Why your startup's cloud bill is higher than it should be

Cloud costs rarely explode in one day. They creep up as teams add resources for a test and never remove them. These are the most common causes.

1. Oversized servers chosen at launch and never revisited.
2. Staging and test environments running around the clock.
3. Databases on the most expensive tier because it was the default.
4. Old snapshots, logs and backups kept forever.
5. Data transfer costs from services talking across regions.

What to do this week

• Turn on cost alerts at 80% and 100% of your monthly budget.
• Tag every resource with an owner and environment.
• Schedule non-production environments to stop at night and on weekends.
• Set retention policies on logs and snapshots.

None of this requires a new architecture. Most of the savings come from turning things off and right-sizing what's left.