By using AWS, Willbros is able to respond swiftly to marketplace conditions, prototype and complete projects quickly, and focus on business value instead of IT costs. “Now, with AWS, the need to acquire and install hardware is gone, so we’re able to execute projects more than 80 percent faster,” Cradit says. “That’s a difference of six months to one month in time-to-market.”

Using the AWS Simple Monthly Calculator, the IT department can now deliver precise costs. “I can give a report now that says this project costs us this many dollars to consume. Now we don’t need to add that extra 20 percent capacity,” Cradit says. “If we need to ramp up because we’re doing well, we can. If we need to turn resources off, we can. We can buy compute services and pass the cost directly to a customer. And that is the panacea for IT, and for business.”

This ability to scale is an important part of the value equation for Willbros. “Because of cloud computing, we’re able to turn off servers if we don’t need that much capacity. The agility of downward elasticity in a down market is key,” Cradit says.

The transparency of IT costs coupled with the flexibility and speed of obtaining compute resources that AWS provides helps inform business decisions at Willbros. “Because you don’t worry about the lead time,” Cradit says, “you can actually go through these rigorous processes to define rate cases. And when you’re ready to go, that afternoon the servers are up and running and you can start taking action. We focus now on value instead of cost.”

Value extends to Willbros customers. Cradit explains, “Because of the agility, lower total cost of ownership, and elasticity of using AWS, Willbros can now support the specific requirements of our customers much more easily. We can create complete compute stacks per project. So we only focus on the things that matter to our customers, not the ones that don’t.”