// cloud cost · 2022 → 2026
Measure first, then cut
Every saving started with data: flow logs, utilisation history or a line in the bill. Each change landed with the numbers that justified it in the pull request.
- measure
- attribute
- change
- verify
Documented monthly AWS savings≈ $1.3k / month from the first three alone
Container Insights: enhanced → standard $620/mo
Duplicate CloudTrail trails removed $450/mo
BI network: 3 AZs and NATs → 1 $270/mo
VPC flow logs off (per account) $250/mo
Also cut, from measured utilisation
- Traced ~1.2 TB/day of CI NAT traffic; replaced managed NAT with endpoints, image caching and fck-nat
- Halved CPU and memory on services idling at 1–3% CPU
- Right-sized Redis after 15 months under 4% CPU
- Non-production environments scale down every night
# in practice
- Spend tracks real usage, and every cut has the evidence behind it on record.
- The NAT investigation became a reusable audit any engineer can rerun.