From Complexity to Clarity: How NCI Modernized Cloud Operations and Cost Management with Datadog

Federal agencies are accelerating their move to the cloud: Three-quarters of the 200 leaders surveyed for the 2025 ICF-Meritalk Federal Software Reimagined report said adapting modern software practices is critical to mission success, and nearly all (93%) expect cloud-native development to play a major role in that effort.

However, increased reliance on the cloud brings risks, including higher costs and potential security vulnerabilities. Agencies must ensure every dollar spent on technology directly supports mission success while maintaining the highest level of security.

Navigating Federal Constraints

Federal agencies such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI) face unique challenges that go beyond those encountered in commercial cloud adoption. Procurement constraints, combined with the need to integrate legacy systems, further complicate modernization efforts. Addressing these realities requires tailored approaches that align with federal frameworks while still driving mission-critical outcomes.

Modernizing cloud platform management is quickly becoming an imperative.

When NCI sought to improve its monitoring and cloud cost management, it turned to ICF for guidance. Together, they leveraged Datadog’s observability platform to transform NCI’s cloud management into a smarter solution with a built-in intelligence layer (Datadog Watchdog) and greater financial transparency through stakeholder-centric dashboards of cloud costs by application, business group, and cloud service.

Finding the Right Cloud Cost Management Fit

There’s no shortage of observability tools for cloud infrastructure and application performance monitoring, so NCI engaged ICF to conduct a thorough Analysis of Alternatives and multiple Proof of Concept (POCs) to help determine which solution best matched their needs, including:

• Delivering cloud monitoring, cost management, and full-stack observability
• Leveraging AI optimization and a ServiceNow integration
• Offering a multi-cloud, single-pane view

Ultimately, ICF recommended Datadog’s unified platform— a recognized leader in observability that addresses both cloud infrastructure and application monitoring. Selecting Datadog provided NCI with several benefits, including:

• Over 25% savings in licensing costs with a streamlined CCM implementation
• Improved cost correlation with application portfolios and performance metrics
• Increased efficiency through better collaboration and faster incident response
• Improved cost visibility and implemented AI-based optimization recommendations for more than 300 AWS and GCP accounts
• Streamlined operations by managing 700+ infrastructure hosts across multiple applications in a centralized view
• Unified dashboards logically grouped by applications and business units to review cost threshold monitors and optimize cloud spend across accounts

“Providing visibility into how applications and infrastructure perform across multi-cloud and hybrid environments, and how those resources are being consumed through a showback model, allows NCI teams to make informed recommendations for cost savings, budgeting, and forecasting.”

Krish Seshadri
Federal Cloud Lead at NCI

“Connecting cloud performance with financial data gives leaders a clearer picture of value, and NCI is setting a great example of how Cloud Cost Management and modernization can work together to drive mission success.”

Jimmy Cesario
Regional Vice President, Datadog

Harnessing the power of AI and Cloud Cost Management

Looking ahead, ICF continues to support NCI’s efforts to derive additional value from its Datadog investment. One avenue is Datadog’s Watchdog tool, which incorporates AI to understand patterns in cloud application vulnerabilities and usage. This data would help NCI leaders make decisions about where and when to increase or decrease spending on cloud capabilities, driving efficiencies while lowering overall costs.

NCI is also integrating Datadog with the ServiceNow platform, enabling actionable and trackable insights within its established ITSM tool. Through this integration—currently in its pilot phase—ServiceNow will automatically create tickets based on Datadog alerts and recommendations, routing them to the appropriate operational teams for resolution.

Thanks to this implementation, NCI has empowered its leaders to make faster, smarter decisions about cloud-related costs, reducing financial waste and improving efficiency across the agency. Through its ongoing partnership with NCI on this and other mission-critical digital modernization initiatives, ICF is helping advance the agency’s mission to lead, conduct, and support cancer research that enables Americans to live longer, healthier lives. Discover how ICF can help your agency reduce costs, mitigate risk, and accelerate mission outcomes at https://www.icf.com/work/federal-it-modernization.