CloudCostChefs Weekly – Issue #4, 15 August 2025

Fresh recipes for cloud cost optimization — served in under 5 minutes.

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🥗 Appetizer – 60-Second Cloud Bites

• 94% of IT leaders struggle with cloud cost optimization → Survey of 2,000+ leaders reveals widespread FinOps failures. Source: Channel Futures

• Forbes exposes FinOps "aspiration to action chasm" → 350 senior IT leaders can't turn insights into savings. Source: Forbes

• CloudKeeper named G2 leader with 99% satisfaction → Comprehensive cloud cost optimization platform dominates summer rankings. Source: PR Newswire

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🍝 Main Course – Chef's Feature Recipe

Prep Card: • Prep Time: 15 minutes • Savings: 20-40% on idle resources • Skill Level: Beginner

Problem: AWS resources running 24/7 when you only need them 9-5 weekdays wastes $876,000 annually on 2,000 VMs.

Steps:

bash
Quick tag application
aws ec2 create-tags --resources i-1234567890abcdef0 --tags Key=Schedule,Value=business-hours

💡 Chef's Hack: Start with dev/test environments first - they're usually safe to schedule and show immediate 70%+ savings.

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🛠️ Side Dish – Tool of the Week

AWS Instance Scheduler (Free)

What it does: Automatically starts/stops EC2 and RDS instances based on custom schedules.

Why SMBs love it: Zero ongoing costs, works with existing infrastructure, saves 60-80% on non-production workloads.

Quickstart: Deploy via AWS Solutions Library CloudFormation template

Chef's Hack: Use the DynamoDB configuration table to create multiple schedules for different teams/projects.

Link: AWS Instance Scheduler

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🧂 Seasoning Tip – FinOps Factoid

57% of organizations can't optimize Kubernetes costs despite knowing it drives cloud spend. Source: Forbes

Why it matters: Kubernetes is a "black box" for cost - containers share nodes, workloads are ephemeral, and tagging gets disconnected from actual usage.

Challenge: Run kubectl top pods --all-namespaces - can you identify which team owns each high-CPU pod?

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❓ Quick Kitchen Audit – Reader Q&A

Q: "We moved to hybrid cloud to save money but now we're spending 37% more - what went wrong?"

A: You're not alone - 94% of IT leaders struggle with this. Hybrid adds complexity without automatic savings. The issue is usually poor tagging (can't track costs) and running identical workloads in both environments. Start by implementing consistent cost allocation tags across on-prem and cloud, then identify which workloads truly benefit from each environment.

Next Step: Use AWS Cost Explorer's "Group by Tag" feature to see where your money actually goes.

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☕ After-Dinner Mint – Events & Resources

Harness Cloud Cost Optimization Webinar - August 21, 2025. Real-world strategies including Cloud AutoStopping for idle resources and Kubernetes cost management. Register here

FinOps Weekly Summit 2025 - October 23, 2025, 10:00 AM-2:00 PM EST. Transform your FinOps practice from reactive fire-fighting to strategic leadership with actionable playbooks from world's top experts. Register here

FinOps After Dark AWS Summit LA - Networking event at Library Bar for cloud financial management professionals during AWS Summit week. RSVP here

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🎯 Kitchen-Sink CTA

Take Our FinOps Kitchen Assessment - Discover where your organization stands with our chef-inspired, interactive assessment that evaluates your FinOps maturity and identifies your biggest cost-saving opportunities. Start your free assessment