Workload and ownership
- What business task does the workload support?
- Who owns each service, storage area and scheduled job?
- Which dependencies and recovery resources must remain available?
Planning resources
Connect the cost question to the operating requirement.
Use this checklist for your own notes. This page does not collect account information or upload bills.
Usage and comparison
- Which time period and billing categories changed?
- Did demand, the service mix or a vendor plan also change?
- Does the sample include month-end or other peak work?
- What usage and performance data is available?
Before a resource change
In a fictional application, a quiet reporting worker may run only at month-end. Confirm its purpose and demand before calling it redundant. Agree expected benefit, testing, recovery and approval for any removal or commitment.
AI-related workloads
If the application uses AI, identify the requests, retries and supporting compute or storage contributing to the bill. Compare useful completed work with its cost, and check any proposed limits against the product's needs.
Further context
The FinOps Foundation's Usage Optimization guidance discusses matching resource use to workload needs while considering performance, value and implementation effort. It is useful context, not evidence of savings on a particular account.