Disclaimer: This case study was originally completed under ServerGuy, which has now been rebranded as ZenoCloud. All references to projects, solutions, and services reflect the transition to ZenoCloud’s current operations.
Overview
GlobalReach Networks is a digital marketing company that runs large-scale online campaigns for multiple clients. Their platform serves millions of users at the same time, delivering content, analytics, and interactive experiences without interruptions.
However, their cloud setup was designed to handle peak traffic all the time, which meant most of the servers were idle during normal hours. Essentially, they were paying for more than they actually needed. GlobalReach needed a solution that could keep performance high during busy periods while reducing wasted costs during quieter times.
Challenges
GlobalReach was facing several issues with their cloud setup:
Over-Provisioned Servers: Nearly half of their servers were idle during off-peak hours, resulting in unnecessary costs.
Sudden Traffic Surges: When campaigns went viral, unexpected spikes sometimes slowed down the system or caused delays in delivering content.
Unpredictable Bills: Cloud costs fluctuated month to month, making it hard to plan the budget.
Limited Insight: Without detailed tracking, it was difficult to know which resources were driving costs or how to optimize them.
Our Approach
ZenoCloud worked closely with GlobalReach to make their cloud infrastructure smarter, faster, and more cost-efficient.
Dynamic Auto-Scaling
We set up auto-scaling so that servers could automatically ramp up during traffic spikes and scale down when activity dropped. This meant the system could handle sudden surges without overpaying for unused capacity.
Right-Sizing Servers
By reviewing actual usage, we resized underutilized servers to match the real demand. This reduced waste and improved overall performance, especially during high-traffic campaigns.
Hybrid Instance Strategy
We combined Reserved Instances for predictable workloads with Spot Instances for flexible, burstable tasks. This approach cut cloud costs by almost 50% while maintaining reliable performance.
Smarter Storage Management
Old or rarely accessed data was moved to lower-cost storage like S3 Glacier. This reduced storage expenses by around 38% but kept data readily available when needed.
Cost Tracking with Tagging
We implemented a tagging strategy to track costs by project, campaign, and department. This gave the team clear insights into where money was being spent and allowed them to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Results
Cloud Costs Reduced by 42.64% – significant savings without affecting system speed or reliability.
Idle Resources Reduced by 38.99% – servers now run only when needed.
Better Cost Transparency – tagging and dashboards give the team a clear view of spending patterns.
Key Takeaways
Resources are now used more efficiently, saving money while keeping performance high.
The system automatically scales to match real-time traffic, making costs predictable.
Teams have full visibility into resource usage and can make informed decisions.
GlobalReach can now confidently run high-traffic campaigns, manage sudden spikes, and control costs—all without worrying about unnecessary cloud expenses.
