Overview
Coupa, the leader in AI-native total spend management, operates in a dynamic AWS compute environment. Though Coupa had a high Effective Savings Rate of 41.9% (placing it in the 92nd percentile compared to the industry), managing fluctuating cloud costs manually was complex and resource-intensive. Through the Coupa Advantage Program, Coupa’s FinOps team implemented ProsperOps, an autonomous cloud cost optimization platform. By automating rate optimization and minimizing financial risk, Coupa achieved greater savings, flexibility, and operational efficiency without additional overhead.
Managing Costs Manually in a Complex Environment
Coupa’s FinOps team, the cloud financial operations group within Coupa, works to bring together finance, engineering, and business functions for the purpose of optimizing cloud spending. The team has a mission to streamline spend through improving cost efficiency and aligning cloud investments with business objectives. One key tactic in this effort is rate optimization, which involves leveraging discounts offered by cloud providers in return for making spending commitments.
The team achieved a strong Effective Savings Rate (ESR) of 41.9% from AWS Reserved Instances and Savings Plans (ESR is an objective FinOps KPI that measures true savings from using discount instruments versus on-demand rates). However, managing cloud costs at scale posed a challenge due to the dynamic nature of their compute usage.
Monthly usage was shaped by two opposing forces: business growth increased usage while infrastructure optimizations reduced it. These fluctuations made it difficult to forecast monthly usage trends to make commitment decisions and optimize rates. Usage also fluctuated on a weekly basis from scheduled resource shutdowns during the weekends, which added another layer of complexity.
Without precise usage forecasting, Coupa faced financial risk; committing aggressively could result in unutilized commitments if usage dropped, while committing conservatively could result in missed savings if usage increased. The team needed a smart, adaptive, and autonomous approach to managing commitments and maximizing savings at scale.
A Prosperous Partnership
ProsperOps is an approved Coupa Advantage Program supplier, part of a pre-vetted network that offers competitive pricing and accelerated supplier onboarding for both customers and internal teams. This allowed the Coupa FinOps team to quickly implement ProsperOps to automate and enhance their rate optimization efforts.
ProsperOps delivers fully autonomous commitment management using a balanced portfolio of AWS Convertible Reserved Instances and Savings Plans tailored to Coupa’s unique usage profile. A key capability for Coupa is Global Cyclical Optimization. Since Coupa turns off some compute resources during the weekend, this feature maximizes savings by identifying recurring compute usage patterns, calculating the exact coverage level above the usage troughs, and adjusting commitments.
More Flexibility and Savings with Zero Operational Overhead
ProsperOps’ automation took rate optimization a step further for Coupa. Since subscribing to ProsperOps, their AWS Compute Effective Savings Rate (ESR) has improved from 41.9% to 45.9%. Because Coupa has a significant amount of spend, this increase has amounted to material savings per year, which have been reinvested back into the business (e.g., hire additional FTEs). Coverage has also increased from 85% to 98%, meaning more compute usage has been cost-optimized.
Coupa has also maximized its commitment flexibility. ProsperOps’ algorithms determine the optimal mix of AWS discount instruments and implement advanced FinOps techniques, made possible by automation. This allows Coupa’s commitments to adapt to changes in usage and shift to cover different resource types as business needs evolve.
Implementing ProsperOps has introduced no additional workload for the Coupa FinOps team. The platform has offloaded time-consuming commitment management so that the team could focus on other strategic initiatives. The intelligent automation provided by ProsperOps has ensured optimized savings and advanced Coupa’s overall FinOps maturity by freeing up internal resources. The team has shifted their attention from maintaining cost controls to driving higher-value FinOps outcomes for the business.
Before
With
Effective Savings Rate
41.9%
45.9%
Commitment Flexibility
Low
High
Coverage
85%
98%
Strategic Results and Future Potential
Since engaging with ProsperOps, Coupa has consistently improved key rate optimization metrics while ensuring engineering and business requirements are met. The ability to maintain high savings and coverage with maximized flexibility illustrates the power of automation in a rapidly evolving cloud environment. Coupa has continued to benefit from ProsperOps’ intelligent optimization as they scale.
“With ProsperOps, we’ve enhanced Coupa’s FinOps maturity and ensured our cloud costs stay optimized. If you’re looking to streamline cloud compute rate optimization, we recommend ProsperOps as a strategic partner.”
About ProsperOps
ProsperOps is the leading FinOps automation platform for cloud cost optimization on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Eliminating waste and achieving cost-saving goals is challenging when cloud usage is elastic, but commitments are inelastic. Founded in 2018, ProsperOps reduces costs by synchronizing rate optimization with workload optimization, eliminating waste and boosting cross-team efficiency for FinOps. Our platform drives world-class Effective Savings Rates and mitigates Commitment Lock-In Risk for our customers.
