7-Steps FinOps Strategy

Cost Optimization System for builders, FinOps professionals, or anyone who just wants a clear reference to make sure they’re not overspending.

It’s a straightforward, AWS-native guide for anyone who loves building but wants to do it a bit smarter.

---

🔍 Step 1: Gain Full Visibility — Know Where Your Money Goes

You cannot optimize what you cannot measure. Start by getting visibility across accounts, services, regions, and teams.

Enable these first:

• AWS Cost Explorer — for visualization and trends.

• AWS Cost & Usage Reports (CUR) — for detailed cost data.

• AWS Billing Conductor — for custom pricing or internal chargebacks.

• AWS Cost Anomaly Detection — get automatic alerts for spend spikes via Slack or Teams.

• Tag Policies + Cost Categories in AWS Organizations — maintain consistent cost attribution.

• Amazon Athena + CUR — query your billing data with SQL for analysis and automation.

aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=2025-10-01,End=2025-11-01 \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics "UnblendedCost" \
  --group-by Type=TAG,Key=Project

Pro Tip: Use AI-powered queries in Cost Explorer: “Which service increased my bill 20% this month?” → instant answer.

🌱 Sustainability Bonus

The AWS Carbon Footprint Tool now integrates with Cost Explorer. Optimize for cost + carbon — increasingly required for compliance.

✅ Best Practices

• Use AWS Organizations with consolidated billing

• Give teams visibility, keep central oversight

• Build weekly cost dashboards

---

🧹 Step 2: Eliminate Waste — Kill the Idle & Under-Utilized

Now that you see it — clear the low-hanging fruit.

🔍 Common Waste

Issue	Example
EC2 < 10% CPU	Dev box running 24×7
Unattached EBS	$0.10/GB silently
Idle Load Balancers	No requests
Orphaned Elastic IPs	$3.60/month each
Endless Snapshots	5–10% of waste

# List running EC2 instances
aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --filters "Name=instance-state-name,Values=running" \
  --query "Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,State.Name,InstanceType,Tags]" \
  --output table

# List unattached EBS volumes
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query "Volumes[*].[VolumeId,Size,AvailabilityZone]" \
  --output table

🛠 Automation-First Tools

• Compute Optimizer → “Idle Resource” dashboard

• Trusted Advisor → Cost checks

• AWS Backup Audit Manager → Find orphaned snapshots

🔄 Action Loop

1. Identify idle resources

2. Ask owner: “Still need this?”

3. Delete or stop

4. Automate (see Step 6)

---

⚖️ Step 3: Rightsize Effectively — Match Resource to Demand

You removed waste. Now match size to real usage.

🧰 Key AWS Tools

Tool	Recommends
AWS Compute Optimizer	EC2, ASG, Lambda, EBS
Trusted Advisor	Low-utilization, idle ALB, EIPs

aws compute-optimizer get-ec2-instance-recommendations \
  --instance-arns arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:123456789012:instance/i-0abcdef1234567890

🎯 Strategy

• Downsize low-utilization instances

• Migrate older → newer (M4 → M6i / Graviton)

• Use T-family for bursty workloads

• Check memory, network, I/O — not just CPU

Result: 10–30% compute savings, no performance loss

---

💸 Step 4: Pricing Model Optimization — Use Savings Plans, RIs, Spot

You have the right size. Now get the right price.

💰 Pricing Options

Model	Savings	Best For
On-Demand	0%	Flexible, unpredictable
Savings Plans / RIs	Up to 72%	Steady workloads
Spot Instances	Up to 90%	Batch, test, stateless

# View Savings Plan recommendations
aws ce get-savings-plans-purchase-recommendation \
  --savings-plans-type COMPUTE_SP \
  --term-in-years ONE_YEAR \
  --payment-option NO_UPFRONT \
  --lookback-period-in-days 30

Pro Tip: Savings Plans for steady + Spot for bursts = max flexibility

📊 Best Practices

• Use ML forecasting in Cost Explorer

• Monitor utilization — underuse = waste

• Share commitments across accounts

• Architect for interruption on Spot

---

🗄️ Step 5: Storage & Data Transfer Efficiency — One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Storage and transfer creep up silently.

🗄 Storage Optimization

Action	Tool
Use S3 IA / Intelligent-Tiering / Glacier	Lifecycle rules
Delete unattached EBS	CLI + Optimizer
Switch gp2 → gp3	Decouple IOPS
EFS Infrequent Access	Auto-tier

📡 Data Transfer Optimization

Action	Savings
Same AZ placement	Free intra-AZ
CloudFront	↓60% egress
VPC Endpoints	Avoid NAT
Network Manager	Visualize paths

Example: Global asset → CloudFront → 60% less egress, faster users

---

🤖 Step 6: Automate & Enforce — Governance, Scheduling, Cleanup

One-time fixes fade. Automation makes savings stick.

🔧 Key Actions

Action	Tool
Detect non-compliant	AWS Config, Lambda
Auto-shutdown on budget	AWS Budgets Actions
Stop dev/test nightly	EventBridge, Instance Scheduler
Enforce at deploy	IaC (Terraform/CDK)

# Lambda: Stop Dev instances nightly
import boto3
ec2 = boto3.client('ec2', region_name='us-east-1')

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    instances = ec2.describe_instances(
        Filters=[{'Name':'tag:Environment','Values':['Dev']}]
    )
    instance_ids = [i['InstanceId'] for r in instances['Reservations'] for i in r['Instances']]
    if instance_ids:
        ec2.stop_instances(InstanceIds=instance_ids)
        print(f"Stopped: {instance_ids}")

Pro Tip: Use Control Tower + SCPs to enforce tagging and budgets at scale

---

🧠 Step 7: Build a Cost-Aware Culture — Processes, Accountability, Learning

Cost optimization isn’t a tool. It’s a culture.

🏗 Culture Elements

Practice	Impact
Cost in design reviews	Prevent waste early
Showback/Chargeback	Teams own spend
Monthly FinOps meetings	Review KPIs, anomalies
Cost per unit	Efficiency over absolute
Stay updated	New types, classes, pricing

🎯 Closing Strategy: Cost Friday

Every month: 30 mins Cloud team + product + finance Review graphs → spot spikes → assign actions

First month: drastic savings Six months: team thinks cost-first

---

Final Thoughts

AWS won’t tell you “You’re paying too much.” They’ll just keep charging.

It’s on you to build:

• Visibility

• Discipline

• The right pricing models

• Efficient architecture

• Automation & governance

• A cost-aware organization

---

🚀 Start Today

1. Open Cost Explorer

2. Tag your resources

3. Find one idle instance

4. Shut it down

That’s Step 1. Your future self and your CFO will thank you.

---

📚 References

All recommended AWS-native tools.

1. Visibility & Reporting

• AWS Cost Explorer

• Cost & Usage Reports (CUR)

• Amazon Athena + CUR Query Library

• Cost Anomaly Detection

• AWS Billing Conductor

• Tag Policies

• Cost Categories

2. Waste Detection & Cleanup

• AWS Compute Optimizer

• Trusted Advisor

• AWS Resource Explorer

• AWS Backup Audit Manager

• AWS CLI Documentation

3. Rightsizing & Efficiency

• AWS Compute Optimizer (EC2 Recommendations)

• AWS Migration Evaluator

• Amazon CloudWatch

4. Pricing Model Optimization

• Savings Plans Console

• Reserved Instances (RIs)

• Savings Plans Coverage Report

• EC2 Spot Instances

• AWS Price List API

5. Storage & Data Transfer

• Amazon S3 Console (Lifecycle & Storage Classes)

• Amazon CloudFront

• VPC Endpoints

• AWS Network Manager

6. Automation & Governance

• AWS Instance Scheduler

• AWS Budgets + Actions

• AWS Config

• AWS Lambda

• Amazon EventBridge

• AWS Control Tower

• Service Control Policies (SCPs)

• AWS CDK

• Terraform on AWS

7. Culture & Sustainability

• AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool

• AWS Well-Architected Tool

• AWS Cost Management Blog