Case Study

Maximizing Efficiency: How DoiT Transformed Starchive’s Cloud Spend Management with AWS

Client
Starchive
Industries
Digital Media
Technologies
Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon Elastic Container Service
Region
North America
Country
USA

32%

Saved annually in cloud spend

Meet Starchive

Starchive is a digital asset management platform designed for today’s creators. Its mission is to make it easy for creators to access, use, and build on their work. With over a decade of experience, including archiving Bob Dylan’s catalog, Starchive offers a system that mirrors an artist’s mind, allowing for seamless storage and organization of digital assets. Key features include advanced search, access control, version control, and Web3 integration, making it a crucial tool for commercial, cultural, and community creators.

The Challenge

As Starchive’s user base grew, so did their cloud spend. The digital media company, known for its comprehensive asset management solutions, found its cloud costs escalating quickly. The introduction of AI-assisted functionalities and image recognition capabilities compounded this expense surge. Without a clear strategy to track and manage these costs, Starchive faced significant operational inefficiencies. The lack of insight into cloud expenditure made budgeting and forecasting increasingly challenging, threatening the company’s ability to plan effectively and maintain financial health.

The Solution

DoiT initiated its engagement with Starchive by conducting a thorough cost optimization review of its AWS workload. This review encompassed various dimensions such as account, resource type, and cost categories. Leveraging Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Compute Optimizer data, DoiT identified opportunities to downsize and de-provision underutilized resources, immediately reducing costs.

DoiT implemented Flexsave to enhance further savings, automatically optimizing cloud resource costs. Recognizing the need for better cost tracking, DoiT then introduced a comprehensive tagging strategy. The new tagging involved updating Starchive’s Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to include tags for dynamically created resources such as AWS Lambda and Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) tasks. The teams at DoiT and Starchive manually tagged static resources using AWS Tag Editor.

Finally, Starchive enforced tag policies at the organizational level, ensuring consistent usage across the board. This strategy allowed Starchive to conduct detailed cost analyses, enabling it to derive critical Unit Economics metrics. Consequently, Starchive gained the ability to perform more accurate budgeting, forecasting, and planning.

The Result

Starchive saw substantial financial benefits following the implementation of DoiT’s solutions. Through cost optimization and using DoiT Flexsave, Starchive realized 32% annual savings on cloud spend. More importantly, the detailed tagging and cost analysis introduced by DoiT’s experts enabled Starchive to model their business margins accurately, providing insights into the cost of production and service delivery. This newfound clarity facilitated improved budgeting and strategic planning, ensuring better allocation of resources and investment in critical areas.

Peter Agelasto, Cofounder and CTO, Starchive
“DoiT’s expertise in AWS cost optimization has been a game-changer for us. With their help, we saved 32% annually and gained critical insights into our cost structure. Working with DoiT has significantly improved our budgeting and forecasting capabilities, allowing us to focus more on innovation and growth. The DoiT team has been an absolute joy to work with and I have learned so much from this process!”

Learn more about how DoiT can help you

Latest case studies

Schedule a call with our team

You will receive a calendar invite to the email address provided below for a 15-minute call with one of our team members to discuss your needs.

You will be presented with date and time options on the next step