Cloud Cost Optimization

A comprehensive FinOps initiative that reduced cloud spending by 45% through visibility, optimization, and governance.

The Challenge

A fast-growing company's cloud costs spiraled:

• Bill shock - Costs doubling every quarter
• No visibility - Nobody knew what was spending
• Waste - Unused resources running 24/7
• No accountability - Shared accounts, unclear ownership

They needed control over cloud spending.

Our Approach

We implemented a FinOps practice with tooling and governance.

FinOps Framework

1. Inform - Visibility into costs and usage
2. Optimize - Right-sizing and waste elimination
3. Operate - Governance and continuous improvement

The Solution

Cost Visibility

• Real-time cost dashboards
• Team-level allocation
• Anomaly detection
• Forecasting and budgets

Optimization

• Right-sizing recommendations
• Reserved instance planning
• Spot instance adoption
• Waste identification

Governance

• Tagging enforcement
• Budget alerts
• Cost approval workflows
• Showback/chargeback

Automation

• Auto-shutdown for dev environments
• Zombie resource cleanup
• RI and Savings Plan purchasing
• Continuous optimization

Technology Stack

Results & Impact

The initiative delivered massive savings:

• 45% reduction in monthly cloud spend
• $2M+ saved in the first year
• Real-time visibility for all teams
• Automated cleanup of waste resources

Optimization Strategies

Compute Optimization

• Right-size oversized instances
• Convert to spot/preemptible
• Reserved instances for steady-state
• Auto-scaling tuning

Storage Optimization

• Lifecycle policies
• Tiering to cheaper storage
• Delete unused snapshots
• Compression and deduplication

Client Testimonial

"We went from $500K monthly cloud bills to under $300K without impacting performance. The visibility alone changed how teams think about cloud resources."

— CFO, Tech Company

---

Controlling cloud costs? Contact us to discuss FinOps implementation.