Cloud Cost Optimisation & FinOps Consulting

Cloud cost optimisation is the process of reducing cloud infrastructure spending while maintaining or improving performance, reliability, and business outcomes. It combines technical tactics (right-sizing instances, eliminating waste, leveraging reserved capacity, implementing automation) with cultural practices (FinOps) that align engineering, finance, and business teams on cost accountability. With typical cloud waste of 30%, professional optimisation delivers 20-40% savings through one-time improvements and ongoing governance.

Most organizations achieve 20-40% reduction in cloud spending through comprehensive optimisation. Typical savings include: 15-30% from right-sizing over-provisioned resources, 10-20% from waste elimination (idle instances, orphaned storage), 40-70% on committed workloads through reserved instances or savings plans, and 60-70% on non-production environments through automated scheduling. For a company spending $50K/month, this translates to $120K-$240K annual savings. Enterprise organizations spending $500K+ monthly often save $1.5M-$3M+ annually. ROI is immediate with first-month savings typically exceeding consulting fees.

Hire cloud cost optimisation when: (1) Monthly cloud bills exceed $10K+ and growing faster than revenue, (2) You lack visibility into where money goes or which teams/products drive costs, (3) Finance is demanding cost cuts but engineering doesn't know where to start, (4) Previous DIY optimization attempts failed or delivered minimal savings, (5) You're preparing for fundraising and need to demonstrate efficient unit economics, (6) Non-production environments consume 40%+ of cloud budget, or (7) You need to establish FinOps practices and cost accountability culture. The ideal time is when monthly spend exceeds $10K and before wasteful patterns become deeply embedded in your infrastructure and development practices.

Cloud cost optimisation refers to tactical actions that reduce spending (right-sizing, waste elimination, reserved instances, automation). FinOps (Financial Operations) is the cultural practice and operating model that sustains cost efficiency long-term through visibility, accountability, and continuous improvement. Optimisation is what you do; FinOps is how you organize to do it sustainably. Comprehensive engagements include both: immediate technical optimisations delivering 20-40% savings plus FinOps implementation (tagging, dashboards, processes, training) ensuring costs stay optimized as infrastructure evolves. One-time optimisation without FinOps culture typically sees costs creep back up within 6-12 months.

Cloud cost optimisation timelines vary by scope: Cost Audit & Quick Wins takes 2-3 weeks and delivers immediate 15-30% savings through waste elimination and basic right-sizing. Comprehensive FinOps Implementation takes 4-6 weeks including deep audit, full automation, and organizational setup, delivering 25-40% savings. Enterprise FinOps Transformation requires 8-12 weeks for multi-cloud governance across large organizations. You'll see first savings within 2-3 weeks as quick wins are implemented, with full optimization realized by week 6-8. Ongoing quarterly reviews ensure costs stay lean as your infrastructure evolves. Most clients recoup consulting investment within first billing cycle.

No, when done properly. Professional cost optimisation never sacrifices performance or reliability for cost savings. We validate all right-sizing recommendations through performance testing, maintain buffer capacity for traffic spikes, test changes in non-production before production deployment, implement automated rollback if performance degrades, and prioritize low-risk optimizations first building confidence. We avoid dangerous practices like disabling backups, removing redundancy, or under-provisioning critical systems. The goal is efficient infrastructure that performs better at lower cost - eliminating waste and over-provisioning while ensuring adequate capacity for your actual workload. Many clients see improved performance after optimization through architecture improvements and better resource allocation.

StepInsight specializes in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) optimization with deep expertise across AWS and Azure. Our team has particular depth in GCP-native services including Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud Run, BigQuery, Cloud SQL, Spanner, and Cloud Storage, as well as GCP-specific cost optimization tools like Committed Use Discounts (CUDs), sustained use discounts, and preemptible VMs. We also optimize AWS (EC2, RDS, Lambda, S3) and Azure (VMs, AKS, SQL, Blob Storage) environments. For multi-cloud organizations, we provide unified visibility and governance across all providers with standardized tagging, consolidated reporting, and cross-cloud optimization strategies. Our team holds certifications across all three platforms with specialization in Google Cloud architecture and financial optimization.

Yes, but with strictly limited read-only access. We require read-only IAM permissions to billing data, resource metadata, and utilization metrics to analyze costs and identify opportunities. We never require write access during the audit phase. For implementation of quick wins and automation, we request time-limited access with specific permissions for the changes being made, use infrastructure-as-code with your review and approval before execution, work alongside your team who retains full control, and revoke all access upon project completion. We follow security best practices including multi-factor authentication, audit logging, and principle of least privilege. Many clients prefer to grant temporary access for analysis, then implement our recommendations themselves using provided scripts and documentation.

Yes. We work within your existing commitments, contracts, and marketplace agreements. If you have active reserved instances or savings plans, we optimize around them ensuring maximum utilization and identifying coverage gaps. For marketplace commitments (AWS Marketplace, Azure Marketplace), we ensure spend credits are used efficiently and negotiate future terms when possible. We also assess existing commitments for modification or resale opportunities if your needs have changed. For organizations with enterprise discount programs (EDP, MCA, CUD), we model optimization strategies that stack with your existing discounts for maximum savings. We provide guidance on future commitment timing and sizing to avoid over-committing while capturing available discounts.

After engagement delivery, you have three options: (1) Self-manage with your team using our comprehensive documentation, automation, and FinOps playbooks with included 1-3 month support window for questions, (2) Ongoing advisory support with quarterly optimization reviews identifying new savings as infrastructure evolves (typically $3K-$8K/month), or (3) Fractional FinOps services where we act as your outsourced cost management team with monthly monitoring and continuous optimization. Most clients start with option 1, successfully maintain savings using automation and processes we implemented, and return quarterly or annually for strategic reviews as their infrastructure and business mature. You own all scripts, documentation, and intellectual property created during engagement.

Most clients see positive ROI within first billing cycle (30 days). Quick wins like waste elimination and basic right-sizing deliver 15-30% savings within 2-3 weeks, immediately reducing your next monthly bill. For a company spending $50K/month, this represents $7.5K-$15K monthly savings ($90K-$180K annually), typically exceeding consulting fees within 30-45 days. Reserved instance purchases show ROI within 3-6 months through accumulated discounts. Automation and FinOps practices deliver compounding value over 12-24 months by preventing future waste and maintaining efficiency as you scale. Conservative ROI calculations show 3-8x return on consulting investment over 12 months.

Yes, we provide deep optimization for specific cloud services. For databases (Cloud SQL, Spanner, Firestore, RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, CosmosDB), we optimise instance types, storage configurations, backup retention, and read replica strategies. For Kubernetes (GKE, EKS, AKS), we right-size node pools, implement cluster autoscaling, optimise pod resource requests/limits, and leverage preemptible/spot instances for fault-tolerant workloads. For serverless (Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Lambda, Azure Functions), we optimise memory allocation, execution time, and concurrency settings. For storage (Cloud Storage, S3, Blob Storage), we implement lifecycle policies, compression, and tiering strategies. Our team has deep technical expertise across all major cloud services and can optimise any workload from compute to data transfer to SaaS subscriptions.

Google Cloud Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) provide 40-70% savings on Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, and GKE resources when you commit to using a certain amount of resources for 1 or 3 years. Unlike AWS Reserved Instances which commit to specific instance types, CUDs are more flexible - you commit to a total vCPU and memory amount that can be applied across different machine types and regions. There are two types: Resource-based CUDs (commit to specific machine family like N2 or E2 with up to 57% discount) and Spend-based CUDs (commit to dollar amount with up to 25% discount, most flexible). StepInsight analyzes your GCP usage patterns to recommend the optimal CUD strategy, determining right commitment levels to maximize savings while minimizing risk of unused capacity. We also monitor your CUD utilization ensuring you stay above 80% utilization and adjust as your workload evolves. Most clients achieve 50-65% coverage of their GCP compute spend through CUDs, delivering $100K-$1M+ annual savings depending on spend levels.