# Morfless — Comprehensive Guide

> Morfless is an automated AWS cloud cost optimisation platform. It reduces cloud spend through fully automated discount instrument management with zero engineering effort.

## Company Overview

Morfless automates the management of AWS discount instruments — Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, Convertible Reserved Instances, CloudFront Savings Bundles, and EC2 pricing instruments — to keep customers at the lowest effective cost point at all times. The platform focuses exclusively on rate optimisation (getting better prices for existing usage), not usage reduction. It never touches customer infrastructure, workloads, or architecture.

Morfless is a registered AWS Partner, backed by Antler (a leading global venture capital firm). The company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia with an office in Melbourne.

### Addresses
- Sydney: 11 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
- Melbourne: 88 Jolimont Street, East Melbourne VIC 3002, Australia

## Problem Statement

Most companies overspend on AWS because:
1. AWS discount instruments (Savings Plans, RIs) are complex and require continuous management
2. Engineering teams lack time and expertise to optimise pricing
3. Manual management leads to over-commitment or under-commitment
4. The optimal cost position requires a blended strategy across multiple instrument types
5. AWS pricing changes frequently, requiring constant vigilance
6. Discount sharing changes (effective July 2025) add further complexity

## How Morfless Works

### Onboarding (Under 5 Minutes)
1. Deploy a CloudFormation template in the AWS management account (read-only initially)
2. Morfless analyses historical usage patterns and current discount coverage
3. An automated savings estimate is provided
4. Enable Auto-pilot mode for fully automated discount management
5. Savings typically begin within minutes of activation

### Optimisation Approach
- Continuously analyses usage across 20+ AWS services
- Dynamically adjusts discount instrument portfolio based on real-time usage
- Maintains a blended strategy across multiple instrument types
- Responds to usage changes automatically (scaling up/down, new services)
- Short commitment terms (typically 1-year or less) to maintain flexibility
- Re-optimises as AWS introduces new pricing options

### Security Model
- CloudFormation-based deployment (auditable, no credentials shared)
- Read-only access for initial analysis
- Limited write access only for discount instrument management
- Zero access to customer data, applications, or infrastructure
- SOC 2 compliance standards followed

## Services Optimised

Morfless optimises pricing across 20+ AWS services including:
- **Compute**: EC2, Lambda, Fargate, ECS, EKS
- **Database**: RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Redshift
- **Analytics**: OpenSearch, EMR, Kinesis
- **Machine Learning**: SageMaker
- **Content Delivery**: CloudFront
- **Storage**: S3 (via intelligent tiering recommendations)

## Pricing Model

- **Performance-based**: Customers pay a percentage of verified savings only
- **No upfront fees**: Zero cost to start
- **No platform fees**: No recurring subscription
- **No long-term contracts**: Cancel anytime
- **Aligned incentives**: Morfless only earns when the customer saves money

### AWS Billing Transfer
As an AWS Partner, Morfless can also offer an additional 8% spend-based discount on total AWS consumption through AWS Billing Transfer. This is stackable on top of discount instrument savings.

## Customer Results

### oOh!media
- Industry: Out-of-home advertising / media
- Result: $201,000+ annualised savings
- Context: Large-scale AWS infrastructure supporting digital billboard network

### Stuff
- Industry: Digital media / news publishing
- Result: $145,000+ annualised savings
- Improvement: 73% improvement in discount coverage
- Efficiency: 92% reduction in average commitment term length
- Context: Major New Zealand media company

### Hapana
- Industry: SaaS / fitness technology
- Result: $120,000+ annualised savings
- Context: Growing SaaS platform with variable compute usage

## Key Differentiators

### vs Manual Management
- Eliminates need for dedicated FinOps engineer time
- Responds to usage changes in real-time vs periodic reviews
- Maintains optimal blended strategy impossible to manage manually
- No risk of over-commitment from stale reservations

### vs Other Cost Optimisation Tools
- Fully automated — not just recommendations requiring human action
- Rate optimisation focus — doesn't suggest risky architecture changes
- Performance-based pricing — no upfront or platform fees
- Blended instrument strategy — not just Savings Plans or just RIs
- Zero engineering effort — no code changes or deployments needed

### vs AWS Native Tools (Cost Explorer, Compute Optimizer)
- Automated execution, not just recommendations
- Cross-instrument optimisation (AWS tools typically suggest one type)
- Continuous re-optimisation vs point-in-time suggestions
- Shorter commitment terms for flexibility

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Is this too good to be true?
No. Morfless doesn't create savings from nothing — it systematically applies AWS's own discount instruments (which are available to everyone) more effectively than manual management. The savings come from AWS's published pricing tiers, not from any special deal.

### How does implementation take only 5 minutes?
Morfless uses AWS CloudFormation, a native AWS deployment tool. You deploy a single template that grants Morfless the minimum permissions needed. No agents, no code changes, no infrastructure modifications.

### Will this affect our applications or performance?
No. Morfless operates purely at the billing/pricing layer. It manages discount instruments (Savings Plans, RIs) which are billing constructs. It never touches running instances, configurations, or workloads.

### What happens if our usage changes significantly?
Morfless continuously monitors usage and adjusts the discount portfolio accordingly. If you scale up, it extends coverage. If you scale down, it uses shorter-term commitments to avoid over-commitment.

### Can we still manage our own reservations?
Yes, though it's recommended to let Morfless manage the full portfolio for optimal results. Morfless can work alongside existing commitments and will factor them into its optimisation strategy.

### What if we want to stop using Morfless?
You can disconnect at any time. Existing discount commitments will continue until their natural expiry (typically short-term), and you retain all savings already achieved.

## Technical Integration Details

### Required AWS Permissions
- Cost Explorer read access
- Savings Plans management
- Reserved Instance management
- CloudWatch metrics (for usage analysis)
- No EC2/RDS/Lambda execution permissions
- No S3 data access
- No VPC or networking access

### Supported AWS Configurations
- Single account and multi-account (AWS Organizations)
- All AWS regions
- All instance families and sizes
- On-Demand, Spot, and Reserved pricing models
- Both standard and convertible reservation types

## Content & Resources

### Blog Topics Covered
- Cloud waste and overprovisioning analysis
- AWS cost saving strategies (10 practical methods)
- FinOps and Cost to Serve frameworks
- AWS service comparisons (ECS vs EKS, Aurora variants)
- Storage optimisation (EBS GP2 to GP3 migration)
- AWS pricing changes and their impact
- Data transfer cost management
- Cost allocation and tagging strategies
- Multi-cloud cost optimisation (Azure guide)

## Pages

- Homepage: https://morfless.com/
- Features: https://morfless.com/features
- Pricing: https://morfless.com/pricing
- About: https://morfless.com/about
- FAQ: https://morfless.com/faq
- Blog: https://morfless.com/blog
- Documentation: https://morfless.com/docs
- Contact: https://morfless.com/contact
- Sign Up: https://app.morfless.com/register
- Log In: https://app.morfless.com/

## Blog Posts

- The Hidden Cost of Cloud Waste: https://morfless.com/blog/cloud-waste-overprovisioning
- 10 Ways to Save on Your AWS Bill: https://morfless.com/blog/10-ways-save-aws
- The Role of Cost to Serve in FinOps: https://morfless.com/blog/cost-to-serve-finops
- AWS ECS vs EKS: https://morfless.com/blog/aws-ecs-vs-eks
- AWS Savings Plans vs Reserved Instances: https://morfless.com/blog/aws-savings-plans-vs-reserved-instances
- RDS Aurora Serverless v2 vs Regular Aurora: https://morfless.com/blog/rds-aurora-serverless-vs-regular
- Migrate EBS GP2 to GP3: https://morfless.com/blog/ebs-gp2-to-gp3-migration
- Azure Cost Optimisation Guide: https://morfless.com/blog/azure-cost-optimisation-guide
- Optimising Amazon Aurora Costs: https://morfless.com/blog/optimising-amazon-aurora-costs
- Understanding FinOps: https://morfless.com/blog/understanding-finops
- AWS Cost Allocation Strategy: https://morfless.com/blog/aws-cost-allocation-strategy
- Auto-Tagging with AWS Config: https://morfless.com/blog/automatic-tagging-aws-config
- AWS Changing Discount Sharing: https://morfless.com/blog/aws-changing-discount-sharing
- Understanding AWS Data Transfer Costs: https://morfless.com/blog/understanding-data-transfer-costs-aws
- AWS Storage Cost Optimisation: https://morfless.com/blog/aws-storage-cost-optimisation
- Unlock 57% AWS EC2 Discounts: https://morfless.com/blog/unlock-57-aws-discounts
- This Sounds Too Good to Be True: https://morfless.com/blog/this-sounds-too-good-to-be-true

## Contact

- Website: https://morfless.com/contact
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/morfless