Scope

ClickMasters delivers cloud solutions for B2B companies across the USA, Europe, Canada, and Australia. Cloud migration from on-premises or legacy hosting to AWS, GCP, or Azure lift-and-shift or cloud-native re-architecture. Cloud infrastructure design that is secure, scalable, and cost-predictable from day one. FinOps cost optimisation that reduces your cloud bill without sacrificing performance. And ongoing managed cloud operations for teams that want the infrastructure handled.

Four Migration Approaches Which Do You Need?

Lift-and-Shift (Rehost): Move workload to EC2 without modification. Fastest migration, maintains existing architecture. Appropriate for legacy apps not worth re-architecting. Tooling: AWS Application Migration Service (MGN).
Re-platform: Minor optimisations move to managed services like RDS instead of self-managed MySQL on EC2. Most lift-and-shift workloads should be re-platformed. Tooling: AWS DMS for databases.
Re-architect: Redesign for cloud-native containerise, decouple, adopt managed services. Highest investment, best long-term outcome. Operational overhead significantly reduced. Pattern: Monolith â†’ ECS Fargate microservices.
Retire: Decommission workloads that are no longer needed. Migration assessment consistently finds 20-30% of workloads that should be retired not migrated.

AWS vs GCP vs Azure Which Cloud Provider Should You Choose?

AWS is the default choice for most B2B companies: largest service catalogue, most mature ecosystem, most available engineers and tooling, most partner integrations (Fivetran, Datadog, Snowflake, Terraform all treat AWS as primary). GCP is better when: your team is heavily invested in Google Workspace, you are building on BigQuery (native, best performance), you need Kubernetes at scale (GKE is most mature managed Kubernetes Google invented Kubernetes), or you require Vertex AI (Google's ML platform with first-party Gemini and AutoML). Azure is better when: your organisation is Microsoft-first (Active Directory, Office 365, Windows-heavy Azure AD integration native), you have existing Enterprise Agreement pricing, or your compliance framework requires Azure Government or sovereign cloud regions. ClickMasters defaults to AWS, builds on GCP for data-heavy GCP-native teams, and builds on Azure for Microsoft-centric enterprise clients.

FinOps Cloud Cost Optimisation

FinOps (Financial Operations for cloud) brings financial accountability to cloud spending making cloud cost visible, optimisable, and predictable. Cloud costs are variable and controllable in real time, unlike fixed infrastructure costs. FinOps practices that consistently reduce cloud spend: right-sizing (match instance size to actual utilisation AWS Compute Optimiser identifies 20-40% waste), commitment discounts (Reserved Instances and Savings Plans offer 30-60% off on-demand for predictable workloads), schedule-based scaling (shut down non-production environments on nights and weekends 70% cost reduction), Spot Instances for batch processing (60-80% cheaper), and cost allocation tags (attribute every dollar to team, service, or environment accountability drives optimisation). ClickMasters implements these in a FinOps engagement, typically reducing AWS bills by 30-50% within 60 days.

What this engagement delivers

Cloud Architecture Design

Well-Architected cloud architecture on AWS (primary), GCP, or Azure: VPC design (network segmentation public, private, database subnets), compute selection (EC2 for legacy, ECS Fargate for containers, Lambda for serverless), database tier (RDS Multi-AZ, Aurora Serverless, DynamoDB), storage (S3, CloudFront CDN). AWS Well-Architected Framework review (five pillars).

Cloud Migration

Four migration approaches: Lift-and-Shift (Rehost fastest, EC2 migration), Re-platform (minor optimisations RDS instead of self-managed), Re-architect (cloud-native containers, managed services), Retire (decommission 20-30% of workloads). Tooling: AWS Application Migration Service (MGN), AWS DMS.

FinOps Cost Optimisation

Systematic cloud spend reduction: compute right-sizing (AWS Compute Optimiser 30-40% waste), Reserved Instances/Savings Plans (30-60% discount), Spot Instances (60-80% cheaper), S3 Intelligent-Tiering, idle resource elimination, AWS Cost Explorer tagging for per-team attribution.

Multi-Cloud & Hybrid

For multi-cloud or hybrid architectures: AWS Direct Connect or Azure ExpressRoute (dedicated network), AWS Outposts (AWS on-premises for data residency), GCP Anthos (unified Kubernetes management across clouds), Terraform (cloud-agnostic IaC).

Managed Cloud Operations

Ongoing operations without dedicated infra team: infrastructure monitoring (CloudWatch + Grafana, PagerDuty alerting), incident response (runbooks, SLA-backed response), cost monitoring (monthly FinOps review), security patching (AMI patching cadence), capacity planning (proactive scaling recommendations).

Process

Phase 1 · Week 1-2
Cloud Architecture Review
Well-Architected review (5 pillars), cost analysis (Compute Optimiser, Cost Explorer), security baseline (IAM, CloudTrail, Config), migration roadmap. Deliverable: Cloud Architecture + Migration Plan.
Phase 2 · Week 2-5
Migration (Lift & Shift)
AWS MGN for EC2 migration, AWS DMS for databases, validation (smoke tests), cutover planning, rollback plan. Deliverable: Migrated Cloud Environment.
Phase 3 · Week 2-4
FinOps Optimisation
Compute right-sizing (AWS Compute Optimiser), RI/Savings Plan purchase, Spot setup, S3 Intelligent-Tiering, idle resource elimination, tagging strategy. Deliverable: Optimised AWS Bill + Dashboard.
Phase 4 · Ongoing
Managed Cloud Operations
Monitoring (CloudWatch + Grafana + PagerDuty), incident response (runbooks, on-call), monthly FinOps review, security patching, capacity planning. Deliverable: Managed Cloud Service.

Tech stack

Cloud Providers: AWS (primary 33% market share), GCP (BigQuery/Vertex AI), Azure (Microsoft-first enterprises)
Migration Tooling: AWS Application Migration Service (MGN lift-and-shift), AWS DMS (database migration), AWS SMS (server migration)
Compute: EC2 (stateful/legacy), ECS Fargate (containers no EC2 management), Lambda (serverless), App Runner (simple containerised apps)
Database: RDS Multi-AZ (production relational), Aurora Serverless (variable load), DynamoDB (high-throughput KV), ElastiCache (caching)
Network: VPC (subnets, NAT Gateway, Security Groups), Direct Connect/ExpressRoute (dedicated on-premises connectivity), Transit Gateway
FinOps: AWS Compute Optimiser (right-sizing), Cost Explorer + Budgets (monitoring), S3 Intelligent-Tiering (storage optimisation)
Security: IAM (least-privilege), CloudTrail (audit), AWS Config (compliance), GuardDuty (threat detection), Security Hub (centralised findings)
Monitoring: CloudWatch (metrics/logs), Grafana (dashboards), PagerDuty (alerting), Sentry (errors)

How we work

4 Migration Strategies

Lift-and-shift, re-platform, re-architect, retire with honest guidance on when to use each | Basic: One-size-fits-all migration

FinOps Cost Reduction

30-50% reduction within 60 days via right-sizing, RIs, Spot, S3 Intelligent-Tiering | Basic: No cost optimisation (waste)

AWS vs GCP vs Azure Guide

Decision framework AWS default, GCP for BigQuery/Vertex AI, Azure for Microsoft-first | Basic: AWS only recommendation

$0 Cloud Markup

AWS/GCP/Azure costs billed directly at provider rates no markup | Basic: Marked up cloud costs

Cloud-Native Migration

Re-architect to containers + managed services for long-term operational efficiency | Basic: Lift-and-shift only (operational overhead unchanged)

Where this is used

On-Premises to AWS Migration

Lift-and-shift of legacy VMware workloads via AWS MGN. Re-platform databases to RDS. 50% cost reduction vs on-prem hardware + maintenance.

SaaS Cloud-Native Migration

Monolithic EC2 application â†’ containerised microservices on ECS Fargate. RDS Multi-AZ, ElastiCache, S3. Zero-downtime migration. Operational overhead reduced 70%.

Dev/Staging Environment Optimisation

Dev/staging environments running 24/7 â†’ scheduled shutdown nights/weekends. 70% cost reduction for non-production. Automated via AWS Instance Scheduler.

Multi-Cloud DR

Primary on AWS, DR on GCP. Terraform for consistent provisioning. Cross-region replication. RTO < 1 hour, RPO < 5 minutes.

Pricing guidance

These ranges are planning anchors. The quote names scope, timeline, and what is excluded. Talk through a quote.

Cloud Architecture Review

$4,000 - $10,000

1 - 2 weeks

Well-Architected review, cost analysis, security baseline, roadmap

Cloud Migration (Lift & Shift)

$10,000 - $35,000

3 - 8 weeks

Assessment, MGN migration, RDS migration (DMS), validation

Cloud-Native Re-architecture

$15,000 - $50,000

5 - 10 weeks

Containerise, ECS Fargate, managed services, IaC (Terraform)

FinOps Optimisation

$5,000 - $15,000

2 - 4 weeks

Right-sizing, RIs/Savings Plans, idle resources, tagging strategy

Security Baseline

$6,000 - $16,000

2 - 4 weeks

IAM, MFA, CloudTrail, Config, GuardDuty, Security Hub

Multi-Cloud / Hybrid Setup

$10,000 - $30,000

3 - 7 weeks

Direct Connect / Anthos, Terraform multi-cloud, unified monitoring

Managed Cloud Operations

$3,000 - $10,000/mo

Ongoing

Monitoring, incident response, cost review, patching, capacity

Cloud Training Workshop

$2,500 - $6,000

1 - 2 days

AWS fundamentals, Well-Architected, cost management for your team

FAQs

What is the difference between lift-and-shift and cloud-native migration?

Lift-and-shift (Rehost) moves an existing application to the cloud without changing its architecture a server running MySQL on-premises becomes an EC2 instance running MySQL. It is the fastest migration approach but does not take advantage of managed cloud services. The migrated workload has similar operational overhead you still manage OS patching, database maintenance, and scaling. Cloud-native re-architecture redesigns the application to use managed services EC2 MySQL replaced by RDS (managed database no OS patching, automatic backups, Multi-AZ failover), application servers replaced by ECS Fargate containers (no EC2 fleet management), and manual scaling replaced by auto-scaling. Cloud-native re-architecture costs more upfront but produces significantly lower operational overhead and better cost efficiency. ClickMasters recommends lift-and-shift as first step for legacy workloads, followed by incremental re-platforming to managed services.

How much does AWS cost for a typical B2B SaaS product?

A typical B2B SaaS product on AWS (ECS Fargate for application, RDS PostgreSQL Multi-AZ, ElastiCache Redis, S3 + CloudFront, ALB, Route 53) costs approximately $300-800/month for a small product with moderate traffic. A medium-sized SaaS with multiple services, more database storage, and higher traffic costs $1,000-3,000/month. A large SaaS with multiple environments, data warehouse (Snowflake or Redshift), CDN at scale, and multiple microservices costs $5,000-20,000+/month. Most common cost drivers: oversized RDS instances (often 30-40% of a SaaS AWS bill right-sizing is highest-ROI FinOps action), NAT Gateway data transfer (egress charges architecture changes can reduce significantly), and unused development environments running 24/7 instead of scheduled shutdown.

AWS vs GCP vs Azure which cloud provider should I choose?

AWS is the default choice for most B2B companies: largest service catalogue, most mature ecosystem, most available engineers and tooling, most partner integrations (Fivetran, Datadog, Snowflake, Terraform all treat AWS as the primary platform). GCP is better when: your team is heavily invested in Google Workspace, you are building on BigQuery (native, best performance), you need Kubernetes at scale (GKE is the most mature managed Kubernetes Google invented Kubernetes), or you require Vertex AI (Google's ML platform with first-party Gemini and AutoML integration). Azure is better when: your organisation is Microsoft-first (Active Directory, Office 365, Windows-heavy Azure AD integration is native), you have existing Enterprise Agreement pricing, or your primary compliance framework requires Azure Government or Azure sovereign cloud regions. ClickMasters defaults to AWS, builds on GCP for data-heavy GCP-native teams, and builds on Azure for Microsoft-centric enterprise clients.

What is FinOps and how does it reduce cloud costs?

FinOps (Financial Operations for cloud) is the practice of bringing financial accountability to cloud spending making cloud cost visible, optimisable, and predictable. The core insight: cloud costs are variable and controllable in real time, unlike fixed infrastructure costs. FinOps practices that consistently reduce cloud spend: right-sizing (match instance size to actual CPU/memory utilisation AWS Compute Optimiser identifies 20-40% waste in typical accounts), commitment discounts (Reserved Instances and Savings Plans offer 30-60% off on-demand pricing for predictable workloads ROI is immediate and certain for stable workloads), schedule-based scaling (shut down non-production environments on nights and weekends typically 70% cost reduction for dev/staging), Spot Instances for batch processing (60-80% cheaper than on-demand), and cost allocation tags (attribute every dollar of cloud spend to a team, service, or environment accountability drives optimisation). ClickMasters implements these in a FinOps engagement, typically reducing AWS bills by 30-50% within 60 days.

Cloud Solutions

Built to move from idea to production.

Four Migration Approaches Which Do You Need?

AWS vs GCP vs Azure Which Cloud Provider Should You Choose?

FinOps Cloud Cost Optimisation

What this engagement delivers

Cloud Architecture Design

Cloud Migration

FinOps Cost Optimisation

Multi-Cloud & Hybrid

Managed Cloud Operations

Process

Cloud Architecture Review

Migration (Lift & Shift)

FinOps Optimisation

Managed Cloud Operations

Tech stack

How we work

4 Migration Strategies

FinOps Cost Reduction

AWS vs GCP vs Azure Guide

$0 Cloud Markup

Cloud-Native Migration

Where this is used

On-Premises to AWS Migration

SaaS Cloud-Native Migration

Dev/Staging Environment Optimisation

Multi-Cloud DR

Pricing guidance

Cloud Architecture Review

Cloud Migration (Lift & Shift)

Cloud-Native Re-architecture

FinOps Optimisation

Security Baseline

Multi-Cloud / Hybrid Setup

Managed Cloud Operations

Cloud Training Workshop

FAQs

What is the difference between lift-and-shift and cloud-native migration?

How much does AWS cost for a typical B2B SaaS product?

AWS vs GCP vs Azure which cloud provider should I choose?

What is FinOps and how does it reduce cloud costs?

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