An illustrative AWS cost assessment. A few sample opportunities, the questions behind them, and what an engineer would need to validate.
ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY
This is a demonstration of the report format, not a completed client assessment. No savings, findings, or outcomes below are presented as real customer results.
cuenexa.ASSESSMENT EXCERPT / 01
EXECUTIVE VIEW
First, validate the context. Then make the change.
These three examples show how a billing signal becomes a specific engineering decision. Financial estimates would be added only after reviewing the actual environment.
Illustrative opportunity shortlist
Review area
Potential action
Validation needed
01 / Compute
Schedule non-production capacity
Usage windows & dependencies
02 / Storage
Review unattached volumes
Ownership & retention needs
03 / Database
Evaluate instance sizing
Peak load & resilience requirements
OPPORTUNITY 01 / COMPUTEVALIDATE FIRST
Non-production capacity outside working hours
A workload may run continuously even though the team only uses it during certain hours.
Evidence to collect
Instance inventory, utilization history, environment tags, deployment schedules, and input from workload owners.
Proposed next step
Identify a suitable environment and agree its availability window. Check shared services and scheduled jobs before piloting a schedule.
Risks & dependencies
After-hours testing, batch jobs, time zones, and services shared with production may rule out or constrain scheduling.
How to measure
Compare billed usage before and after the pilot, accounting for rate changes and workload growth. Confirm developer availability is unaffected.
OPPORTUNITY 02 / STORAGEOWNER REVIEW
Volumes without an active attachment
A detached volume can be a leftover resource—or an intentional recovery asset. The bill alone cannot tell you which.
Evidence to collect
Volume inventory, attachment history, ownership, tags, and applicable retention or recovery requirements.
Proposed next step
Ask the owner to verify purpose and retention needs. Document the approved treatment before taking any irreversible action.
OPPORTUNITY 03 / DATABASEWORKLOAD REVIEW
Database capacity above observed demand
Low average CPU is a signal to investigate, not proof that a smaller instance will be safe.
