City of Palo Alto achieves a 55% reduction in the City's monthly AWS usage costs

Performance

• By leveraging a combination of SAP Early Watch reports and SAP transactions, we successfully identified specific areas where we could enhance the City's SAP performance. Consequently, we implemented SAP-recommended settings to optimize the performance of their SAP system.
• To ensure optimal performance of the SAP HANA database, we deployed a combination of recommendations from SAP Early Watch reports and SAP HANA mini checks. By doing so, we compiled a list of pertinent SAP HANA parameters that needed to be implemented for improved performance.

Monitoring and governance

• As part of the SAP Basis service, we incorporated Icinga as a monitoring solution to enable continuous oversight of the SAP systems and HANA DB servers. This encompassed monitoring essential aspects such as disk space, memory usage, CPU usage, and ensuring the availability of all systems. By establishing specific thresholds, we could promptly receive notifications in case of critical production issues, facilitating swift response and resolution.
• As part of our innovative approach, we implemented an internally developed solution called SAP Automatic Daily Checks for each server of the City’s SAP system. These checks are scheduled to run every morning, providing valuable insights into the system's overall health. A comprehensive report summarizing the findings is automatically generated and reported into our Service Desk platform, Client Central.

Cost optimization

The City had concerns about the high on-demand costs of EC2 instances optimized for their SAP workloads. These instances, mainly from memory-optimized families, are designed for high-performance computing in the AWS cloud and run continuously in production. By selecting the right combination of commitment plans, we were able to eliminate the on-demand EC2 costs entirely. This optimization resulted in a 55% reduction in the City's total monthly cost, with an average savings of over $13,000 USD per month in their AWS usage expenses. 

• We also focused on the Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) costs. When analyzing the historic cost data, we noticed a gradual but steady increase in the standard tier costs for S3 over the months. On a closer look, we were able to identify errors within the City's existing S3 lifecycle management rules, which were quickly rectified, resulting in daily savings of up to 45 USD.
• Through Billing-as-a-Service (BaaS), the City is provided with monthly and quarterly cost reports, which gives the City clarity on their AWS usage and costs at a granular level. We leveraged several cost management tools to ensure tight monitoring of the City's infrastructure costs. We also have regular calls with the client to clarify their queries related to AWS cost and billing, and to keep them constantly updated on the cost and usage trends within their environment.

Managed Services

• Our commitment to 24/7 AWS and SAP Basis Managed Services support allows us to exceed expectations by providing personalized technical assistance for the City's SAP landscape, guaranteeing uninterrupted business operations.
• Driving effective communication with the City is an integral aspect of our support approach. We prioritize transparency, ensuring that the City remains fully informed about the activities within their landscape. We maintain constant updates throughout any change implementation process.
• We have also fostered a strong partnership with the City’s IT and SAP Basis team, actively sharing knowledge to further enhance their expertise and capabilities.

“EPI-USE has been supporting both AWS infrastructure and SAP Basis for the last few months, and their team members are very professional and knowledgeable in their respective domains. The team was quick to assume responsibility, and proactively shared several recommendations based on AWS and SAP best practice. Overall, we are extremely happy with EPI-USE and looking forward to building a long-term relationship.”