Hello, everyone! My name is Ran, and I've been involved in FinOps since it was known as Cloud Economics. For over a decade, I have focused on the financial aspects of cloud computing. In this series, I’ll explore the financial side of the cloud, with a special focus on Elastic Block Storage (EBS). I have some great tips coming up, so stay tuned and let me know what you think!
I love numbers—they paint a clear picture of costs that might otherwise be “hidden”. When managing AWS billing, some costs are often overlooked due to its complexity. I’d like to start by addressing a common misconception: EBS is often seen as a cost that “you can do almost nothing about.” This perception frequently comes up in my discussions with FinOps pros who have seen and heard it all.
“Average monthly spend on EBS volumes is not that high. How much can I save?”
When building a FinOps practice, it’s crucial to identify the right initiatives that offer the greatest benefit to your organization—think minimum effort, maximum waste reduction ($).
EBS spending depends on several factors:
- Workload Types: AI and machine learning models are great examples of workloads that require significant data storage for training datasets, model outputs, and large-scale data analytics, leading to higher EBS usage and costs.
- Data Types: Companies handling massive video files, editing projects, and data streaming require extensive and performant storage solutions, which drive up EBS costs.
- Industry: The gaming industry is a perfect example of one that potentially consumes extensive amounts of data to support real-time data processing, user state management, and game state saves.
So, EBS volumes can vary extensively between different use cases and can constitute up to 30% of the monthly bill.
According to Datafy’s research, EBS utilization (assuming the volume is attached to an active machine) can be as low as single-digit percentages. This means there's a savings potential of over 90% on those resources.
While there are 2-3 “immediate suspects” for EBS optimization (such as unattached volumes, volumes attached to stopped machines, or transitioning from gp2 to gp3), EBS utilization is often overlooked. Why? Because it requires relatively more effort to monitor and remediate. BUT addressing it can lead to significant waste reduction and improved financial efficiency. Datafy’s solution is simple to use, requires no Devs to be deployed so you can skip the hard part and enjoy the benefits.
From what I’ve seen in Datafy’s EBS service, if you have a cloud-based platform using Elastic Block Storage, this very smart piece of engineering can definitely help your bottom line.
See you next time!
