Managing Data Operations and Cost Optimization at Cognizant

Shivanshu joined Cognizant as a Programming Analyst on the MGM Resorts account, a large US-based client with complex data operations spanning development, deployment, and UAT environments.

He sat at the intersection of the client and Cognizant's internal delivery teams. His primary responsibility was L1 escalation management: when system failures occurred in live operations, he was the first point of contact, responsible for diagnosing the issue and coordinating the response across teams.

Beyond incident management, he identified opportunities to optimize system costs using Microsoft Azure's utilization monitoring tools. He tracked resource consumption across owned systems, proposed cuts where utilization data supported them, and monitored outcomes over multi-month windows to validate whether the changes held.

He reported findings to the client on a fortnightly cadence, presenting performance indicators and the impact of optimization decisions in structured review calls. This feedback loop was the primary mechanism for demonstrating the value of changes made.