AWS Cost Optimization — InfraTales Hub
The AWS cost guides engineers actually use — with real bill breakdowns, not theory.
AWS Cost Optimization
Your AWS bill is not random. Every line item has a root cause, and most of them are fixable without changing your architecture.
This hub covers the specific cost levers that move the needle — not generic "right-size your instances" advice, but the exact patterns that cut real bills by 40-60%.
Cost Deep-Dives
- We Saved ₹50 Lakhs/Year on AWS — And It Was All Our Own Fault
- AWS Cost Reduction: How We Cut a Startup's Bill by 60% in 90 Days
- AWS Observability Without $40k/Year: OpenTelemetry and Grafana Stack
- Cloud-Native SIEM on AWS: Replace $40k Licenses with OpenSearch
The High-Impact Cost Levers
1. NAT Gateway
The most common hidden cost on AWS. Every GB transferred through a NAT Gateway costs $0.045. At scale, this adds up fast. The fix is usually VPC endpoints for S3, DynamoDB, and ECR — free to use, instant savings.
2. Data Transfer
Cross-AZ data transfer ($0.01/GB each direction) is invisible until it is not. Architect services to stay within a single AZ for high-throughput paths.
3. CloudWatch Logs
Verbose Lambda logs at $0.50/GB ingestion cost more than some EC2 instances. Use structured logging at INFO level in production.
4. RDS Multi-AZ vs Aurora
Aurora Serverless v2 for variable workloads beats provisioned RDS Multi-AZ on cost at most scales below 100 ACUs.
5. Lambda Memory
Lambda pricing is GB-seconds. A function using 512MB that runs in 800ms costs the same as a 1024MB function that runs in 400ms — but the 1024MB version is often faster in practice due to proportional CPU allocation.
Coming Soon
- NAT Gateway elimination: step-by-step guide
- AWS Savings Plans vs Reserved Instances: the real comparison
- CloudWatch cost breakdown: what is actually costing you
Want a cost review of your AWS account? Work with Rahul