Why
Recommendations left in provider portals are seen by nobody. Cloud-native advisors are free and already generating rightsizing, idle resource, and commitment coverage recommendations — the effort is in establishing the habit of extracting and acting on them.
What
Extract cost optimisation recommendations from cloud-native advisor tools and create optimisation tickets from them.
How
Enable Cloud-Native Advisors
| Provider | Tool | What It Covers | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | Compute Optimizer | EC2, EBS, Lambda, ECS rightsizing | Enable per account |
| AWS | Trusted Advisor | Idle resources, security, cost savings | Business/Enterprise support |
| AWS | Cost Optimization Hub | Aggregates recommendations across accounts | Enable in management account |
| Azure | Azure Advisor | VM rightsizing, idle, reserved instance | Enabled by default |
| GCP | Recommender | VM rightsizing, idle, committed use | Enabled by default |
Establish Weekly Extraction Habit
Start manual before automating (S5-04). Each week: log into each advisor portal, filter for cost recommendations, and create tickets in your ITSM tool for the top 10 by estimated savings.
Categorise Recommendations
| Category | Examples | Typical Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Rightsizing | Downsize over-provisioned VMs/containers | 20–40% |
| Idle / unused | Delete unattached volumes, idle load balancers | 100% |
| Scheduling | Stop non-prod outside business hours | 65% |
| Commitment gaps | Purchase RI/SP for steady-state workloads | 30–60% |
| Storage tiering | Move infrequent data to cheaper tiers | 50–80% |
Deliverable Checklist
- Cloud-native advisors enabled per provider
- Weekly extraction habit established
- Recommendations categorised by type
- Top recommendations converted to ITSM tickets