Venminder Cuts Database Costs by 85% and Boosts Scalability with Amazon Aurora Serverless

Infrastructure & DevOps Modernization
Data Modernization & Analytics

At a glance

Venminder, an Ncontracts company, a leader in third-party risk management (TPRM) software, partnered with Caylent to migrate their SQL Server databases to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. By leveraging Amazon Aurora Serverless V2 and Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Venminder improved operational efficiency and eliminated SQL Server licensing fees, freeing resources to enhance customer experience and drive innovation.

Solution Implemented

Migrated SQL Server database on Amazon RDS to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, reducing costs by up to 85%.

Automated deployment and maintenance of Aurora databases using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform and CI/CD pipelines.

Implemented Aurora Serverless V2, enabling automatic CPU and memory scaling to handle workload fluctuations while optimizing costs.


Outcomes Expected

85% Cost Reduction: Achieved an 85% reduction in database costs by eliminating SQL Server licensing fees and leveraging Aurora Serverless V2 for dynamic scaling.

Operational Efficiency: Automated database management processes with IaC and CI/CD pipelines, freeing up time for development teams.

Performance Optimization: Aurora Serverless V2 provided seamless scalability, reducing response times during peak traffic and minimizing overprovisioning.

Company

Venminder, an Ncontracts Company, is an industry recognized leader of third-party risk management solutions. Dedicated to third-party risk, the company is the go-to partner for software, high-quality assessments on vendor controls, certified subject-matter expertise and education.

venminder.com

Location

Elizabethtown, KY

Industry

Software Development

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Powering Superior Vendor Risk Management with Optimized Database Solutions on AWS

In an increasingly connected world, organizations depend upon a supply chain of third-party vendors to facilitate key processes and resources. Vendors often have access to sensitive data and critical systems, which, if inadequately secured or compliant, can expose the hiring organization to significant risks. Larger organizations also have to ensure their vendors maintain compliance with standards such as SOC 2 to meet operational requirements.

Venminder offers SaaS solutions that simplify third-party risk management, streamlining vendor onboarding, risk assessments, and compliance management. By automating key processes, the company helps organizations reduce the complexity of managing vendor relationships, ensuring stronger security and compliance with less manual effort. Their expertise in areas like cybersecurity and financial health allows their customers to assess risks more effectively and maintain greater oversight.

Venminder partnered with Caylent to modernize its database infrastructure. The company was facing high licensing costs from SQL Server on RDS and inefficient provisioning was wasting significant resources. Caylent led the migration to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, introducing serverless architectures that automatically scale based on real-time demand. This shift eliminated SQL Server licensing fees, achieving an 85% cost reduction.

Aurora Serverless V2 dynamically handled fluctuations in their database workload, ensuring faster response times during peak traffic periods and improving both customer and internal user experiences. In addition, automating the deployment and maintenance of the database infrastructure through Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD pipelines further streamlined operations, reducing the need for manual intervention. This allowed their internal teams to focus on high-value projects, accelerating innovation and reducing operational overhead.

In addition to modernizing their database infrastructure, Venminder is working with Caylent to explore generative AI use cases that can significantly improve internal data analysis and operational efficiency, freeing their team from cumbersome data retrieval and accelerating risk assessments for their customers. Read our case study to learn more.

Problem

Venminder relied on SQL Server databases hosted on Amazon RDS, resulting in high licensing fees and suboptimal performance management. As the customer base grew, the company faced unsustainable cost increases, as SQL Server required manual scaling that compounded costs with each expansion. Additionally, the infrastructure was overprovisioned to handle traffic spikes, leading to resource wastage during low-demand periods. The manual nature of scaling up database resources also consumed valuable time and increased the risk of operational delays.

Beyond cost challenges, Venminder’s SQL Server setup began encountering performance bottlenecks, with frequent CPU and memory issues causing blocking and locking in critical processes. These inefficiencies risked their ability to meet a 99.99% uptime SLA during peak periods. They needed a solution that could both improve performance and scalability, while simultaneously reducing costs and operational overhead.

Brian Adams

"Caylent guided us through a seamless database modernization and the results have been impressive. Not only have we cut our costs by 85%, we've also improved the performance and scalability of our platform, allowing us to better serve our customers during peak periods. The automation Caylent introduced has freed up our internal resources from routine management. The collaboration has positioned us to better meet customer demands and explore new opportunities with confidence.”

Brian Adams

Chief Technology Officer

Solution

Caylent partnered with Venminder to transition their database infrastructure to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. Caylent set up a non-production environment to validate compatibility between Venminder’s applications and Aurora PostgreSQL. This included performance benchmarking and Liquibase schema migration testing, ensuring zero downtime during the migration process.

During the discovery and assessment phase, after workload and metrics analysis, and a cost estimation by mapping Venminder’s workload to Aurora units, Caylent identified that Venminder could benefit from the utilization of Aurora Serverless V2. Aurora Serverless V2 dynamically scales based on real-time demand, providing cost efficiency during low-usage periods and seamless scalability to handle peak demand, all while minimizing manual intervention. 

Aurora Serverless V2 adjusts CPU and memory capacity in real-time, minimizing overprovisioning and automatically scaling resources to meet demand during critical periods, such as quarterly financial reviews or compliance audits. Compared to their previous SQL Server setup, Venminder achieved a cost reduction of up to 85%. Infrastructure as Code was implemented using Terraform, ensuring that deployments were automated and repeatable, streamlining operations and improving overall system reliability. Code was also committed leveraging CI/CD pipelines provisioned by the client.

Company

Venminder, an Ncontracts Company, is an industry recognized leader of third-party risk management solutions. Dedicated to third-party risk, the company is the go-to partner for software, high-quality assessments on vendor controls, certified subject-matter expertise and education.

venminder.com

Location

Elizabethtown, KY

Industry

Software Development

Share

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