Global QSR Saves $1 Million in Cloud Costs in 90 Days

A major global QSR brand operated complex analytics workloads on Databricks hosted on AWS. Over time, AWS S3 storage costs increased significantly due to redundant data, unreferenced historical datasets, and ineffective lifecycle policies. These inefficiencies resulted in more than $1 million in avoidable expenses.

To address this, the QSR partnered with Wavicle to analyze storage usage, streamline policies, and optimize data retention. By June 2025, the company had saved nearly $1M, with projected annualized savings of $1.7M. With current optimizations in place, total savings have now surpassed $1.3M, with an annualized projection of $2.5M.   

Finding the million-dollar leak  

A detailed assessment identified unnecessary costs from redundant data copies, unused historical data, and unmanaged storage growth. The largest savings opportunities were rooted in how data was stored and retained. The audit didn’t just reduce clutter; it revealed how routine practices were quietly compounding costs over time   

The complexity of the PHP codebase increased onboarding times and operational costs, leading to a slower workforce and higher expenses. To protect revenue streams and enable future product expansion, a scalable, maintainable backend was necessary to reduce costs and accelerate innovation.   

The playbook for cost optimization

The optimization effort began in March 2025 with a structured approach:

• The team analyzed the growing AWS costs on the platform year-over-year which drove the team to deep dive into the platform costs.
• Targeted analysis of top cost-consuming products
• Cross-team collaboration to secure approvals for cleanup
• Industry best practices applied for lifecycle and retention policies.
• Insider expertise unlocked from a Wavicle SME with prior product experience, surfacing inefficiencies others might have missed.

The real roadblocks:

The most significant challenges were organizational rather than technical:

Approval delays from stakeholder teams before deleting historical data.

• Concerns about data loss emerged after a previous incident where accidental deletion by product teams made critical data unrecoverable. As a safeguard, teams began duplicating data, which was a well-intended move that quietly escalated storage costs over time. While this wasn’t a roadblock, it explains how data retention inefficiencies arose.
• Stakeholder teams approved all cleanup actions to ensure no critical data was impacted.

Once approvals were secured, execution was technically straightforward. Execution began in April 2025, and by June 2025, the initiative had already delivered $1M in verified savings.

Fast, visible, and measurable impact  

This project delivered rapid financial results while building trust across product and platform teams.

• $1.3M in realized savings by June 2025.
• $2.5M projected annualized savings with the optimizations in place.
• Increased customer satisfaction and relief as savings scaled up.
• Executive recognition for Wavicle’s role in delivering business impact.

The QSR has transformed its operations, embracing a leaner, more cost-effective storage environment. With redundant and unused data eliminated and lifecycle policies firmly in place, the company has laid the groundwork for sustainable cost control.

But this is just the beginning. The pursuit of optimization is ongoing, with each new opportunity driving further efficiency. This is not a one-off fix, but a continuous journey toward lasting cloud savings.

Though this initiative centered on Databricks in AWS, the core strategies removing redundant data, enforcing lifecycle policies, and collaborating with product teams are universal. Any enterprise, on any cloud, can benefit from these principles.

By combining strategic insight with hands-on collaboration, the QSR leader achieved rapid and remarkable results: over $1 million saved in just three months. Now, the stage is set for efficient, scalable growth well into the future.