Successful migration to AWS paves the way for greater cost and infrastructure management efficiencies
Overview
Chargemap was initially launched as an app in 2009, but the company was officially established on March 11, 2015. Chargemap provides a platform for electric vehicle (EV) owners to find charging stations across Europe. In 2017, the company launched the Chargemap Pass, a card that allows EV drivers to charge their cars across multiple networks and over 600,000 charging points in Europe. Following this, Chargemap expanded its offerings to include solutions for fleet charging operations and introduced a Charging Station Management System (CSMS) for companies.
By 2023, Chargemap encountered challenges that led it to migrate to AWS and work with Automat-it, utilising the AWS Premier Partner’s FinOps expertise to optimize its online infrastructure while significantly reducing cloud-related operational costs.
Challenges
Chargemap faced several technical and financial challenges that prompted them to seek external help:
- High and unexpected managed hosting costs: Chargemap’s cloud bills far exceeded initial estimates following their initial migration to AWS, reaching €45k-€50k monthly—three times higher than expected.
- Reliability issues: before migrating to AWS, Chargemap used a local hosting service, which suffered frequent downtime, impacting the customer experience.
- DevOps gaps: Chargemap’s development workflow initially didn’t require dedicated DevOps staff, and they needed a solution that allowed developers to focus on writing code without handling infrastructure.
Hakan Ebabil, CTO and co-founder of Chargemap comments: “We didn’t have DevOps at Chargemap and wanted to maintain the developer workflow where they only had to push code, leaving the infrastructure management to dedicated AWS specialists.”
“Meanwhile, we also needed dedicated FinOps expertise to help us identify where we can make cost savings while ensuring we are providing our customers with uninterrupted access to our platform via AWS’ best-of-breed cloud hosting technology.”
Through AWS, France, Chargemap was introduced to Automat-it and its FinOps experts who produced a comprehensive roadmap focusing on the company’s technological and commercial goals.
Automat-it is an all-in AWS Premier partner empowering startups with DevOps & FinOps expertise and hands-on services. The company specialises in supporting tech startups and has worked with more than 500 companies since its formation in 2012.
The project
The partnership between Chargemap and Automat-it focused on four key areas:
- Cost Optimization: Automat-it’s FinOps experts helped reduce Chargemap’s monthly cloud services bill by 50%, lowering costs from €45k to €20k by implementing savings plans and using Anodot’s cloud spend management platforms to monitor and manage billing effectively.
- Anodot: Automat-it introduced Chargemap to Anodot, successfully providing onboarding to facilitate the use of the platform. “Hakan comments: “Anodot is a fantastic tool. The onboarding process was very smooth, and it has become a routine for me to check it every two to three days.”
- Tailored AWS Solutions: Automat-it offered personalized FinOps advice through regular cost-saving recommendations, including using optimized AWS services such as IP type switching and purchasing savings plans.
- Well-Architected review: Automat-it provided ongoing architecture assessments, ensuring that Chargemap’s AWS infrastructure remained efficient and cost-effective. “The Well-Architected Review gave us confidence that we were on the right track while providing additional insights”, says Hakan.
Outcomes
- 50% cost reduction: Chargemap’s monthly costs dropped by half, saving them €25k per month.
- Improved infrastructure monitoring: with Anodot and the Well-Architected review, Chargemap could closely monitor performance and avoid overspending.
Customer testimonial
Hakan says: “Automat-it delivered everything we needed, from substantial cost savings to a seamless onboarding process with Anodot. The team’s guidance, especially from Khrystyna Skoropada, our assigned FinOps analyst has been outstanding. Camille Jubin’s great account management has also been crucial. We’ve saved 50% on our cloud costs, and the flexible savings plans have allowed us to adapt as our needs change.”
Future outlook
Chargemap looks forward to further collaboration with Automat-it’s DevOps team to improve their operations. Though they haven’t yet fully utilized the Dedicated Engineer Service, they plan to do so in the future.
Hakan comments: “Even though we haven’t used Automat-it’s Dedicated DevOps Engineer Service much yet, it’s like a safety net—we know that if something goes wrong, Automat-it’s team can step in to help us.”
Conclusion
Automat-it provided Chargemap with a cost-effective AWS solution, enabling the company to scale efficiently while maintaining a developer-friendly workflow. Chargemap’s experience is a testament to Automat-it’s expertise in cloud cost management, infrastructure optimization, and ongoing customer support.
