Truelio strengthens security, compliance, and cost efficiency with EPI-USE AWS Managed Services
Learn how Truelio partnered with EPI-USE to transform its AWS environment with proactive managed services, FinOps-driven cost optimization, and enterprise-grade security and governance.
About Truelio
Truelio is a partnership-focused brand experience, digital marketing, and technology transformation agency headquartered near Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 2004, Truelio serves leading global brands through its BX Services Suite, combining creative strategy, branding, event solutions, and technology development. With clients that include global airlines and large financial institutions, Truelio's technology infrastructure must deliver the highest levels of reliability, security, and compliance at all times.
“I chose EPI-USE because they came to the table with experts. I had a real expert telling me what I needed to know about AWS, what it was going to cost me, and what the benefits were going to be.”
Brian Benavides, Chief Technology Officer, Truelio
AWS Services Used
- Amazon EC2
- Amazon S3
- Amazon CloudWatch
- AWS Security Hub
- Amazon GuardDuty
- Amazon Inspector
- AWS CloudTrail
- AWS Control Tower
- AWS Systems Manager (Patch Manager)
- AWS Backup
- AWS Config
- AWS IAM (MFA & SSO)
- Elastic Load Balancing
Benefits & Outcomes
Significant
Reduction in Monthly
AWS Spend
Zero
Unplanned Outages Since
Go-Live
10%
Engineering Time Redirected
to Innovation
Opportunity
From Migrated Infrastructure to Cloud-Native Operations
After migrating its workloads from an on-premises data center to AWS, Truelio recognized that migration alone was not transformation. The infrastructure was running on AWS, but it had not yet been optimized to take advantage of cloud-native best practices across security, governance, cost management, and operational monitoring.
As Truelio's client base and service complexity grew, so did the demands on its infrastructure. The team recognized an opportunity to move beyond the initial migration and build a more mature, cloud-native operating model, one with stronger proactive monitoring, clearer cost visibility, and a governance structure built for the compliance requirements of enterprise clients in aviation and financial services.
Truelio needed more than a traditional MSP focused on keeping the lights on. They needed a next-generation managed services partner that could bridge the gap between migration and operational maturity, one that would embed security, FinOps, and proactive governance into daily cloud operations.
The Challenge
- Reactive issue detection: server problems surfaced through user complaints and application timeouts rather than proactive monitoring
- Infrastructure support resolution times that did not yet meet the pace the engineering team needed
- Audit preparation requiring significant internal coordination to gather cloud-specific documentation and evidence
- Limited cost visibility: no structured approach to cloud spend tracking, optimization, or forecasting
- Establishing enterprise-grade security hardening and governance across the AWS environment
The Solution:
Next-Generation AWS Managed Services
Truelio was introduced to EPI-USE by its migration partner. Once the Truelio team met the EPI-USE team, it was clear this was a different kind of managed services relationship. Brian Benavides, Truelio's CTO, made a deliberate decision to engage an MSP early, before problems could emerge, rather than trying to manage cloud infrastructure in-house.
EPI-USE delivered a comprehensive, outcome-driven managed services engagement designed to transform Truelio's AWS environment into a well-governed, secure, and cost-optimized cloud-native platform. Rather than focusing solely on uptime and ticket resolution, EPI-USE embedded automation, continuous optimization, and proactive governance into every layer of operations.
Security Hardening
EPI-USE extended Truelio's existing security posture with a comprehensive, layered approach to cloud-native threat detection and governance. AWS Security Hub, GuardDuty, Inspector, and CloudTrail were deployed to establish continuous monitoring, automated vulnerability scanning, and full API activity logging across the environment. IAM Multi-Factor Authentication and SSO were implemented to further strengthen access controls and reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
CIS Benchmark Compliance
EPI-USE implemented CIS benchmark monitoring using AWS Security Hub and AWS Config rules, establishing a continuous compliance baseline. Automated notifications were configured for non-compliant resources, enabling proactive remediation rather than reactive discovery during audits. AWS Control Tower was used to establish secure, multi-account governance, ensuring Truelio's cloud environment is structured for both operational consistency and audit readiness.
Proactive Monitoring & Alerting
Amazon CloudWatch alarms were enabled across all servers to monitor CPU utilization, memory, disk usage, and status checks. A centralized dashboard was created to provide real-time, user-friendly visibility across the entire environment. Today, the EPI-USE team continuously monitors the environment and alerts Truelio to performance bottlenecks before they have any impact on end users.
Responsive Support
With EPI-USE managing infrastructure, Truelio's engineers now have a fast, reliable escalation path for any issue that arises. Tickets are resolved in hours, often in minutes, through a structured online ticketing system that keeps both teams aligned. Engineers can stay focused on application development, confident that infrastructure issues are being handled by a team that is always available.
Automated Patching
AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager was configured to perform regular patch compliance scans across Truelio's Windows instances. Patch baselines and maintenance windows were defined for full visibility, with patches applied based on scan reports and operational approval, balancing security with stability.
Cost Optimization & FinOps
EPI-USE delivered comprehensive cost visibility and optimization through embedded FinOps practices. Working alongside the Truelio team, EPI-USE identified and acted on a range of optimization opportunities across the environment, including storage configuration improvements, instance rightsizing, and lifecycle policy implementation for long-term cost efficiency. The results were measurable: Truelio achieved significant improvement in monthly AWS cost efficiency, with further optimization work underway expected to reduce costs substantially. Ongoing cost reporting, resource tagging, and cost allocation practices have transformed cloud financial management from a point-in-time exercise into a continuous, planned discipline.
Audit & Compliance Support
Third-party security audits are a regular requirement for Truelio given its client base of global airlines and financial institutions. With EPI-USE, the team was able to hand off all cloud-specific audit points directly, with EPI-USE providing the required documentation and technical responses. This significantly reduced the internal coordination effort and allowed the audit process to move more efficiently. While the audit still required several days of work, it was no longer held up by cloud infrastructure documentation gaps.
Disaster Recovery
AWS Backup was enabled for EC2 instances and a Multi-AZ architecture was implemented to safeguard critical workloads, minimize data loss, and ensure business continuity during infrastructure failures.
Outcome
A Stable, Secure, and Scalable Platform Built for Growth
Through EPI-USE's next-generation managed services engagement, Truelio transformed its AWS environment into a secure, well-governed, and cost-efficient cloud-native platform. The results go well beyond technical metrics: since partnering with EPI-USE, Truelio has recorded zero unplanned outages, a milestone that has had a direct impact on the team's ability to serve its global client base with confidence.
For the engineering team, one of the most significant shifts has been in how they spend their time. Previously, engineers absorbed roughly 10% of their working time stabilizing and troubleshooting infrastructure. That same 10% is now directed toward modernizing applications and improving software architecture. The team is no longer in a reactive posture; they are building.
For individual engineers, the day-to-day experience has also changed meaningfully. Server health is visible immediately, alerts surface issues before users notice them, and support is fast and accessible.
Security
- Enhanced end-to-end security with multi-layered cloud-native threat detection
- Continuous monitoring across Security Hub, GuardDuty, Inspector, and CloudTrail
- Strengthened access controls through MFA and SSO enforcement
Compliance & Governance
-
Audit preparation significantly streamlined, with cloud-specific documentation handled by EPI-USE
-
Continuous compliance visibility with CIS benchmark monitoring and automated alerting for non-compliant resources
-
Proactive remediation of misconfigurations, reducing governance gaps
Operational Visibility
-
Proactive issue detection through continuous CloudWatch monitoring, surfacing issues before end users are affected
-
Real-time dashboards across all servers covering CPU, memory, disk usage, and status checks
-
Fast, structured infrastructure support with issues resolved in hours or minutes
Reliability & Resilience
-
Zero unplanned outages since go-live
-
Business continuity safeguarded through AWS Backup and Multi-AZ architecture
-
Automated patching reducing vulnerability exposure with audit-ready reporting
Cost Efficiency & FinOps
-
Significant improvement in monthly AWS cost efficiency through FinOps optimization
-
Additional cost reduction expected from ongoing optimization work
-
Full cost visibility through resource tagging, cost allocation, and monthly reporting with projected usage forecasts
-
Storage and instance optimizations implemented for sustained long-term efficiency
Engineering Productivity
-
Engineers redirected approximately 10% of their time from infrastructure stabilization to application modernization and innovation
-
Engineering teams fully focused on software development priorities
Having EPI-USE manage infrastructure has also freed Truelio's engineers to dedicate their time to software development, the core of Truelio's value proposition.
“EPI-USE has definitely been a partner to me and my team. We rely on them for the vision that we are trying to implement in our environment, and they come to us with solutions before we even know we have a problem.”
Why EPI-USE
EPI-USE is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner and AWS Validated Managed Service Provider, a designation earned through rigorous, independent audit confirming enterprise-grade capability across security, governance, financial management, and service delivery.
What sets EPI-USE apart is not just technical capability, but the way it operates as a true extension of its clients' teams. Rather than responding to problems after the fact, EPI-USE brings proactive insight, continuous optimization, and strategic guidance to every engagement. For Truelio, that meant arriving at the first conversation with subject matter experts rather than account managers and continuing to surface improvements throughout the relationship.
- Experts at the table from day one: EPI-USE leads every engagement with qualified cloud architects and AWS specialists, not sales representatives. Clients get answers, not pitches.
- Proactive operations, not reactive support: Intelligent monitoring, observability tooling, and automation-first practices mean EPI-USE identifies and resolves issues before they reach end users or trigger a support ticket.
- Embedded FinOps: Cost optimization is not a one-time project. EPI-USE integrates resource tagging, rightsizing, anomaly detection, and monthly cost reporting into daily managed services delivery, giving clients continuous visibility and control over cloud spend.
- Security and compliance by design: Multi-layered security implementation, CIS benchmark monitoring, automated patching, and audit-ready documentation are built into the platform from the start, not bolted on when an audit is approaching.
- Partnership, not a vendor relationship: EPI-USE regularly brings improvement recommendations to clients proactively, including suggestions that do not generate additional revenue. The measure of success is client outcomes, not ticket volume.
- AWS Validated MSP: EPI-USE holds the AWS Managed Service Provider validation, an independently audited designation that confirms consistent, enterprise-grade delivery across governance, security, and operational excellence.
- ITIL-aligned service management: 24/7 global coverage with structured incident, change, and problem management practices ensures that every issue is tracked, communicated, and resolved with accountability.
“It's not a client-vendor relationship, it's a partnership. I frequently get suggestions or calls from the team at EPI-USE telling me about what we can improve in our environment. Not everything is something that ultimately is going to become a billable item for EPI-USE, but they work alongside us continuously.”
About EPI-USE Services and AWS
EPI-USE is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner and AWS Validated MSP specializing in enterprise cloud migrations, managed AWS services, and SAP modernization. As a Next-Gen Managed Services Provider, EPI-USE provides assessment, development, migration, management, and optimization services, enabling clients to focus on their core business.
Through ITIL-aligned MSP practices and embedded FinOps, EPI-USE delivers continuous support that ensures compliance, cost efficiency, and operational excellence.
To learn more about our Cloud Migration Services and AWS Managed Services, email aws@epiuse.com or visit epiuse.com/aws-services
EPI-USE is an SAP® Gold Partner.
Our clients can be confident that EPI-USE is a capable, experienced, and reliable partner for their SAP needs. With our extensive expertise and proven experience in SAP systems, we enable our clients to realize new efficiencies, insights and opportunities for growth.
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