The Challenge
Why Cloud Resources Go to Waste
It is easy to start resources in the cloud and easy to forget them. Oversized and idle resources keep running, and keep costing money.
Is This Relevant?
Is This Use Case Relevant to Your Organization?
The people, moments and signals that usually bring this need to the surface.
Relevant Teams
- Cloud and platform teams
- Engineering teams
- Finance and FinOps
Common Triggers
- A cloud bill above plan
- Budget reviews or renewals
- Rapid growth in cloud usage
Warning Signs
- Resources with low utilization
- Non-production environments running all week
- Storage and snapshots with no clear owner
Typical Environments
- Public cloud, in one or more providers
- Hybrid environments where cloud is a growing share of spend
Benefits
What Better Looks Like
Intended benefits. Actual results depend on your environment and starting point.
Our Approach
A Practical Approach
A repeatable cycle, so savings last rather than fading after a one-off clean-up. Each stage is tailored to your environment.
Assess
Review billing and usage data, tagging, account structure and current cost practices.
Prioritize
Rank what you find by business impact, effort and risk, and agree where to start.
Design
Agree the allocation model, reporting, budgets and the owners of each cost area.
Implement
Set up cost reporting and alerts, and apply agreed right-sizing and clean-up changes.
Validate and Optimize
Check that changes hold performance, and compare spend with the agreed baseline.
Solutions
Solutions That Can Help
The solutions that address this use case, starting with the primary one.
Services
How Signisys Can Support You
The services that deliver the approach, from the first assessment to ongoing improvement.
Technology
Technology Options
Where technology fits in the approach. Specific platforms and partner status are confirmed for each engagement.
Before You Start
What to Consider Before Getting Started
A little preparation makes the first assessment faster and its findings more reliable.
- Performance requirements before resizing
- Tagging and ownership of resources
- Schedules for non-production environments
- Existing commitments and reserved capacity
- Who will own the work and act on recommendations
- Engagement model and ongoing support
Measuring Success
How to Measure Success
Illustrative measures. Agree a baseline first, and keep targets separate from measured results.
Idle Resources
Resources running with little or no use.
Utilization
How much provisioned capacity is used.
Waste Removed
Monthly cost of resources removed or right-sized.
Tagged Resources
The share of resources with an owner tag.
Our Approach
How We Deliver Results
How Signisys works, from the first assessment to handover and beyond.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this use case.
How do we find waste in our cloud environment?
Usage and billing data show resources with low utilization, environments that run around the clock and storage nobody uses. A review of that data gives a prioritized list.
Will right-sizing affect performance?
Changes are based on measured usage and checked against performance requirements before they are applied, and can be reversed if needed.
What information is needed to get started?
Read access to billing and usage data, the list of accounts or subscriptions, tagging conventions and owners of key workloads.
Which environments does this apply to?
Public cloud, in one or more providers, and hybrid environments where cloud is part of the spend.
How is progress measured?
Agree a baseline for measures such as idle resources, utilization, waste removed and tagged resources, then track them over time.
Related Content
Related Outcomes, Use Cases and Guides
Where to go next: the outcome this use case supports, nearby scenarios, technology partners and practical guides.
Business Outcome
Reduce IT Costs and Get More Value from Technology
Use Case
Reduce Cloud Costs
Problem Explainer
What Causes Cloud Waste? Common Problems and Warning Signs
Coming soon
How-To Guide
How to Optimize Cloud Resources and Reduce Waste: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide
Coming soon
Checklist
Optimize Cloud Resources and Reduce Waste Checklist: What IT Teams Should Assess
Coming soon
Decision Guide
How to Choose the Right Approach to Optimize Cloud Resources and Reduce Waste: Options and Trade-Offs
Coming soon
Stop Paying for Idle Cloud
Share your current challenges and priorities with Signisys to explore an approach suited to your environment.