Cloud Cost Triage

Stop surprise cloud bills. Get visibility, savings, and guardrails in weeks—not quarters.

Premium but pragmatic managed services for small and medium businesses and mid-market teams spending $15k–$250k/month. We help you assign ownership, ship approved savings, and enforce standards so waste and drift don't return.

AWS + Azure FinOps operating system Built for SMB/mid-market

The problem (what we usually see)

If any of this sounds familiar, you're the right profile for a spend triage.

  • You're paying for resources no one owns (or no one admits they own).
  • Tagging is inconsistent, so chargeback/showback fails.
  • Budget alerts exist… but don't reach the right people.
  • "Dev/QA/Prod" isn't real—everything is a shared mess.
  • Security and cost policies exist in docs… not in enforcement.
  • IaC drift + manual changes make spend unpredictable.

The promise: Visibility → Savings → Guardrails

Clear outcomes, delivered through an operating cadence—not a one-time report.

Visibility

Know who/what is spending and why. Fix the mapping from cloud resources → owners → budgets.

Savings

Identify waste and implement quick wins with your approval: schedules, right-sizing, storage lifecycle, cleanup.

Guardrails

Prevent drift with standards that actually run: policy checks, naming/tag enforcement, approvals, and patterns.

How it works

Simple process. Clear ownership. Implementation with approval.

1) Triage (fast)

Map spend → owners, spot anomalies, and build a prioritized backlog for savings and governance fixes.

2) Implement (with approval)

We ship quick wins and guardrails with a clean change process—no risky "cowboy" changes.

3) Operate (monthly)

Monthly reporting + review, ongoing hygiene, and a backlog that keeps savings and standards moving.

Book a Cloud Spend Triage

Offers (AWS + Azure)

Clear scope, fast value, and an operating model that keeps results from regressing.

Best first step

Cloud Foundation Deployment (Landing Zone Lite)

Starting at $3,000
2–4 weeks Single cloud or AWS + Azure

Establish a secure, governable baseline so scaling doesn't create chaos.

  • Account/subscription structure + environment strategy
  • IAM/RBAC baseline, break-glass, MFA guidance
  • Network baseline (VPC/VNet, segmentation, DNS basics)
  • Central logging/monitoring baseline (auditability)
  • Tagging/labels standard + budget alerts from day 1
  • Runbook lite + handoff documentation

No production write access required on day one. Phased access model. You retain ownership. IaC wherever feasible.

Fast visibility + quick wins

Package A — Cloud Spend Reset

Starting at $4,500
2 weeks Fixed scope

Fix visibility fast, ship quick savings, and set the operating rhythm.

  • Cost allocation model + "who owns what" accountability
  • Budget + anomaly alerts configured
  • Top 10 savings backlog with impact estimates + owners
  • Implement 3–5 quick wins (with approval)
  • Exec summary + next-90-days roadmap

Best-effort savings. No guarantees. Depends on access and client approvals.

Standards + repeatability

Package B — Guardrails + IaC Factory

Starting at $5,000
4–8 weeks Project

Reduce drift and enforce standards using repeatable patterns across teams/environments.

  • Guardrail policies (tagging, naming, regions/SKUs, exposure rules)
  • Terraform module starter catalog
  • GitHub Actions plan/apply pipeline + approvals + promotion
  • Light policy-as-code checks + documentation
  • Operating model + exception workflow
Ongoing monthly cadence

Package C — Managed FinOps + Governance

Starting at $3,500/month
Ongoing Retainer

Keep cost, governance, and standards operating continuously—so waste doesn't return.

  • Monthly executive cost report (spend, variance, forecast, savings shipped)
  • Monthly FinOps Review + weekly exceptions list (optional)
  • Tag compliance, budget drift, policy exceptions
  • Savings execution backlog + commitment recommendations
  • Light SLAs + continuous improvement KPIs
Essentials $3,500/mo (single cloud, 1–2 teams) • Growth $6,500/mo (AWS + Azure, multi-team) • Scale $9,500/mo (higher cadence + more engineering hours)

Outcomes & KPIs (what we measure)

We track progress monthly so improvements don't disappear after the first report.

Tag compliance rate By environment/team; trends month over month
Budget variance + anomaly response Alert coverage and time-to-owner response
Savings identified vs shipped Track approved changes and delivered outcomes
Idle / underutilized reduction Schedules, right-sizing, cleanup, storage lifecycle
Guardrail coverage Policy checks passing; exception workflow health
Forecast confidence Directional accuracy and spend predictability

Mini case studies (examples)

Placeholders — use your real numbers once you have them.

Example: 45-day stabilization

Identified $18k/mo in waste, shipped $9k/mo in approved quick wins, and improved tag compliance from 42% → 86%. (example)

Focus: schedules, idle cleanup, storage lifecycle, budget alerts → owners.

Example: Guardrails + delivery speed

Reduced unapproved SKU/region usage by 70% and cut "snowflake" deployments with a module catalog + CI approvals. (example)

Focus: policy checks, Terraform patterns, GitHub Actions plan/apply approvals.

Who it's for / Not for

This keeps calls productive and protects your team's time.

Who it's for

  • $15k–$250k/month cloud spend with multiple environments
  • You want accountability, predictable spend, fewer surprises
  • You're open to implementing changes with a clean approval path
  • You need guardrails that don't slow delivery

Not for

  • Teams wanting a one-time report with no implementation
  • No access to billing/cost data (at least read-only)
  • "Move fast, no owners, no guardrails" culture
  • Unwilling to route changes through approvals

What we need from you

  • Billing/cost access (read-only first is fine)
  • A technical owner + finance stakeholder
  • A simple approval path for changes
  • 1–2 working sessions/week during delivery

Security & access

  • Least privilege by default; phased access model
  • No blanket production write access required on day one
  • Auditability and traceability via IaC + approvals where feasible
  • Client retains ownership of accounts/subscriptions and code

FAQ

Short answers to the questions that usually block a "yes."

How fast can we see results?

Package A is designed to deliver visibility and quick wins within 2 weeks. Foundation and Guardrails projects typically run 2–8 weeks depending on scope and approvals.

Do you guarantee savings?

No. We identify opportunities, estimate impact, and implement with approval. Actual savings depend on your usage patterns, constraints, and what changes get approved.

What access do you need? Can we start read-only?

Yes. We can start with read-only billing/cost access. Implementation work uses a phased access model and follows least privilege.

Do you use native tools or third-party platforms?

We can work with AWS/Azure native tooling and your existing stack. If you already use a FinOps platform, we'll plug into it instead of replacing it.

Who does the work—advice only or implementation?

This is managed services. We don't just hand you a report. We implement changes with your approval, and we keep a backlog moving month to month.

Will you touch production?

Not on day one. We avoid blanket production write access. When production changes are needed, we follow a phased access + approvals approach.

How do you handle approvals and change management?

We define a lightweight change process (who approves what, when), and we route changes through your preferred method (PR approvals, change tickets, or both).

Can you work with our existing Terraform and GitHub Actions?

Yes. Package B is explicitly designed to integrate with existing repos, pipelines, and environment promotion patterns.

What does the monthly report include?

Spend and variance, directional forecast, savings shipped, top drivers, exceptions list, and a prioritized backlog with owners and next actions.

Contract terms—how do we start?

Start with a triage call. Most teams begin with Package A (reset) or Offer D (foundation), then move to Package C to keep things operating.

Book a Cloud Spend Triage

Get a clear view of spend → a prioritized savings + guardrails plan → and a path to keep it under control.

Book a Cloud Spend Triage

What happens next

  • We confirm your spend range and cloud mix (AWS, Azure, or both)
  • We identify the fastest path: Foundation, Reset, Guardrails, or Managed
  • You leave with a clear 30–90 day plan and an approval-friendly approach

Prefer email? info@cloudcosttriage.com

Get the FinOps Quick Wins Checklist

No spam. We'll send the checklist and a short follow-up option.