The Server Labs Ltd.

Cloud Financial Optimisation Service (FinOps)

Costs can be optimised by tailoring the cloud infrastructure to the behavioural model of the organisation. This process, known as a FinOps service, brings together finance, technology, and business functions to create a sustainable cloud cost/performance optimisation process. We describe this service in this section.

Features

• Moving to latest instances, storage and reduce cluster sizes
• Deduplication of data
• Optimising processor usage to provide cost savings
• Moving to Serverless
• Automating the Stop/Start of workloads in non-production environments

Benefits

• Reduced OPEX costs, for one customer TSL saved nearly £1M
• Improve governance of DevOps/DevSecOps activities
• Improve security by reducing the number of active instances
• Free up storage space, that are used for other activities
• Free up budget that can be utilised on other activities

£900 to £1,700 a unit a day

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at sales@theserverlabs.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

100506973492262

Contact

Dolores Saiz
07914163683
sales@theserverlabs.com

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: TSL will work with the budget owners to define metrics that make sure cost avoidance and cost optimization activities are successful. For example are the RIs you have in place being used?; ; Just running an audit and identifying savings is not enough. What’s required is the creation of a closed loop, whereby FinOps becomes part of the DNA of the organisation. TSL works across all functions to build this closed loop integrating systems, people and processes. The FinOps lifecycle we promote covers the following phases:; ; 1. The Inform phase: Gives visibility of usage and createst shared accountability, by showing teams what they’re spending and why. This enables individuals to view the impact of their actions on the OpEx budget.; ; 2. The Optimise phase: Empower client teams to identify and measure efficiency optimisations. Goals are set upon the optimisations identified which align with each team’s responsibility.; ; 3. The Operate phase: Defines processes which enable the goals of technology, finance and business functions. Automation can be deployed which enables these processes to be performed in a reliable and repeatable manner.
• Planning service works with specific services: No

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: A key part of the FinOps methodology implemented by TSL is to provide FinOps 'Golden Paths' for the clients engineers. These provide full documentation, together with example scenarios and code, so that moving forward, all platform engineering incorporated FinOps from the inception design. The Bl dashboard and Golden Paths, together with increasing acceptance of FinOps is designed to put in place a process of ongoing FinOps governance, which hands back responsibility to individual departments. Which in turn have been able to fund new projects and innovations by finding savings in their existing AWS usage. Teams are better able to match instances to workloads using Amazon EC2 for secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud, and using Amazon RDS to remove inefficient and time-consuming database administrative tasks. TSL will work with the client to re-architect applications, supporting a longer-term shift to microservices and alternative application architectures including more use of serverless technologies like AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate
• Training is tied to specific services: No

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: TSL will work with you to define the optimal architecture from the perspective of Financial Optimisation
• Setup or migration service is for specific cloud services: No

Quality assurance and performance testing

• Quality assurance and performance testing service: Yes
• How the quality assurance and performance testing works: We use automated tools to implement the infrastructure using infrastructure as code best practices. The Server Labs' Continuous Delivery Platform can be optionally used to manage the customer's DevOps environment On request we can perform performance testing using tools such as New Relic and Blazemeter

Security testing

• Security services: Yes
• Security services type:
  • Security strategy
  • Security risk management
  • Security design
  • Cyber security consultancy
  • Other
• Other security services: Security architecture implementation

Ongoing support

• Ongoing support service: Yes
• Types of service supported:
  • Hosting or software provided by your organisation
  • Hosting or software provided by a third-party organisation
• How the support service works: We offer support in either 24x7 and 9x5 modes. Cost varies by the amount of services deployed The service has a preventative component, with periodic maintenance, monthly reporting and continuous improvement of the infrastructure, and a corrective component, when problems occur in the system covered by this support contract. Once an issue has been received by The Server Labs, the procedure takes the following steps. • Verification of the issue and escalation to second level support. • Communication to customer of the solution to be undertaken. • Restoration of any service lost working with the DBA and or engineer assigned to the project. • Restoration of any data lost working with the DBA assigned to the project. • Update of the system documentation if necessary. • Closeout of the issue with description of actions undertaken

Service scope

• Service constraints: Constrained by what is possible within the cloud environment being financially optimised.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: S1: The production system cannot be used. No users are able to work in the production system. 24x7x365 <= 30 mins <= 2 h 95% 1,2 S2: Users can access the production system but a critical part of the application is unavailable or degraded.24x7x365 <=60 mins. <= 4 h 90% 1,2 S3: Users can access the production system and work but experience periodic problems. S4 Low impact for the user.The users can work normaly. <= 24 h <= 48 h 90% 1,2
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Support levels: We offer support in either 24x7 and 9x5 modes. Cost varies by the amount of services deployed The service has a preventative component, with periodic maintenance, monthly reporting and continuous improvement of the infrastructure, and a corrective component, when problems occur in the system covered by this support contract. Once an issue has been received by The Server Labs, the procedure takes the following steps. • Verification of the issue and escalation to second level support. • Communication to customer of the solution to be undertaken. • Restoration of any service lost working with the DBA and or engineer assigned to the project. • Restoration of any data lost working with the DBA assigned to the project. • Update of the system documentation if necessary. • Closeout of the issue with description of actions undertaken.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: AWS

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Security Clearance (SC)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Centre For Assessment to UKAS standard
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 08/07/2021
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Data outside the scope of the TSL ISO 27001 ISMS
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  TSL has completed a carbon reduction plan PPN-0621) TSL has signed up to the SME climate commitment and SME Climate Hub training program TSL have an environment policy, the Head Of Operations is designated as the environment office, the CEO as the ESG officer. TSL’s carbon reduction strategy has the following pillars: TSL work is performed within the public cloud TSL, having zero physical assets beyond Laptops, there is no physical servers or other hardware TSL uses a shared office facility when we need an physical meeting location. By doing this we remove all physical infrastructure, and all associated carbon emissions associated with this. All workers are remote workers, we aim to minimise travel and minimise face to face meetings. By doing so we reduce our CO2 emissions through minimising travel to absolute essential customer facing meetings. TSL’s philosophy is to act as a facilitator for companies moving to the public cloud, and hybrid cloud. We believe by aiding companies movement into the cloud, we are helping to remove all the physical infrastructure associated with on-prem physical servers, and all the associated buildings and electrical power. In addition to helping companies move into the cloud, TSL also specialises in cloud specific Financial Operations. TSL works with clients to put in place the product/people/process to ensure the “utilisation creep” that occurs when engineering teams running DevOps processes continue to add more processing power, faster I/O, more storage, without thinking through the implications on the greater financial and associated resource usage theyare acquiring. A TSL competence is to work with clients to optimise their usage of Cloud infrastructure to optimise the clients deployment and put in place the governance to ensure clients use cloud resource as effectively as possible

  Tackling economic inequality

  TSL are a boutique cloud consultancy, we provide opportunities for people from all backgrounds. Importantly, as we are a fully remote worker company, we can and will hire staff who are located anywhere in the UK. Ensuring that, the economic benefits of the work we do is not concentrated in Metropolitan areas only. We have staff based on working from Scotland, the North West and North East of England, as well as London and the South As a small company, with staff who all tend to be senior or principle grade, it is difficult for us to hire staff who have no experience or education in the cloud software and architecture we specialise in. However, we are committed to identifying ways to provide technical apprenticeships, internships, and to hire support staff who may live outside the key metropolitan hubs and can contribute to the business. We believe by offering a flexible work environment, along with an open environment with minimal top down edict, we perform well against the government’s six standards. A good indicator of this is the fact, we have a number of staff who are in their late 50’s and early 60’s, who participate actively and enthusiastically in the running of the business.

  Equal opportunity

  In terms of diverse recruitment, TSL follow the rules as set out in the Equality Act 2010, TSL are an equal opportunity employer, we ensure we do take into account the protected characteristics as defined in the Equality act, namely: a. Age b. Disability c. Gender reassignment d. Marital or civil partnership status e. Pregnancy or maternity f. Race (which includes colour and ethnic/national origin) g. Religion or belief h. Sex i. Sexual orientation TSL’s CEO is Female, and a significant number of staff in operational positions are female. Overall responsibility for the effective implementation and operation of the TSL Equal Opportunities policy lies with THE SERVER LABS LTD’s management, specifically with the board of directors and our HR team. All managers are expected to lead by example, and attain and maintain appropriate standards of behaviour within the teams they manage. However, everyone who works in and with THE SERVER LABS LTD is responsible for ensuring the equal opportunities policy works to prevent the activities that it prohibits from taking place within our business. Because we are a values-led business, this goes beyond the legal obligations the company has. In any recruitment selection process that we use within our business, whether we’re selecting interviewees for job opportunities, offering jobs, identifying individuals for promotion or considering other opportunities or necessities (like redundancy situations), we will apply a rigorous, objective selection process using non-discriminatory criteria, as far as possible. TSL prides itself on its technical excellence, experience and expertise, TSL specifically looks for engineering experience and expertise, not educational background or grade, but track record.

  Wellbeing

  TSL operate a flexible working policy Staff are all home office workers, so do not commute to waste part of the day, and have the ability to set their day around their families We operate a work the hours to do the job, not a fixed work pattern, in so doing avoiding presenteeism We have a mix of full and part time staff at all grades in the organisation We operate a flat structure, decision making is from across the company, if staff feedback that a strategy could be improved operationally, it gets taken on board. Leadership does not impose direction, we consult with staff to set the direction. By allowing staff to work from home and work the hours that suits their needs. We ensure that all age ranges, and desired work patterns are supported. Which we believe helps our staff maintain a healthy attitude to work. By giving staff a say in the direction of the organisation, we help ensure all members of staff are bought into the direction of travel of the company.

Pricing

• Price: £900 to £1,700 a unit a day
• Discount for educational organisations: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at sales@theserverlabs.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.