Slash your AWS Bill while Serving 26M Users

AWS Cost Optimization
Saved 15% on AWS with 26M Users Without Performance Hit

Levels.fyi has shared their journey of reducing cloud costs. Over the last 12 months, they served over 650 million pages to more than 26 million unique visitors.

Here’s what they did:

• Analyzing Costs: They used AWS Cost Explorer. Found out CloudFront was costly.

• Removing Unused EC2 Instances: They turned off unneeded EC2 instances. This saved around $700/month.

• Investigating ElastiCache: Found an inactive ElastiCache instance. After double-checking, they removed it.

• S3 Data Management: Moved old data to cheaper storage. Ensured processes weren’t triggered wrongly.

• Autoscaling for ECS: Adjusted autoscaling to match current traffic. Reduced unnecessary running instances.

• Upgrading RDS and Lambda: Upgraded to t4g processors and gp3 disks. Migrated to ARM instances for better performance.

• Cleaning Up ECR and CloudWatch: Set lifecycle rules for Docker images. Reduced retention time for logs.

By making these changes, they saved about 15% on cloud costs.

Company Culture
Startups: Master Cloud Costs with FinOps

Startups can optimize cloud costs with FinOps practices. Here’s a quick guide:

Startups’ Cloud Cost Challenges:

1. Overspending: Unused resources can drain your cloud budget.

2. Lack of Cost Visibility: Without monitoring, you can’t see where money goes.

3. Unforeseen Costs: Scaling can cause unexpected spikes in bills.

Building a FinOps Culture:

1. Set Budgets & Track Usage: Monitor and optimize cloud spending.

2. Rightsize Resources: Regularly adjust to match usage.

3. Encourage Responsibility: Teach your team about cost implications.

4. Adopt Serverless: Only pay for computing resources used.

5. Use Automation: Automate to manage idle resources and scaling.

6. Optimize Storage: Efficiently manage data storage.

7. Leverage Discounts: Use reserved instances for cost savings.

8. Cost Allocation Tags: Improve visibility and accountability with tagging.

Start controlling your cloud costs today for a sustainable future!

ERP
Can ERP leverage FinOps for cost efficiency?

FinOps is transforming how enterprises manage finances in the cloud era:

Key Impacts

• Enterprises optimize system deployments for cost and performance.

• CFOs focus on AI-supported data analysis and regulatory compliance.

• Enhances accuracy in spend management and procurement.

Expert Insights

• Tim Wakeford from Workday highlights FinOps’ role in financial efficiency.

• Brian Adler of Flexera discusses hidden costs in SaaS software.

Challenges and Adaptations

• Economic turbulence influences CFOs to prioritize cost reduction.

• AI adoption impacts financial strategies and cost tracking.

• Organizations need to evolve FinOps practices to handle AI expenses better.

FinOps is key to smarter cloud cost management and operational efficiency.

Great post by Adrian Bridgewater.

AWS
Optimizing Amazon CloudWatch Costs in Under 5 Minutes

Steph shows in this quick guide how to:

• See what is driving your Amazon CloudWatch costs

• Which log group is ingesting the most data

• How to see what log time is occurring the most.

Using this information we will be able to optimize your logging costs, to save you from unnecessary spend!

Data Management
DBT simplifies FinOps data management and transformation.

DBT and FinOps data can work really well together. Here’s what you need to know:

• Cost Allocation: It means understanding “what costs what?” in your business. This helps in figuring out expenses better.

• Tool Introduction: DBT is key for managing big data projects. It works by organizing and refining messy data into one place.

• From ETL to ELT: ELT means Extract, Load, Transform. This makes data transformations more flexible and easier to update.

• Why DBT?: It connects different data sources for Business Intelligence (BI). This makes data valuable and helps build a complete picture of company operations.

Mastering tools like DBT can level up your FinOps data management.

Mention of Honour Special

Deserved for recent discoveries that are inspiring for the FinOps community.

🎖️ Mention of Honour
My Journey to Certification Success

Tinotenda has shared an interesting story about his journey to getting the Cloud Certified Practitioner Certification:

Tips for Success

• Review the course content thoroughly.

• Understand real-world applications.

• Use YouTube and podcasts.

• Don’t stress, you have 3 attempts.

The Impact

• FinOps certification transformed my career.

• Helped in cross-functional cloud cost discussions.

• Added value to client projects.

FinOps certification can greatly enhance your career in cloud management. Happy studying!

Professional Spotlight
Cloud Native Engineer by Giuseppe Santoro

Are you feeling lost in tutorials?

Are you seeking content beyond the basics?

Check the Cloud Native Engineer newsletter, led by Giuseppe. He is a seasoned senior software engineer with over a decade of experience in both startups and established companies such as Elastic.

He wrote a great article regarding observability, a crucial component of the Cloud.

Bonus
🏆️ Quick Wins

For those seeking more content, this section will provide additional resources.

• Michiel van Oudheusden is launching a new newsletter called Azure FinOps Essentials

• What’s New In Cloud FinOps Interview with TJ and Deana Solis: The Social Aspects of FinOps

• CloudPouch (AWS FinOps Tool) recent updates.

• CloudMercato News for July including recent Alibaba updates.

• FinOps Beyond Cost Optimization by Orit Yaron

That’s all for this week. See you next Sunday!

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