Egress is the classic shock

Data leaving the provider is billed, often at a rate far above storage. A media-heavy site can spend more moving files than storing them.

The things nobody deletes

Audit monthly for:

  • Detached volumes from deleted instances
  • Old snapshots on an automatic schedule
  • Idle load balancers
  • Over-provisioned databases

Tag everything from day one

Without tags a bill is one large number. With them it is a list of what each project costs, which is the only form anyone can act on.