Objectives

  • Establish unified visibility across all AWS accounts and workloads.
  • Identify and quantify underutilized, misconfigured, or orphaned resources.
  • Implement standardized cost-optimization frameworks across teams.
  • Reduce monthly cloud spend through structured rightsizing and cleanup.
  • Enhance operational efficiency with automation and data-driven analytics.

Overview

The client experienced rising AWS costs without proper financial observability. MoreYeahs was engaged to analyze spend, identify inefficiencies, and build a Power BI cost dashboard. 

Background

The organization scaled workloads rapidly without establishing cost-governance practices. A detailed audit revealed excessive spending in:

  1. Over-provisioned and abandoned EC2 instances
  2. An unused 4 TB DynamoDB table with costly backup/throughput settings
  3.  An outdated RDS PostgreSQL instance incurring Extended Support charges 

Challenges Identified 

  1. EC2 Over-Provisioning
    • 42% instances were m5.xlarge or m5.2xlarge with <10% CPU usage
    • Legacy workloads left running
    • No automation or rightsizing policy

    Estimated spend: $12,000/month

  2. Unused 4 TB DynamoDB Table
    • 9+ months of zero activity
    • 4 TB hot storage + PITR + high provisioning

    Estimated spend: $10,800/month

  3. RDS Extended Support Charges
    • Deprecated PostgreSQL version
    • 30% compute premium, 40% storage premium

    Estimated spend: $7,500/month

Remediation Plan 

  1. Step 1: EC2 Rightsizing & Cleanup
    • Applied Compute Optimizer recommendations
    • Downsized to t3.medium / t3.large
    • Terminated unused instances
    • Automated dev/test schedules
    Impact: $12,000 → $5,500 (Savings: $6,500)
  2. Step 2: DynamoDB Cleanup
    • Exported table to S3 Glacier Deep Archive
    • Deleted table
    • Enforced lifecycle rules
    • Moved low-traffic tables to on-demand
    Impact: $10,800 → $5,300 (Savings: $5,500)
  3. Step 3: RDS Upgrade
    • Created staging environment
    • Full compatibility testing
    • Upgraded PostgreSQL
    • Migrated to Graviton-based instances
    Impact: $7,500 → $2,300 (Savings: $5,200)

Final Outcome 

EC2: $12,000 → $5,500 (Savings: $6,500)
DynamoDB: $10,800 → $5,300 (Savings: $5,500)
RDS: $7,500 → $2,300 (Savings: $5,200)
Total: $30,300 → $13,100 (Savings: $17,200) 

Overall Reduction: ~57% 

Key Takeaways 

  • Rightsizing prevents wasted spend
  • Remove unused data + outdated services
  • Avoid RDS extended support fees
  • Enforce governance + lifecycle rules
  • Improve accountability with cost visibility 
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