Like many other ecommerce platforms, one of the biggest challenges Phenix faces is ensuring that the inventory listed on their application is always up to date. This requires extensive database functionality, for which they primarily use the AWS Relational Database Service (RDS). 

Building that application and scaling it to meet the current demand posed challenges for the small DevOps team at Phenix when it came to availing of AWS discount opportunities. The full-time management of their Reserved Instances or Savings Plans would have detracted from their ability to complete the necessary engineering and operational work, forcing them to choose between saving money and actually growing their products and business.

The challenge would complicate efforts to scale the company and its DevOps capabilities, with the DevOps team devoting even more time to managing Phenix’s growing infrastructure portfolio as it expanded to new countries and built new functionality. Even improvements to their systems would cost them because more backend efficiency would lower their compute and database needs, thereby risking underutilization penalties on any discounts tied to usage commitments.