BMS optimizes cloud spend and supports business growth with Dynatrace

BMS, one of the world’s leading reinsurers, specializes in underwriting complex, high-value risks, from maritime vessels to major infrastructure projects. As the company expanded rapidly through strategic acquisitions, its global footprint and operational complexity grew in parallel. This expansion has brought new challenges, including managing regulatory compliance across diverse markets and overseeing an increasingly distributed technology stack.

To support its growth and keep pace with the broader industry shift toward digital transformation, BMS transitioned from on-premises infrastructure to a fully cloud-native environment. To accelerate this journey, many applications were migrated using a lift-and-shift approach. This allowed BMS to quickly take advantage of the cloud’s scalability and agility, though it also introduced some opportunities for improvement in resource efficiency.

BMS initially used its cloud provider’s native tooling to manage spend, which provided a helpful starting point. However, as their cloud environment grew in scale and complexity, the need for more detailed visibility became apparent. To optimize usage and align spending with business goals, BMS began looking for a more advanced FinOps solution one that could deliver real-time, itemized insights across their entire cloud ecosystem.

BMS partnered with the Dynatrace Extensions team to build a custom FinOps platform tailored to its unique needs. Unlike standard solutions, Dynatrace offered unified, real-time visibility into cloud spend across all regions, consolidated into a single dashboard.

With this enhanced observability, BMS could now monitor associated cloud costs with the underlying infrastructure. This transparency empowered teams to detect inefficiencies, understand usage patterns, and accurately allocate costs enabling more strategic, data-driven decisions.

“Before Dynatrace, cloud costs were just a number on a page like an invoice showing only the total,” said Steve Butler, Head of Observability at BMS. “Now we see an itemized view, broken down by service and region. The insights have completely changed the conversation around cloud spend. People are being held accountable and making more conscious decisions not just about turning applications on, but about how to run them in the most efficient way possible.”

• Reduced cloud spend: With real-time billing metrics ingested by Dynatrace Grail and made instantly queryable, BMS quickly uncovered inefficiencies and unlocked substantial savings in its first year. Rather than relying on quick fixes, BMS is now committed to ongoing optimization, ensuring cloud investments deliver long-term value.
• Faster insights: By automating daily spend tracking and anomaly alerts (such as any 5% day-over-day increase), BMS can react faster to irregularities in usage or billing. These proactive insights enable the company to adapt quickly, improving both operational efficiency and financial planning.
• Data-driven decisions: Dynatrace has helped foster an observability-first culture across BMS. With a single source of truth, teams collaborate more effectively and base decisions on real-time data rather than assumptions, boosting confidence and accountability at every level.
• Accelerated vulnerability response: Security is also a top priority. With multiple third-party developers contributing to its cloud-native environment, BMS has begun leveraging Dynatrace’s AppSec module to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities earlier in the development cycle. This proactive approach strengthens security posture while streamlining collaboration with external partners.

“As BMS continues to grow and expand into new markets, having visibility and control over cloud spend is essential,” Steve Butler concludes. “Dynatrace gives us the confidence that we’re investing wisely and scaling sustainably. It’s helping us stay agile in a complex environment and ensure our technology investments support business outcomes.”