Assign spend to an owner
Group costs by workload and environment. Assign someone to investigate changes and decide which usage supports the business.
Review changes in context
Compare costs with demand and recent deployments. A higher bill may reflect more customers, a configuration change, or resources that are no longer needed.
Check the effect of each change
Measure spending before and after a change. Also check performance and reliability so savings can be evaluated alongside their impact on the service.
Worked example — An unexpected increase in reporting costs
Imagine the monthly bill for a reporting workload rises from 1,000 to 1,300 in the same currency. Usage is steady, but a recent deployment changed a batch job from hourly to every 15 minutes. The owner checks the freshness requirement and tests a 30-minute schedule. The team compares the next week’s spend, job failures, and report freshness before keeping the change.
Review checklist
- Group spend by workload and environment, with an owner for each.
- Record the baseline alongside usage, performance, and reliability.
- Investigate changes against recent deployments and business demand.
- Give each proposed saving an owner, a success measure, and a follow-up date.