Services // AWS Cost Optimization
Find out what your AWS bill is actually paying for.
I work as an AWS cost optimization consultant out of Delhi NCR, going through accounts that have grown for years without anyone revisiting the choices that were made early on. Most of the time the bill isn't wrong because of one bad decision it's a hundred small ones nobody circled back to.
This isn't about aggressively shutting things down and hoping nothing breaks. It's about knowing why each dollar is being spent, and only cutting what genuinely doesn't need to be there.
Start with a cost audit →Where the savings actually come from
Rarely just "turn it off"
Cost Audit & Right-Sizing
Going through Cost Explorer line by line oversized EC2 instances, RDS running at 4% CPU, EBS volumes attached to nothing, that one NAT gateway quietly costing more than the app it serves. Most audits find savings in the first afternoon.
Reserved Instances & Savings Plans
Committing to the wrong instance family or term length can lock you into savings that aren't actually savings. I model your actual usage pattern first, then recommend commitments that match it not just whatever the AWS console suggests by default.
Billing Anomaly Detection
Setting up alerts that catch a runaway Lambda or a misconfigured data transfer before it shows up as a five-figure surprise on next month's invoice, instead of after.
Architecture Changes for Cost
Sometimes the real fix isn't a smaller instance, it's a different pattern entirely moving a scheduled job off EC2 and onto Lambda, replacing a self-managed database with a serverless option, caching what doesn't need to hit the database every time.
How people usually work with me on this
Flat fee, scoped after I've actually seen the account
One-Time Cost Audit
A focused pass through your account with a report of exactly where money is going and what to do about it, ranked by effort versus savings. Flat fee, usually pays for itself in the first month.
Cost Optimization Project
I implement the changes myself right-sizing, commitment purchases, architecture fixes rather than just handing you a list and leaving.
Ongoing FinOps Review
A recurring check-in so cost doesn't quietly creep back up as your infrastructure grows. Useful for teams shipping fast who don't want to think about the bill every week.
How an audit actually runs
Four steps, nothing hidden
Pull the bill apart
Which services, which teams, which environments are actually driving cost not just the total number at the bottom of the invoice.
Find what's safe to change today
Unattached volumes, idle instances, oversized databases the changes with no real risk and immediate savings.
Decide on commitments
Reserved Instances or Savings Plans, sized against your actual usage pattern rather than a guess, so you're not overcommitted six months from now.
Put guardrails in place
Budgets, alerts, and tagging that make the next cost spike visible in days, not discovered on next month's invoice.
Questions people actually ask
Before the discovery call
How much can I actually expect to save?
It genuinely varies I've seen accounts drop 15%, I've seen accounts drop 45%, depending on how much attention the account has had before. I won't give you a number until I've actually looked at your usage; anyone who quotes a percentage before that is guessing.
Do you charge a percentage of the savings, or a flat fee?
Flat fee, agreed upfront after the audit. A percentage-of-savings model sounds appealing but tends to push toward aggressive changes that aren't always the right call for stability I'd rather be paid for the work, not incentivized to overreach.
Will cost optimization make my systems less reliable?
Done carelessly, yes that's the actual risk with a lot of quick cost-cutting advice online. Done properly, right-sizing and commitment purchases don't touch reliability at all; the architecture changes that do affect performance get tested before anything goes near production.
Is this just about turning off unused resources?
That's part of it, and usually the easiest win, but it's rarely where the biggest savings are. The bigger numbers tend to come from commitment strategy and architecture choices which service the workload actually needs, not just how big the current one is.
Do you help decide between Reserved Instances and Savings Plans?
Yes they solve overlapping problems but aren't interchangeable, and the AWS console doesn't always make the tradeoff obvious. I model both against your actual usage before recommending either.
How often should AWS costs actually be reviewed?
For a growing account, quarterly at minimum usage patterns shift faster than most teams expect, and last year's Reserved Instance purchase can be the wrong fit within months. For a stable, slow-changing account, once or twice a year is usually enough.
See what's actually driving your bill.
Most audits pay for themselves before the invoice for them even arrives.
Get in touch →