Driving cost control in a data centre exit programme for a global insurer

A global insurer and reinsurer faced an urgent requirement to exit its data centre within 18 months, avoiding £12 million in capital expenditure. With the existing Azure environment unfit to host core infrastructure, the client initiated a full-scale cloud transformation.

The programme was structured into a number of key, sequential work streams:

• New Azure Landing zone
• Next-generation firewall deployment
• DevOps and release automation
• Application migration
• FinOps and Cost Governance

Designed using Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework and delivered through Azure DevOps and Infrastructure as Code, the platform provided the client with a resilient foundation to exit the data centre safely, maintain control, and scale with confidence.

FinOps and Cost Governance: Approach & Solution

A new FinOps operating model was established, including decentralised subscription design, tagging policies, and cost allocation by application and environment. Forecasting, budget vs actual tracking, and optimisation reviews were embedded into engineering workflows, with newly defined FinOps personas leading cross-functional accountability. Automated power cycling was also introduced to reduce unnecessary compute consumption in non-production environments.

Key Outcomes:

• £1.3M in savings identified in the first two maturity stages
• 30% reduction in compute costs for non-production workloads
• Full cost visibility introduced per app, per environment
• Operational ownership of cloud spend established across engineering and finance

The overall programme enabled the client to successfully exit their data centre within 18 months, avoiding £12 million in capital reinvestment while maintaining continuity of critical services. By building a secure, automated, and scalable Azure Landing Zone from the ground up, the client established a resilient cloud foundation that improved operational stability, reduced cost, and accelerated delivery across the business.

The platform now supports full visibility, control, and governance at scale, and has introduced a unified FinOps model to drive cost accountability across engineering and finance.

Get in touch with Estelle James, Managing Partner, to discover how ECMS can help you transform your business without the complexity: estelle.james@ecmanagedsolutions.com