Reducing AWS bills by fixing what drives the spend

Context

The OpsBreak team has worked with clients to reduce what they pay for AWS.

Client details are withheld for confidentiality, so this page describes the work in general terms.

The challenge

AWS bills tend to grow over time as resources are added and rarely removed. Without clear ownership and tagging, it is hard to see which team or service is driving the cost.

What we did

1. 1

   Find where the money goes

   We break the bill down by service, account and workload to see which resources cost the most.

2. 2

   Remove waste

   Idle and oversized resources are shut down or resized so the client stops paying for capacity it does not use.

3. 3

   Use the right pricing

   Steady workloads are matched to commitment pricing and flexible ones to cheaper capacity where it fits.

4. 4

   Keep it down

   Tagging, budgets and alerts help the client see new spend early instead of at the end of the month.

Results

• Lower AWS bills for the same workloads
• Clear visibility of which services drive cost
• Budgets and alerts that flag new spend early