Struggling with unexpected cloud costs? You're not alone. UK businesses waste up to 24% of public cloud software costs, with overspending reaching 17% of budgets. Here's how to take control:
Quick Tip: A monthly audit and proper tagging can uncover savings of up to 40%. Tools like Critical Cloud’s Engineer Assist make cost management seamless by integrating it into your team’s routine.
Take charge of your cloud spending today - start by auditing your setup and adopting simple cost-saving strategies.
Cloud waste is draining UK businesses of substantial funds every month. In fact, 78% of companies estimate that 21% to 50% of their cloud spending is wasted. To put that into perspective, a business spending £5,000 a month could unknowingly lose up to £2,500.
This waste isn’t always obvious. Unlike traditional infrastructure where idle servers are easy to spot, cloud waste hides in forgotten resources, misconfigurations, and overprovisioned services that quietly inflate your bills.
The culprits behind cloud waste are often predictable, and with the right approach, they’re easy to identify.
Orphaned resources are a common issue. These include unused storage volumes, inactive load balancers, and dormant database connections. Even old snapshots can pile up, each adding a small but persistent cost to your monthly bill.
Development and testing environments are another major source of waste. Teams often create temporary instances for testing but forget to shut them down once the project wraps up. These forgotten resources continue to run, racking up charges long after they’re needed.
"When an organisation has cloud waste, it's like hosting a digital landfill – the resources are sitting there, taking up space, and the costs for these idle or underutilised resources can be high." - Matt Pacheco
Tagging resources properly is essential to keep track of spending. Using tags like Cost Centre, Project, Owner, and Environment makes it easier to identify which resources are still relevant. Without this organisation, it’s almost impossible to separate necessary services from waste.
Storage waste is another area that often goes unnoticed because it builds up gradually. Many businesses store rarely accessed data in expensive high-performance storage tiers when cheaper archive storage would suffice. Log files, old backups, and historical data that’s rarely used shouldn’t be sitting in premium storage.
Regular audits are key to catching these issues early. A monthly review can help you spot unused resources, instances running at low utilisation, and data that could be moved to cheaper storage tiers. These audits are a simple yet effective way to keep your cloud environment lean and your costs under control.
Once you’ve identified the waste, you can take targeted steps to trim your cloud expenses.
Cutting cloud waste can save up to 30% of your cloud spend, and many of these savings come from straightforward adjustments.
Right-sizing resources is one of the quickest ways to see results. By monitoring CPU, memory, and storage usage over time, you can identify overprovisioned resources. For example, if a database instance is consistently running at just 15% CPU utilisation, it’s likely oversized and costing you more than necessary.
Automated scheduling can help reduce waste caused by resources running when they’re not needed. Development environments, for instance, rarely need to operate overnight or on weekends. Power management tools can automatically scale down or shut off these resources during off-hours, delivering significant savings without affecting performance.
For predictable workloads, reserved instances and savings plans offer considerable discounts. Services like AWS Reserved Instances and Azure Reserved VM Instances can cut costs by up to 72% compared to on-demand pricing. For workloads that can handle interruptions, Spot Instances provide even steeper discounts of up to 90%.
Storage optimisation is another effective measure. By analysing data access patterns, you can move infrequently accessed files to lower-cost storage tiers. Tools like AWS S3 Intelligent-Tiering, Azure Blob Storage access tiers, and Google Cloud Storage classes automatically adjust storage based on usage, helping you save without manual intervention.
To minimise risk, it’s best to implement these changes gradually. Start with the easiest wins - like eliminating unused resources and resizing overprovisioned instances - before tackling more complex strategies like reserved capacity planning. This step-by-step approach ensures quick results while building momentum for further cost-saving efforts.
Finally, make cost optimisation a shared responsibility across your team rather than a one-time task. When developers understand the financial impact of their infrastructure choices, they naturally make more efficient decisions. Simple habits like proper tagging, selecting the right instance sizes, and cleaning up unused resources can quickly become second nature, leading to long-term savings.
Getting a handle on cloud spending starts with picking the right tool. Without clear insight into where your money is going, businesses end up wasting around 33% of their cloud budgets. Thankfully, both cloud providers and third-party platforms offer solutions to track spending down to the last pound. The tricky part? Finding the one that fits your team's needs and technical setup. Let’s dive into how different tools tackle this challenge.
Major cloud providers offer their own cost management tools, but these often have limitations that might not keep up as your needs grow. On the other hand, third-party platforms fill in those gaps, though they usually come with an added cost.
Native tools like AWS Cost Explorer and Azure Cost Management are free for basic use. They pull data directly from billing systems, ensuring accuracy, but they lack real-time insights. Plus, they only work with one provider, meaning you’ll need separate dashboards if you're using multiple cloud platforms.
Third-party tools, such as CloudZero, provide support for multi-cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, GCP, and even platforms like Snowflake. They go beyond basic tracking with advanced analytics and a code-driven approach to cost allocation, eliminating the need for manual tagging.
"Within two weeks, we had already found enough savings to pay for a year's worth of licence. It was that good - that intuitive." – Stuart Davidson, Platform Engineering Lead, Skyscanner
Here’s a quick comparison of the two options:
| Feature | Native Tools (AWS Cost Explorer) | Third-Party Tools (CloudZero) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free for basic use | Subscription-based |
| Data Speed | 24 hours to several days | Real-time updates |
| Multi-cloud Support | Single provider only | AWS, Azure, GCP, and more |
| Historical Data | 12 months maximum | Up to 60 months |
| Cost Allocation | Tag-dependent | Code-driven, no tags required |
| Reporting Granularity | Monthly/daily by default | Hourly by default |
| Target Audience | Finance teams | Engineering teams |
For small to medium-sized businesses just starting with cloud cost management, native tools are a good starting point - they’re free, reliable, and handle basic tracking well. But as your setup grows more complex or spans multiple providers, investing in a third-party platform could save you time and money in the long run.
Now, let’s explore the key features to look for in these tools to get the most out of them.
A good cost management tool should make it easier to understand your spending patterns and take action quickly. Here are the features to prioritise:
Finally, the tool should be easy to use from the start. If your team struggles to understand the interface, it’s unlikely they’ll stay engaged in cost optimisation. Choose platforms that present complex data in a straightforward, actionable way, making it accessible for both technical and non-technical users alike.
Accurately predicting cloud expenses can transform unexpected bills into predictable costs. With 71% of organisations anticipating an increase in cloud spending, staying ahead of these costs is critical for maintaining steady cash flow and planning for growth effectively.
The first step to forecasting cloud costs is to dig into historical usage and identify seasonal trends.
Analyse several months of billing data to spot patterns, like spikes during product launches or marketing pushes. Pay close attention to cost drivers such as compute instances, storage, data transfer, and databases. For instance, an EdTech platform might see database costs rise during enrolment periods, while a SaaS company could experience higher compute costs during user acquisition campaigns.
To prepare for different growth scenarios, create forecasts for conservative, expected, and aggressive growth. Factor in potential changes such as product launches, increased marketing, or new feature rollouts. This approach ensures your budgets are equipped to handle both steady and rapid growth.
Automating tracking is another key step. Set up alerts to flag when spending exceeds thresholds, and account for seasonal patterns like higher costs during retail peaks or reduced usage over holidays.
"Good forecasting isn't about predicting the future with absolute certainty - it's about making informed guesses based on real data. For SMEs, having a solid forecasting strategy means being prepared for both opportunities and challenges, so you can make smart financial decisions and avoid cash flow problems." – Red Fish Accountancy
Once you’ve got a handle on your forecasts, the next step is to take action to manage costs effectively.
With forecasts in place, you can implement strategies to keep cloud spending under control. These measures are particularly helpful for SMBs that may lack dedicated operations teams.
Incorporating cost awareness into your team's daily routines can eliminate the need for a dedicated FinOps team. 88% of organisations consider optimising and reducing cloud spending a top priority. Yet, for many SMBs, weaving cost management into their day-to-day operations remains a challenge.
The solution? Integrate cost visibility into existing workflows rather than setting up separate cost review meetings that could clash with feature development deadlines. By aligning spending insights with regular tasks, cost optimisation becomes a natural part of engineering practices. This approach transforms financial oversight into a seamless aspect of your cloud strategy, rather than an extra chore.
Building a cost-conscious team starts with giving them the tools and ownership to understand their impact. Research suggests up to 30% of cloud spending is wasted on idle or unnecessary resources, yet developers often lack visibility into how their choices affect budgets.
When costs are made transparent, a cultural shift begins. For instance, when an engineer realises their microservice experiment is racking up £200 per month in unused database connections, they’re far more likely to clean up those resources. A clear tagging system can make this financial impact visible and actionable.
Set up cost alerts at 80% of the budget to encourage timely decisions. These alerts naturally prompt discussions about resource usage without interrupting workflows. Teams might start questioning whether a new Redis instance is essential or if optimising existing database queries would suffice.
A straightforward tagging strategy - categorising resources by team, project, and environment - can make a big difference. This clarity ensures everyone knows their share of the cloud bill and understands the financial consequences of their decisions. It also encourages collaboration towards shared cost-saving goals.
Quarterly workshops can further enhance this culture. These sessions are an opportunity to identify quick fixes, like shutting down forgotten staging environments or resizing oversized instances. The aim isn’t to stifle creativity but to make costs part of the conversation when architectural choices are being made.
To help teams adopt this mindset, Critical Cloud provides solutions designed to integrate cost management into everyday engineering tasks.
For SMBs looking to balance growth with financial control, Critical Cloud’s Engineer Assist service blends cost management into routine engineering activities. This service supports teams in spotting spending anomalies early, ensuring innovation doesn’t come at the expense of budget discipline.
With Slack-based alerts, Critical Cloud notifies teams of unexpected spending spikes in real time. Instead of discovering a £500 surprise on next month’s bill, you’ll know immediately if a new feature deployment is consuming more resources than anticipated. This instant feedback allows teams to make smarter decisions about scaling and resource allocation.
The monthly infrastructure check-ins incorporate cost reviews alongside performance and security assessments. By merging cost analysis with system health discussions, teams can draw connections between performance improvements and cost reductions, making both priorities part of the same dialogue.
For deeper insights, the FinOps add-on offers dedicated cost optimisation services, including anomaly detection and detailed spending alerts. This add-on takes care of the heavy lifting - identifying inefficiencies across cloud services and providing actionable recommendations that fit seamlessly into ongoing sprint work.
Critical Cloud’s approach ensures cost management feels like a natural part of your team’s workflow, not an extra layer of bureaucracy. Your team can stay focused on building features while maintaining a clear view of how their decisions impact the bottom line. This continuous, integrated approach helps SMBs stay lean and innovative without needing a separate FinOps team.
Taking charge of your cloud spending starts with making costs more transparent. You can achieve this by following four key steps: regularly auditing to identify waste, choosing tools that align with your team's workflow, using forecasting to avoid unexpected expenses, and embedding cost awareness into daily engineering routines.
Real-world examples show how impactful these strategies can be. For instance, a SaaS startup that conducted detailed audits found that 40% of its cloud resources were underutilised. By right-sizing their resources, they managed to cut their monthly bills by 25%. Similarly, an e-commerce small business halved its compute costs by leveraging spot instances for non-critical tasks like batch processing. These cases highlight the common inefficiencies lurking in many cloud setups.
Understanding your cloud provider, cost drivers, and spending patterns is crucial. Set clear, measurable goals - such as reducing monthly expenses by a specific percentage - and involve key stakeholders from IT, finance, and operations to ensure a well-rounded approach.
When selecting tools, pick one that suits the complexity of your environment. Focus on features like cost visibility and forecasting. Automating repetitive tasks like scaling and backups can save time, but maintaining oversight ensures optimal outcomes.
By applying these strategies, you can seamlessly integrate cost control into your team's daily workflows. Use clear tagging to track resource expenses, review usage regularly, and take advantage of reserved instances for predictable workloads. When teams have visibility into costs and understand their financial impact, optimisation becomes second nature.
Critical Cloud’s Engineer Assist service is designed to integrate cost management into your existing workflows without overwhelming your team. The FinOps add-on offers dedicated tools for cost optimisation, anomaly detection, and actionable recommendations that fit right into your sprint cycles - helping you stay agile and efficient without needing a separate FinOps team.
Stop letting cloud spending spiral out of control. With the right approach, tools, and a cost-conscious team culture, you can achieve the visibility and control needed to scale effectively while keeping expenses predictable.
To cut down on unnecessary cloud expenses, start by gaining clearer visibility into how your cloud resources are being used. Tools for detailed monitoring and reporting can help pinpoint areas of waste, like idle virtual machines or storage that's larger than necessary.
Consider strategies such as rightsizing resources to match your actual needs, setting spending alerts to stay on top of costs, and automating resource management to minimise waste. Conduct regular audits of your cloud setup and introduce lifecycle policies to manage data and storage more effectively. Another simple yet effective tip is to schedule non-essential resources to power down during periods when they’re not needed, so you’re not paying for unused capacity.
By following these practices, small and medium-sized businesses running cloud-native applications can keep costs under control without compromising performance.
Third-party cloud cost management tools bring more flexibility and advanced capabilities than native solutions. They often provide richer data visualisations, more precise cost allocation, and centralised management across multiple cloud platforms. This makes them particularly useful for businesses pursuing multi-cloud strategies.
These tools also support automation and policy enforcement, making it easier to integrate cost management into everyday workflows and development pipelines. For SMBs and growing businesses, they offer a way to optimise expenses without being locked into a single vendor, delivering a more adaptable and scalable way to handle cloud costs.
To keep cloud spending under control and avoid overspending, it’s important to weave cost awareness into your team’s everyday habits. A great starting point is leveraging automation tools that handle real-time optimisation. These tools can help trim unnecessary costs by as much as 20–30%. Alongside this, make it a routine to review and fine-tune resources regularly to prevent over-provisioning. Keeping an eye on usage metrics can also help you spot and cut out inefficiencies.
Another key step is to empower your team to make cost-conscious choices. This can be achieved through targeted training and promoting best practices. For workloads that are predictable, look into reserved or usage-based pricing models, as these can lead to noticeable savings. Incorporating these approaches into your daily processes means you can stay on top of costs without needing a dedicated operations team.