Maximizing Mortgage Technology: Mission Provides Volly with Big Savings and Peace of Mind
Executive Summary
Volly, a SaaS provider in the mortgage industry, partnered with Mission to transform their AWS infrastructure following a significant business restructuring. Through Mission’s guidance, Volly achieved substantial cost savings, reducing their monthly AWS spend by 25%, and freed up their DevOps resources to get out of infrastructure management and focus on strategy, innovation, and product development.
About Volly
Volly is a SaaS provider serving the mortgage industry. Volly provides portfolio retention programs, email marketing automation systems, and CRM platforms for banks. Their solutions interface with various CRM systems, pulling data to deliver comprehensive solutions.
"Mission checks all the boxes I need. The services are strong, the team is responsive, and they stay on top of the platform. I sleep better at night knowing Mission is paying attention."
Chris Jewer,
SVP, Engineering and Enterprise Architect
Background
Volly had been using AWS services for seven years, beginning with a migration from an on-premises data center. After recently being acquired by a larger financial group, Volly sought a fresh start with their cloud infrastructure management following issues with a previous AWS partner.
Challenge
Volly faced multiple challenges that led the company to seek a new AWS partner. Their relationship with their previous cloud management provider had deteriorated. Following the acquisition and subsequent business restructuring, Volly experienced technical expertise gaps, particularly in areas like AWS financial management. They also had limited DevOps resources to manage a complex AWS environment that included Lambda, EC2, ECS, RDS, DynamoDB, and various networking components. Volly needed reliable external support to maintain system stability while reducing opportunity costs associated with legacy technologies.
"I really needed to get our DevOps resources focused on new product development, and now those resources are freed up thanks to Mission. Knowing that Mission is paying attention if something goes down has really helped."
Chris Jewer,
SVP, Engineering and Enterprise Architect
Why Mission
Volly chose Mission for several compelling reasons. Mission's competitive pricing structure aligned well with Volly's cost reduction goals following restructuring. The promise of a dedicated financial analyst to help manage AWS expenses was particularly appealing to Volly's leadership. Additionally, the deep technical expertise on Mission's team gave Volly confidence in the partnership, as it offered the comprehensive support their limited DevOps resources required.
Why AWS
Volly maintained its commitment to AWS as its cloud platform due to its comprehensive service portfolio, which perfectly matched its technical needs. Their AWS infrastructure heavily utilized Lambda for serverless applications, EC2 and ECS for container services, and RDS and DynamoDB for database management. Volly was actively moving away from EC2 instances toward more managed services, transitioning APIs to Lambda for a serverless approach, and planning to migrate remaining databases to RDS. This strategic shift aligned with their goals to reduce management overhead while maintaining technical flexibility.
Solution
Mission provided comprehensive oversight of Volly's complex AWS environment, which included Lambda functions, EC2 instances, ECS, RDS, DynamoDB, and various networking components. Mission's managed services delivered critical support to Volly's DevOps resources, creating a responsive ticket system for infrastructure issues that required attention.
Mission's financial team worked with Volly to analyze and optimize AWS costs. After establishing a stable financial analyst relationship, Mission helped significantly lower Volly's monthly AWS spend. Mission also facilitated Volly's licensing agreement with Okta, their identity provider software, by streamlining their monthly billing to go through Mission, generating additional cost savings. This consolidated vendor management approach simplified Volly's administrative overhead during its business transition period.
Today, Mission's ongoing technical support continues to enable Volly's DevOps engineers to shift focus from infrastructure maintenance to exciting new product development initiatives, significantly reducing opportunity costs associated with legacy technology management.
Results
The partnership with Mission delivered substantial benefits across multiple facets of Volly's business operations. Most notably, Volly achieved significant cost optimization, reducing their monthly AWS spend by 25% per month. Additional savings were realized through Mission's negotiation of Volly's Okta licensing agreement, saving an additional ~$2,000 per month on identity management services.
System reliability has improved markedly with Mission's support. Volly's DevOps resources report high satisfaction with Mission's ticketing system and response times, creating a stable infrastructure environment. This reliability has given the team the confidence to pursue more aggressive product development goals.
The partnership significantly reduced opportunity costs by freeing Volly's DevOps engineers from constant infrastructure maintenance to focus on new product initiatives. This shift in resource allocation accelerated Volly's product development timeline and allowed them to modernize their approach, including transitioning from EC2 instances to containerized services and serverless architecture.
Perhaps most importantly, Mission provided Volly's leadership with peace of mind during a challenging business transition period. As Volly’s Chris Jewer noted, "Mission is on the ground floor of the new technologies we're building. The team meets all of our needs and is really easy to work with." This sentiment reflected the value Mission delivers beyond technical services, as it provided business continuity assurance as Volly navigated significant organizational changes while maintaining service delivery to its mortgage industry clients.
The ongoing partnership positions Volly to continue evolving its technical infrastructure to meet changing market demands, with Mission's support enabling it to implement advanced AWS services with confidence.