How to Optimize Cloud Costs: AWS, Azure, and GCP Savings Strategies

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Cloud cost optimization is critical for businesses leveraging AWS, Azure, or GCP. Unnecessary expenses often arise from over-provisioned resources, idle instances, and inefficient architectures. Below are actionable strategies to reduce cloud bills.

You Should Know:

1. Identify and Eliminate Idle Resources

Idle instances and unattached storage drive up costs. Use these commands to detect waste:

  • AWS:
    aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].[InstanceId,State.Name]' --output text | grep "stopped"
aws ec2 describe-volumes --query 'Volumes[].[VolumeId,State]' --output text | grep "available"

  • Azure:

    az vm list --query "[?powerState!='VM running'].{Name:name, PowerState:powerState}" --output table
az disk list --query "[?diskState=='Unattached'].{Name:name}" --output table

  • GCP:

    gcloud compute instances list --filter="status=TERMINATED"
gcloud compute disks list --filter="status=UNATTACHED"

2. Right-Sizing Instances

Downsize over-provisioned VMs:

  • AWS: Use AWS Compute Optimizer
  • Azure: Use Azure Advisor
  • GCP: Use Recommender API

3. Automate Scheduling (Start/Stop Non-Prod Instances)

  • AWS Lambda + CloudWatch:

    import boto3
def lambda_handler(event, context):
ec2 = boto3.client('ec2')
ec2.stop_instances(InstanceIds=['i-1234567890abcdef0'])

  • Azure Automation Account:

    Stop-AzVM -Name "DevVM" -ResourceGroupName "Dev-RG" -Force

4. Use Spot Instances for Non-Critical Workloads

  • AWS Spot Fleet:

    aws ec2 request-spot-instances --spot-price "0.05" --instance-count 1 --type "one-time" --launch-specification file://spec.json

  • GCP Preemptible VMs:

    gcloud compute instances create preemptible-vm --preemptible

5. Clean Up Orphaned Snapshots & Backups

  • AWS:

    aws ec2 describe-snapshots --owner-ids self --query 'Snapshots[?StartTime<=<code>2025-01-01</code>].SnapshotId' --output text | xargs -I {} aws ec2 delete-snapshot --snapshot-id {}

  • Azure:

    Get-AzSnapshot | Where-Object { $_.TimeCreated -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30) } | Remove-AzSnapshot -Force

What Undercode Say:

Cloud cost optimization is an ongoing process. Regular audits, automation, and right-sizing can save thousands monthly. Implement FinOps practices for long-term savings.

Expected Output:

Reduced cloud bills by 30-50% through automated scheduling, right-sizing, and eliminating waste.

Prediction:

As cloud adoption grows, AI-driven cost optimization tools will dominate FinOps strategies by 2026.

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