How HighRadius Engineers Use CloudZero To Make Smart Choices

HighRadius is a FinTech company that specializes in using automation to make financial management easier. So naturally, RamKishore Middela, assistant vice president of cloud engineering at HighRadius, recognizes more easily than most the benefits of automating his company’s cloud cost management with CloudZero.

The following interview between Ram and our own CTO and founder of CloudZero, Erik Peterson, explores how the CloudZero platform helped HighRadius apply its existing industry-leading financial automation principles to the task of optimizing cloud costs.

Here’s How HighRadius Stays Cost-Efficient Using The CloudZero Platform

CloudZero’s principles form a natural extension of the way HighRadius already operates

Financial health is always top-of-mind for Ram; it is, after all, what he’s built a career around. His engineering background lends him a unique perspective on the importance of putting data in front of the right eyeballs within the company.

Ram explains:

“It so resonates with me when you say ‘Every engineering decision is a buying decision.’

“What we do at HighRadius, the way we try to optimize ourselves, the way we mature ourselves in terms of operating on clouds — and especially with operating on multiple clouds — is primarily driven through our engineers. Every initiative we pick up is based on what we see from our data, the technical knowledge that the team has, and the analysis that we do. And then we make the right decision on the right initiatives.”

Applying the same logic and methodology to cloud cost management allows HighRadius engineers to see the cost data related to their own actions in near real-time. This opens the door for the data analysis that makes educated decision-making possible.

CloudZero provides a clear window into cloud costs that are often obscure and hard to understand

“Usually, if I look at my regular cloud spend on a month-on-month basis, I would never be able to identify if there is actually something trending wrong, or [costs are] trending low,” Ram says.

But with CloudZero, Ram’s team can drill down into the granular details that are not shown on the average cloud provider bill. “That’s where CloudZero helped us to be able to identify that specific sprawl that was happening in a very specific resource.”

CloudZero gives HighRadius engineers the data and tools to do what they do best

Contrary to what most executive team members would have you believe, it’s engineers who drive the most meaningful change within any SaaS business. They choose the infrastructure on which to build the company’s products, they write the code efficiently or inefficiently, and ultimately, they are responsible for the majority of cloud costs.

That’s why HighRadius uses the cost data they gather to put engineers in charge of choosing the company’s future projects:

“Most of the initiatives that we take are completely [chosen] by our engineers. This is not something top-driven; this is bottom-driven.”

In other words, Ram’s engineers use cost data from CloudZero — among other data — to build well-architected software that will benefit the company, without the C-suite or the finance department even having to ask.

Putting engineers in charge of decision-making drives faster innovation

One of the key features that makes CloudZero so powerful is the ability for users to watch cost data change on a daily or even hourly basis. This is crucial to HighRadius engineers, who want to stay on top of their resource costs as much as possible.

When cost data shows engineers that a particular decision they made has caused the project to go over-budget, they can course-correct right away, without having to go through layers of management for approval. This makes innovation flow quickly and easily, with zero red tape.

Unit costs form the foundation on which important decisions are made

In the full video, Ram explains how HighRadius uses unit cost information from CloudZero to determine which actions would increase revenue for the company.

In short: They compare the cost of the infrastructure required to support a particular customer with the revenue that customer generates. This allows them to decide which infrastructure changes are worthwhile and how scaling up or down would affect their margins.

Your Engineers Want To Make Smarter Build Decisions, Too

You don’t have to sit by and watch while other companies hone their cloud spending strategies and widen their margins. You too can give your team the data and tools they need to choose revenue-boosting projects and optimize your company’s infrastructure.

with CloudZero to see the platform in action.

Author: Cody Slingerland

Cody Slingerland, a FinOps certified practitioner, is an avid content creator with over 10 years of experience creating content for SaaS and technology companies. Cody collaborates with internal team members and subject matter experts to create expert-written content on the CloudZero blog.