Cloud Cost Optimization: 7 Strategies That Saved Our Clients 40%
Proven FinOps strategies including right-sizing, reserved instances, and automated scaling policies.
Cloud costs can spiral out of control if not managed properly. Over the past 16 years, we have refined a set of FinOps strategies that consistently deliver significant cost reductions for our enterprise clients.
Right-Sizing Your Instances
The most common source of cloud waste is over-provisioned instances. We analyze CPU, memory, and network utilization patterns over a 30-day window to identify instances that can be downsized. On average, 40% of instances in a typical enterprise environment are over-provisioned by at least one instance size. Right-sizing alone typically saves 15-20% on compute costs.
Reserved Instances & Savings Plans
For predictable workloads, Reserved Instances and Savings Plans offer 30-60% discounts compared to on-demand pricing. We help clients analyze their usage patterns to determine the optimal commitment level. The key is balancing the discount against flexibility, as committing too aggressively can lead to waste if workloads change.
Automated Scaling & Scheduling
Development and staging environments do not need to run 24/7. We implement automated scheduling to shut down non-production resources outside business hours, saving up to 65% on those workloads. For production, we configure auto-scaling policies that respond to actual demand rather than maintaining peak capacity at all times.
Storage Optimization
Storage costs often fly under the radar but can represent 20-30% of total cloud spend. We implement S3 Intelligent-Tiering for object storage to automatically move data between access tiers. For EBS volumes, we identify and delete unattached volumes, convert gp2 to gp3 for better price-performance, and implement snapshot lifecycle policies to avoid accumulating outdated backups.
Monitoring & Governance
Sustainable cost optimization requires ongoing governance. We implement AWS Cost Explorer dashboards with custom reports for each business unit, set up budget alerts to catch spending anomalies early, and establish tagging policies to enable accurate cost allocation. Regular monthly reviews ensure optimization gains are maintained and new opportunities are identified as workloads evolve.