A major construction enterprise in the Middle East partnered with stc Bahrain to modernize its IT operations and build a resilient, secure, and scalable AWS cloud environment. With 18 interconnected branch locations and critical workloads centralized in a single on-premises site, the organization required a strategic shift to eliminate operational risk and ensure business continuity.
Through a governance-first transformation and implementation of AWS multi-account architecture, the organization achieved enterprise-grade disaster recovery, compliance automation, and cost optimization—positioning itself for long-term resilience and operational excellence.
The Challenge
The organization’s legacy infrastructure lacked the controls and flexibility needed for modern, distributed operations. Key pain points included:
• Single Point of Failure: All operations were tied to one physical location, posing a major business continuity risk.
• No Centralized Governance: Each branch operated independently, with inconsistent policies and minimal visibility.
• Manual Audit Preparation: Security audit reporting required over 3 weeks of effort with no automation.
• Uncontrolled Cloud Spend: Up to 30% budget variance due to lack of tagging, allocation, or budget enforcement.
• Non-Compliance Risks: No enforcement of security baselines or adherence to construction industry regulations.
The Solution
stc Bahrain delivered a robust AWS-native solution that enabled business continuity, operational maturity, and financial governance:
1. Multi-Account Governance Architecture
• Implemented AWS Organizations and Control Tower for account hierarchy and lifecycle control.
• Applied Service Control Policies (SCPs) for access governance and security policy enforcement.
• Enabled Azure federated identity across all AWS accounts.
• Centralized logging and audit tracking using AWS Config and CloudTrail.
2. Disaster Recovery with Governance Controls
• Deployed AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) to replicate 14 on-prem servers in real time.
• Designed multi-VPC architecture with production, recovery, and networking layers.
• Enabled automated failover, branch VPN connectivity, and real-time policy synchronization.
3. Observability and Monitoring
• Centralized performance and compliance dashboards via Amazon CloudWatch and CloudWatch Dashboards.
• Integrated alerting, audit trails, and threat detection using GuardDuty, Security Hub, and SNS.
4. Financial Operations Enablement (FinOps)
• Introduced tagging governance across branches and projects for accurate spend tracking.
• Enforced budget controls using AWS Budgets and enabled cost optimization via Cost Explorer.
• Streamlined cost visibility and audit readiness through automation.
Key Benefits
✅ Guaranteed Business Continuity
Achieved sub-10-minute recovery time across 18 locations via automated DR.
✅ 98% Policy Compliance
Unified governance framework with real-time enforcement and automated validation.
✅ >99% Reduction in Audit Prep Time
Dropped audit preparation time from 3 weeks to under 2 hours.
✅ $873K in Cost Savings over 5 Years
Reduced TCO by 67.5% compared to on-prem alternative through governance-driven optimization.
✅ Scalable Governance Framework
Enabled rapid onboarding of future branches and construction projects with built-in security, compliance, and observability.
AWS Services Used
Governance & Management
• AWS Organizations
• AWS Control Tower
• AWS Config
• AWS CloudTrail
• AWS IAM + Azure Federation
Disaster Recovery & Continuity
• AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS)
• Amazon EC2, EBS Snapshots
• AWS DataSync
• Amazon FSx
Networking & Connectivity
• Amazon VPC, Transit Gateway
• AWS Site-to-Site VPN
• EC2 VPN Concentrator
Monitoring & Security
• Amazon CloudWatch
• AWS GuardDuty
• AWS Security Hub
• Amazon SNS
Cost & Operations
• AWS Budgets
• AWS Cost Explorer
• AWS Trusted Advisor
Conclusion
This engagement demonstrates how governance-focused AWS cloud architecture can transform legacy operations in highly distributed, compliance-sensitive industries like construction. With centralized policy management, automated disaster recovery, and financial governance, the customer now operates on a secure, scalable foundation—ready to expand into new markets with full operational confidence.
Contact our Cloud Governance specialists today at [email protected] to learn how we can transform your cloud operations through advanced AWS governance frameworks.
