How Emplifi scaled product to serve their 20K customers with North.Cloud

Managing cloud costs across a fast-growing, highly acquisitive company is complicated enough. Add in the rigid commitment structures from cloud providers, and it becomes practically impossible.

That’s exactly where Emplifi found themselves, until they started working with North.Cloud.

"North.Cloud solves a real problem with cloud costs. I've managed cloud spend since the beginning of cloud. And time and time again, I've watched companies waste money because the savings plans from cloud providers don’t actually save you money in the end. They cost more."

With North.Cloud, Emplifi found a way to break free from restrictive savings plans, stay flexible through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and save an average of 26% per month—all without impacting their team’s workflow. 

This enabled them to gain strategic freedom, cut waste, and doubled down on engineering and product growth for their 20K+ customers.

1. Cloud providers made it hard to see waste

Skyler had been managing cloud spend since the earliest days of cloud infrastructure. With years of experience, he understood the complexity of navigating cloud pricing and the limitations of built-in discount programs.

On paper, savings plans and discount programs looked helpful. But in practice? They often buried inefficiencies instead of surfacing them.

"The savings opportunities offered by cloud providers abstract raw waste, making it difficult to see where you have optimization opportunities."

Instead of clear line-of-sight into where resources were underutilized or over-provisioned, Skyler was left guessing. He had to navigate limited dashboards, fragmented data, and generic recommendations that didn’t reflect the reality of Emplifi’s infrastructure.

"Time and time again, I’ve seen companies spend more than expected because traditional cloud savings plans don’t always deliver the value they promise."

2. Long-term commitments didn’t fit an acquisitive business

On top of that, Emplifi’s fast-moving business model didn’t always fit the rigid structure of traditional savings plans.

With six mergers and acquisitions in just a few years, their infrastructure was constantly evolving. New products, new teams, new environments. Everything was in motion. Locking into rigid 1-to-3 year savings plans meant gambling on future usage they couldn’t accurately predict.

"Your commitment level is too long. If you're going through M&A or making any kind of change, it’s practically impossible to do that with the savings plans cloud providers offer."

Instead of flexibility, those plans became a liability forcing Emplifi to either overcommit and risk waste, or undercommit and leave savings on the table.

Skyler needed a solution that didn’t force that tradeoff.

After exploring their options, Emplifi found that North.Cloud offered the flexibility they needed, the savings they wanted, and the transparency they hadn’t seen anywhere else.

Here’s some of the key reasons he chose North.Cloud:

• The ability to decouple from rigid commitments: "North has provided the ability for us to decouple from the constraints that cloud providers have created. It gives us the flexibility to move accounts and resources around across clouds."
• Zero disruption to engineering workflows: "There's been zero impact on my team's workflow. That's important. If someone’s considering North.Cloud, they’re probably going to ask: 'What’s the overhead?' And the answer is: none."
• A partnership built on transparency and value: “You focus on lowering our costs, and we’ll only spend more money with you. Bring value to my business, and you will have my business."
• A trial-first approach that earned trust: "There are competitors out there doing this differently, and they’re really shady. So when North.Cloud was presented to us, I was highly skeptical. But Matt didn’t push the product. He just said: try it. If you see the value, great. If not, no harm, no foul. That’s why I tried it."

With North.Cloud, Emplifi didn’t just save money—they unlocked strategic flexibility, accelerated product development, and strengthened relationships with their cloud partners. 

Here’s what they gained:

1. The flexibility to adapt through rapid M&A

Emplifi’s cloud infrastructure had to support rapid business change—acquisitions, product shifts, team reorgs. But cloud savings plans weren’t built for that. North.Cloud gave them the flexibility to scale resources up or down without being locked into rigid multi-year commitments. 

“That flexibility is essential when you’re going through M&A or any kind of transformation.”​

2. Top-tier savings performance

Emplifi achieved material cost savings with a 100% utilization rate—placing them in the top 1% of savers with their cloud provider.

3. The ability to reinvest savings into product growth

The savings Emplifi achieved with North.Cloud weren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. With 50+ AI products and features built in-house, every dollar saved on infrastructure meant dollars reallocated toward product development: more engineers, faster shipping, and more innovation.

“The savings we’re recognizing through North.Cloud have allowed us to reinvest resources into engineering; to further our products for our customers.”​

4. Strengthened trust with cloud providers

Even while using a third-party platform, Emplifi kept a positive relationship with their cloud provider. In fact, the cloud provider was impressed. At a recent QBR, they asked how North was working and Skyler’s response was simple:

“They’re freaking amazing.”​

North.Cloud isn’t just helping Emplifi save today—it’s enabling long-term agility, infrastructure alignment, and cost predictability through constant change.

“North.Cloud serves both our short-term and long-term strategy. In the short term, it covers our savings plan fleet. In the long term, it gives us the ability to scale resources up and down without incurring unplanned or unbudgeted costs.”

As a highly acquisitive business, Emplifi’s infrastructure is always evolving—mergers, team realignments, and product shifts are the norm. North.Cloud gives them the flexibility to adapt without compromising financial discipline.

“North.Cloud is our gap strategy. It lets us move fast today and stay smart long term.”