FinOps Cloud Cost Optimization: Best Practices

When cloud computing began its rise to power, most technology experts and technology providers cited its cost-effectiveness as one of the critical benefits of the cloud. However, have you noticed that, over time, cost efficiency is rarely cited among the key advantages of cloud technologies?

That’s because many companies actually overspend on the cloud. Tracking cloud expenses becomes a big challenge, especially for companies that scale rapidly.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem. FinOps and cloud cost optimization have become increasingly important trends in the modern technology domain. In this article, we will discuss FinOps, its common pitfalls, best practices, and proven strategies in more detail.

One of the main reasons behind cloud costs spiraling out of control is the so-called cloud cost trap. Most cloud systems can grow exponentially due to their flexibility and integration with multiple off-the-shelf resources. In such conditions, tracking the entire system and its cost becomes a challenging task.

The most common cloud cost traps are associated with the following:

• Development environments that are not shut down on time
• Overprovisioning of instances
• Growing storage bills associated with unused snapshots and old backups
• Duplicated resources, such as idle test clusters.

FinOps best practices for cloud cost optimization help companies address these cloud traps specifically.

According to IDC, cloud spending will exceed $1.61 trillion by 2028. As more and more companies invest in cloud-based services, the situation may spiral out of control. The best way to improve financial dynamics on different levels is by employing FinOps and cloud cost optimization.

While this approach may seem challenging, it can be handled much more efficiently with the help of managed cloud solutions experts. At least, specialists with significant hands-on experience will help you deal with common cloud cost challenges.

We at AppRecode worked with many companies that required optimizing their cloud spending. From our experience, the most common problems faced by such organizations include:

• Lack of tools and practices for real-time cost visibility
• Lack of organization and centralization in cloud usage
• Complexities of pricing models offered by major providers
• The abundance of waste and idle resources
• Multi-cloud complexities
• Siloed workflows within companies, which leads to a lack of accountability across engineering teams.

We at AppRecode have successfully built and implemented multiple FinOps cloud cost optimization strategies tailored to the needs of different businesses. They typically include the following steps.

It is important to break the silos within the company. This means that the FinOps team should involve engineers, finance specialists, product teams, etc. The cooperation should be based on complete transparency and efficient data exchange.

Cloud cost visibility is the pillar of all FinOps initiatives. To achieve it:

• Use tools like Kubecost or AWS Cost Explorer
• Ensure cost visualization
• Enable tagging policies for all resources.

Make sure that none of your instances is over- or under-provisioned. To deal with this issue:

• Rely on recommendations from AWS Compute Optimizer or Azure Advisor
• Apply auto-scaling policies
• Schedule non-production shutdowns during off-hours.

Reserved instances typically help you save significant costs compared to on-demand pricing. Also, research saving plans from the major cloud providers, such as AWS, Azure, and GCP. Sometimes, they offer extremely flexible and cost-effective models.

Make sure that your engineers work in accordance with FinOps best practices for cloud cost optimization. To raise their awareness:

• Integrate cost metrics into CI/CD pipelines
• Educate teams on unit economics
• Praise your employees for their adherence to cost-effectiveness.

Ensure efficient tagging and cleanup rules. Tools like Cloud Custodian and Terraform may come in handy.

Track metrics such as:

• Cost per customer or service
• Utilization rates
• Cost of idle resources
• Forecast accuracy.

FinOps should be integrated into the engineering mindset, not treated as an afterthought. Successful organizations are dedicated to FinOps practices across all operational levels. Starting from cloud migration advisory services to continuous maintenance, they focus on preventing things from getting expensive.

“FinOps isn’t about cutting cloud costs — it’s about maximizing cloud value. When finance and engineering collaborate, every dollar becomes a driver of innovation.”

Volodymyr Shynkar, Founder at AppRecode

LinkedIn

Let’s look deeper into the most effective FinOps strategies for practical, measurable impact.

Tagging is the foundation of FinOps. Every resource should have metadata that defines:

• Owner or team
• Environment (dev, test, prod)
• Project or application
• Cost center or budget code

Tools like AWS Tag Editor or Azure Policy can enforce tagging compliance automatically.

Centralize cloud data from all accounts and providers into one dashboard.

You can use:

• CloudHealth by VMware
• Apptio Cloudability
• Kubecost (for Kubernetes)
• FinOut or Harness Cloud Cost Management

These dashboards provide real-time visibility into cost trends, anomalies, and forecasting.

An excellent choice is merging FinOps with DevOps. How does it work in practice?

Here is a practical example:

• During deployment, the pipeline checks for compliance with cost policies.
• Engineers get alerts if their code triggers high-cost configurations.

Tools like Infracost can estimate infrastructure costs directly in pull requests — preventing expensive changes before they’re deployed.

With artificial intelligence trained for cloud cost optimization, you can:

• Forecast monthly costs based on usage trends
• Detect underutilized resources automatically
• Predict traffic spikes and adjust autoscaling in advance.

Solutions like Densify, CloudZero, and Spot.io use machine learning to recommend optimal configurations.

Give each team ownership of their spending by showing the direct cost impact of their applications.

• Showback: Teams see their usage and costs, but don’t get billed.
• Chargeback: Costs are directly allocated to teams’ budgets.

This approach will help you establish a culture of responsibility within the company.

Automation reduces human error and ensures continuous cost control. Here are some examples:

• Automatically delete unused snapshots after 30 days.
• Turn off dev environments outside working hours.
• Downsize idle VMs automatically after 7 days of low usage.

Tools like Cloud Custodian, Terraform, and Ansible can enforce these rules.

Make sure to apply automation for regular monitoring, but also apply regular cloud cost audits for deeper insights into your spending patterns.

Kubernetes adds flexibility but also complexity to cloud billing.

FinOps for Kubernetes should include:

• Using Kubecost to track pod-level spending.
• Implementing Vertical Pod Autoscaling (VPA) to right-size resources.
• Limiting resource requests and limits in YAML configurations.
• Removing idle namespaces and orphaned volumes.

When using multiple providers:

• Standardize cost metrics across clouds.
• Centralize reporting with multi-cloud tools (e.g., CloudBolt, Apptio).
• Move workloads dynamically to where they’re most cost-efficient.

At AppRecode, we help enterprises translate FinOps principles into measurable business value. Our specialists work at the intersection of engineering, finance, and strategy to ensure your cloud investments deliver maximum returns.

Our FinOps services include:

• FinOps assessment
• FinOps framework implementation
• Tool integration
• Continuous optimization.

With our help, a U.S.-based healthcare startup got an efficient monitoring solution that provides complete control over their pipelines and their costs. For more examples of our efficient work, check out our Clutch profile.

FinOps cloud cost optimization is not a cost-cutting exercise — it’s a transformation in how companies think about cloud economics. It empowers teams to make informed decisions, turning financial accountability into a shared cultural value.

When engineers understand the business impact of every resource, and finance teams understand the technical context behind every invoice, the cloud becomes not a cost center, but a value engine.

Whether you need help with cloud security managed services or efficient cost monitoring for your cloud infrastructure, we at AppRecode are ready to help!

While traditional cost management primarily evaluates static budgets, FinOps is a continuous and collaborative process aimed at establishing control over cloud costs.

With FinOps practices, companies can optimize the usage of cloud resources and get complete control over their expenses. This leads to significant savings in terms of cloud bills.

We suggest using tools like:

• CloudHealth
• Apptio Cloudability
• Kubecost
• Infracost
• Cloud Custodian
• AWS Cost Explorer

This involves several practices:

• Integrating cost check in CI/CD pipelines
• Using policy-as-a-code tools
• Configuring engineering dashboards with cost metrics.

Yes, FinOps practices cover the entire cloud architecture, including multi-cloud environments.