Cloud Cost Optimization

The 2026 FinOps Playbook: How We Cut a SaaS Client’s AWS Bill by 38% in 90 Days

5 min read

When a Series B B2B SaaS client came to us in January 2026, their AWS bill had grown from $48K/month to $92K/month over 18 months. By April, we had reduced their monthly AWS spend to $57K — a 38% reduction — while maintaining 99.97% platform uptime.

The Five-Lever Framework

  1. 01Rightsizing (Week 1–2)

    47% of m5.2xlarge instances were running at <18% CPU. Migrated to m6g.xlarge. $11,400/month saved.

  2. 02Reserved Instances & Savings Plans (Week 3)

    1-year, no-upfront Compute Savings Plan covering 70% of baseline. $8,200/month saved.

  3. 03Idle Resource Audit (Week 3–4)

    $1,840 in unattached EBS · $620 in stopped RDS · $340 in unused EIPs · $2,100 in NAT misconfig. $4,900/month saved.

  4. 04Data Transfer Optimization (Week 5–7)

    VPC endpoints for S3/DynamoDB; consolidated AZs. $5,200/month saved.

  5. 05Per-Customer Cost Allocation (Week 8–10)

    Mandatory tagging + Grafana dashboard. Three unprofitable customers identified.

5-Lever FinOps FrameworkFrom audit to optimization — week-by-week01RightsizingEC2 + RDSnWeek 1–202CommitmentsSavings PlansnWeek 303Idle AuditEBS, EIPs, NATnWeek 3–404Data TransferVPC EndpointsnWeek 5–705Cost AllocationPer-customernWeek 8–10Result: 38% cost reduction · $420K annualized savings · 99.97% uptimeReal engagement · B2B SaaS · 90 days
The 5-lever framework Ohveda used to cut a B2B SaaS client’s AWS bill by 38% in 90 days.

The Bottom Line

$35K/month in savings, $420K annualized, 99.97% uptime maintained. The engagement paid for itself in week 6.

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