Guide
Cloud Cost Optimization Guide for AWS and Azure
Cloud cost optimisation is not about cutting everything. It is about finding waste, improving visibility, creating ownership, and reducing spend without breaking performance or resilience.
CFOsCTOsFinOpsEngineering leaders
11 min read Updated June 2026
What this guide covers
- Why cloud costs get out of control
- The first seven places to look for savings
- AWS and Azure checklists
- What not to cut blindly
- A simple cost governance model
AWS & Azure specialists·80%+ certified technical team·80+ clients supported·£1.8M+ cloud savings identified·Practical support, not just advice
Prepared by IG CloudOps cloud specialists. Reviewed by our AWS and Azure certified engineering team. Last updated June 2026.
Why cloud costs get out of control
- Unused or idle resources
- Oversized compute
- Poor tagging
- Forgotten dev / test environments
- Over-retention of logs and backups
- Expensive storage tiers
- Unused reserved capacity
- Data transfer surprises
- Lack of ownership
- No regular review process
First seven places to look for savings
- 1.Idle compute (stopped but billed, forgotten test boxes)
- 2.Oversized instances (CPU and memory utilisation low)
- 3.Storage tiers (cold data on hot storage)
- 4.Backup retention (over-retained snapshots and vaults)
- 5.Logging and monitoring volume (verbose by default)
- 6.Reserved instance / savings plan coverage
- 7.Non-production environments running 24/7
Want a quick view of where your AWS or Azure spend is leaking?
Run a cloud cost reviewAWS cost optimisation checklist
- EC2 right-sizing
- RDS right-sizing
- EBS volume cleanup
- S3 lifecycle policies
- NAT gateway cost patterns
- CloudWatch log retention
- Savings Plans coverage
- Reserved Instances
- Trusted Advisor review
- Cost Explorer tagging and views
- Consistent tagging strategy
Azure cost optimisation checklist
- VM right-sizing
- Azure Hybrid Benefit
- Reserved instances
- Storage tiering and lifecycle
- Log Analytics ingestion tuning
- App Service Plan sizing
- SQL right-sizing
- Backup retention
- Cost Management views
- Azure Advisor
- Resource tagging
Want the checklist version?
Use this guide as a starting point, then speak to IG CloudOps if you want a practical review of your AWS or Azure environment.
What not to cut blindly
Optimisation that breaks production isn't optimisation.
- Backups
- Monitoring
- Security logging
- Redundancy
- Production headroom
- Disaster recovery
- Compliance evidence
Cost governance model
Savings stick when ownership and rhythm are built in.
- Tagging standards
- Budget alerts
- Ownership by team
- Monthly review rhythm
- Forecasting
- Approval rules
- Environment lifecycle policy
- Architecture review for new workloads
- FinOps-style accountability
How IG CloudOps helps
AWS and Azure cost reviews
Cloud savings assessments
Waste identification and prioritisation
Safe optimisation plan with engineering support
Cost governance setup
Reporting and forecasting
Ongoing monitoring through CloudOps platform
Frequently asked questions
Related guides
Related resources
Need help turning this into action?
IG CloudOps can review your AWS or Azure setup, identify risks, prioritise improvements, and support your team with practical engineering help.