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Optimisation

Rightsizing, schedules, commitments, Spot, storage and architecture, applied with owners and verified on the bill.

Continuous Cost Optimisation
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Continuous optimisation, account by account

Find candidates read-only, agree them with owners, apply them in code, and count a saving only once it shows on the bill.

Continuous Cost Optimisation
candidatesagreedrealised savingskeep itEvery account · read-only1 · Find2 · Decide with owners3 · Apply through code4 · Verify on the bill5 · Keep itThe levers, in order of paybackAWS accountproductionAWS accountdevelopment and testAmazon CloudWatchreal utilisationAWS Trusted AdvisorAWS Cost Explorerbilling and usageCloudFixAWS-vetted advisoriesSaving candidatepotentialOwner agreesperformance and riskChange in codeAWS CodePipelineor the owner's processCompletedRealisedconfirmed in billing dataMonthly reviewadvisory boardAWS Budgetsalerts on driftRightsizeRemove unusedScheduleCommitSpot capacityStorage classNewer generationsArchitecture

Point at a component to light its links; select it for what it does here and the practice that makes it right on AWS.

Point at a component to see what it does; select it for the best practice.Open the architecture
02

The optimisation levers

Roughly in order of payback. FPT Software groups them as resource, time, price and architecture levers.

LeverWhat it meansWhere it fitsWatch for
RightsizeSizes matched to measured useLow CPU, memory, disk or connection usePeak load; licences tied to cores
Remove what is unusedIdle instances, unattached volumes, old snapshotsForgotten test systems, migration leftoversOwner confirmation; a backup first
ScheduleNon-production stopped at night and weekendsDevelopment and test used in working hoursTeams across time zones
CommitReserved Instances, Savings Plans, committed-use discountsSteady production load, after rightsizingCommit after rightsizing, not before
Use Spot capacitySpare capacity at a discountCI runners, batch jobs, load testsInterruptions: checkpoints and retries
Change storage classTiering, lifecycle rules, newer volume typesCold objects; gp2 to gp3; single-zone file storageRetrieval cost of cold tiers
Move to newer generationsCurrent instance families for the same workLong-running machines on older typesTest before changing CPU architecture
Change the architectureAutoscaling, serverless, managed services, test-only environmentsSpiky load; load-test and sandbox environmentsEngineering time: justify it with the saving
Estimates are not savings

An assessment produces an estimate. NGT reports a saving as realised only once it shows on the bill, and keeps the two apart.

03

How an optimisation engagement runs

Six steps, from the first look at the bill to savings that stay.

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Break the bill down

Cost by account, application and environment over several months.

  • Find the few applications that drive most of the spend
  • Separate production from everything else
SourcesNGT FinOps Service Offering (Mar 2025)NGT Cloud Operation Service Offering v0.2 (Jan 2025)NGT Azure Service Offering v1.0 (Dec 2024)NGT Google Cloud Service Offering v0.1NGT DevOps–AI Service Offering (Oct 2026)FPT Software Cloud Transformation Capabilities (2024)FinOps Foundation: FinOps Principles