Free resource
AWS Cost Optimization Audit Template
Map your biggest AWS spend drivers to the architectural decisions creating them. A step-by-step framework for identifying what should actually be changed first.
What this covers
Start here when your AWS bill is growing faster than your traffic. This audit template maps spend to architecture decisions so you fix the cause, not just the symptoms.
Sections included
- Spend Inventory -- Top 10 cost drivers by service, per-environment breakdown, month-over-month trend
- Architecture-to-Cost Mapping -- Which design decisions are creating which costs, and whether those decisions still hold
- Quick Wins -- Reserved instance gaps, idle resources, oversized instances, unnecessary data transfer
- Structural Fixes -- Architecture changes that reduce cost at the system level, not just the resource level
- Prioritization Framework -- Effort vs savings matrix for sequencing changes without breaking production
- Tracking Setup -- Cost allocation tags, budget alerts, anomaly detection configuration
How to use it
Pull your last 3 months of AWS Cost Explorer data. Walk through each section with your architecture diagram open. Identify the 3-5 highest-leverage changes and sequence them by risk.
Subscribe to download the full audit template as a PDF.