September, Azure invoice: 40% more than budget. Nobody knew what was costing so much. FinOps (Financial Operations) gave us a systematic approach to managing cloud expenses.
Step 1: Visibility — mandatory tagging¶
We implemented mandatory tags: project, environment,
owner, cost-center. Azure Policy rejects resources
without tags. Retroactive tagging of existing resources was painful — but
the result is clear visibility in Azure Cost Management.
Step 2: Quick wins¶
- Dev/test auto-shutdown outside working hours: -60% on dev
- Right-sizing oversized VMs: -25%
- Orphaned resources (unused disks, IPs): -5%
- Reserved Instances for stable workloads: -40%
Step 3: Culture of responsibility¶
Every team sees costs in weekly reports. Rule: whoever creates a resource is responsible for it. Cost efficiency is also discussed in sprint reviews.
Total savings: 35% of monthly cloud costs, without performance loss.
Cloud without FinOps = blank check¶
FinOps isn’t about saving money — it’s about informed decisions. Invest in visibility and culture of responsibility.
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