multiple teams deployed workloads independently, resulting in:

• inconsistent security controls

• duplicated resources

• unmanaged storage

• siloed applications

• complex troubleshooting processes

There was no unified cloud governance model.

4. Limited Visibility Into Systems and Costs

Executives lacked visibility into:

• where money was being spent

• which teams drove cost

• application performance trends

• infrastructure bottlenecks

This prevented accurate reporting and planning.

5. Need for Greater Scalability & Resilience

The brand needed assurance that trading would remain uninterrupted during promotions, marketing campaigns, and high-demand spikes.

The Solution

Azentra delivered a comprehensive optimisation and governance programme to stabilise cloud performance, reduce cost, and prepare the organisation for continued scaling.

Phase 1: Cloud Assessment & FinOps Framework

• Conducted a full cloud health assessment across compute, storage, networking, and services

• Identified waste, misconfigurations, and cost anomalies

• Introduced a FinOps governance framework with tags, budgets, and visibility dashboards

• Provided finance and IT teams with real-time cost insights

Result: Clear visibility into cost drivers and actionable savings opportunities.

Phase 2: Performance Optimisation & Rightsizing

• Right-sized overprovisioned compute and database workloads

• Implemented autoscaling policies for ecommerce traffic

• Optimised database queries and caching strategies

• Refactored selected services to improve responsiveness

• Reduced latency by improving network paths and CDN configuration

Result: Faster page loads, reduced transaction failures, and stable performance during peak demand.

Phase 3: High Availability & Resilience Enhancements

• Implemented multi-zone deployment architecture

• Introduced load-balancing and redundancy for critical services

• Deployed automated failover for the ecommerce platform

• Implemented disaster recovery testing and documentation

• Strengthened monitoring around payment and checkout processes

Result: A resilient environment capable of maintaining uptime during major events.

Phase 4: Ongoing Governance & Monitoring

• Rolled out real-time cloud visibility dashboards for technical and executive teams

• Automated alerts for cost anomalies and performance degradation

• Provided continuous optimisation, governance checks, and recommendations

• Established quarterly cloud review and roadmap sessions

Result: Long-term control over growth, spend, and operational performance.

The Outcomes

Within three months, the retail brand achieved measurable gains:

Cloud Cost Savings

• 32% reduction in monthly cloud spend

• Fully predictable cost forecasting with budgets and tags

• Elimination of unused and duplicated resources

  
  

Performance & Reliability

• 45% improvement in ecommerce platform response times

• 99.99% uptime during peak seasonal events

• Faster, more reliable checkout and payment processing

  
  

Customer Experience

• Increased customer satisfaction scores

• Reduced abandoned carts

• Higher successful checkout conversion rates

  
  

Operational Efficiency

• Improved collaboration between development, operations, and finance

• Clear governance model for future deployments

• Reduced firefighting and incident volume

  
  

Conclusion

Azentra helped this retail and ecommerce organisation regain control of cloud spend, strengthen platform performance, and ensure uninterrupted uptime during critical trading periods.

With a more efficient, resilient, and well-governed cloud environment, the brand is now positioned for sustainable growth, improved customer experience, and stronger operational excellence.