Today, Byrne assesses the impact of AWS across CIC’s entire operation in the following way: “We have reduced our overall IT costs between 30 and 50 percent since we moved to the AWS Cloud. We are now in a situation—like other companies using public-cloud services—where we are seeing business growth without any corresponding increase in IT spend.”

Not only has CIC broken its cycle of having IT costs rising equally with business growth, it has also improved on the delivery of IT services across the organization. “We have seen an increase of 40 percent in the number of IT projects that we can complete in a year because of the flexibility of the AWS Cloud. We have also been able to increase IT availability to 99.999 percent since our move to the AWS Cloud, giving our customers and strategic third parties more reliable IT services.”

The flexibility of the AWS Cloud and the cost-effectiveness of moving to a cloud model have enabled CIC to think about IT in a new way. “By using the AWS Cloud, IT is no longer seen as cumbersome but as a driver for future business expansion,” says Byrne, who is responsible for an organization within CIC called Cortex Technologies. “We provide technology R&D for the CIC organization. It represents a fundamental change in our thinking at CIC—recognizing that the commercialization of new technologies is where growth lies.”