Kellogg estimates that it will save close to a million dollars in software, hardware, and maintenance over the next 5 years, just by using AWS in its test and development environments. “Using AWS saves us more than $900,000 and lets us run dozens of data simulations a day so we can reduce trade spend. It’s a win-win, and a pretty compelling business case for moving to the cloud,” McIlwain says.

By using AWS, the company is also able to be more agile. Instead of having to wait 30 days to make changes to its trade spend analysis system, the company can spin up instances immediately to perform the necessary data simulations (or calculations). “The speed and agility that using AWS gives us lets us develop and deliver business services much more quickly than before, so that we can keep one step ahead of the market. Our staff can deploy instances 90 percent faster than with our previous on-premises solution,” McIlwain says. “The AWS Cloud drives a lot of business benefits for Kellogg.”

Kellogg engineers liked the accessibility and familiarity of the AWS platform, which enabled them to easily apply their existing knowledge and infrastructure skills to the AWS Cloud. In addition, by using AWS, the IT team’s internal customers can now self-fund IT projects—saving the IT team from having to budget for projects from other departments and driving more efficient use of resources. “AWS allows me to do the unprecedented: bill Sales directly for the infrastructure they’re using, instead of the hosting costs being lost in the overall Infrastructure annual budget,” McIlwain says.

Kellogg is pleased that AWS supports the option to leverage existing HANA licenses that the company previously purchased from SAP; it allows the team to quickly provision instances and avoid having to repeatedly install and configure the software.

The company uses AWS Support, Business Level, and training, as well; one engineer already has successfully achieved the AWS Certified Architect certification. “The engineering support included training and documentation,” McIlwain says. “It exceeded expectations and became a key differentiator and added benefit in working with AWS.”

Kellogg is using AWS for its US operations, and plans to expand worldwide in 2014 — which should increase the amount of data being processed from 16 TB to 50 TB. “By using AWS, we have happier customers and we work faster, cheaper, and better,” McIlwain says.