Amazon Web Services is the largest cloud platform in the world — and the source of more than half of the cloud waste we audit. This guide gives you the 14 proven AWS cost optimization patterns we use in real customer audits, ranked by ROI.
CloudWatch CPU/memory at p95 for 14 days. If <40%, downsize. AWS Compute Optimizer surfaces the candidates.
Cover your baseline compute (the 40-60% that runs 24/7) with 1-year No-Upfront Compute Savings Plans. Coverage target: 65%.
EBS volumes detached >7 days, EIPs unattached, RDS instances with 0 connections — kill or snapshot+delete.
S3 Standard → Standard-IA at 30 days, → Glacier IR at 90, → Glacier Deep at 180. Set once, save forever.
AWS Data Transfer line in Cost Explorer. Group by source/dest. Anything >$500/mo cross-region = bucket consolidation candidate.
Batch jobs, dev/test, CI/CD runners, and stateless EKS nodes. Use mixed-instance ASGs with capacity-optimized strategy.
Lambda Power Tuning is free and tells you the cost-optimal memory size. Most Lambdas are over-provisioned.
Replace with VPC endpoints for S3/DynamoDB. Massive savings if you have multi-AZ NAT GWs in dev accounts.
Default = "Never expire". Set log group retention to 30/90 days max. Run `aws logs put-retention-policy` once.
Stateful databases run 24/7 by definition. 1-year No-Upfront RIs are the safest cost lever in AWS.
AWS Service Control Policy: deny resource creation without `owner`, `cost_center`, `env` tags. Without tags, you can't run any of the above.
Free with Business/Enterprise support. Runs the standard checks automatically. Should be a weekly ritual.
Most workloads run on Graviton with zero code changes. Compatible with EKS, ECS, RDS, Lambda. Test in dev first.
These can scale silently. Cap their billing alarm at 110% of last month — surprises caught early.
CARTIE AI runs all 14 patterns above against your AWS account in <10 minutes. Read-only IAM role, no agents.
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