Optimize Skill

Identify and prioritize cloud cost optimization opportunities.

Purpose

Drive cost efficiency through:

• •Right-sizing recommendations
• •Reserved capacity analysis
• •Spot instance opportunities
• •Waste elimination
• •Architecture cost reviews

Commands

Process

1. Discover Usage Data

Check for capabilities:

• •resource-monitoring: CPU, memory, disk, network metrics
• •cost-optimization: Built-in recommendation engines
• •infrastructure-cost: Resource specifications

Fallback: Work with resource specs and estimates

2. Right-Sizing Analysis

Collect 7-14 day metrics: CPU, memory, network, disk

Criteria:

• •<20% CPU/memory → Downsize
• •

  80% sustained → Upsize

• •Spiky → Auto-scaling

See Right-Sizing for methodology.

3. Reserved Capacity

Find 24/7 workloads (>70% uptime), compare on-demand vs reserved costs, recommend term.

Commitment types vary by provider but all offer similar savings for predictable workloads.

See Reservations.

4. Spot Opportunities

Good: Batch jobs, CI/CD, data processing, stateless services, dev/test Bad: Databases, single points of failure, real-time services

5. Waste Detection

Scan for: Idle instances, unattached volumes, old snapshots, orphaned IPs, unused load balancers

See Waste Checklist.

6. Architecture Review

Cost-sensitive patterns: Data transfer, database architecture, storage tiering, caching

7. Prioritize

Quick Wins: Delete unused, right-size obvious High Value: RI purchases, spot migration Strategic: Architecture refactoring

Integration

wicked-mem: Store optimization results wicked-search: Find resource configurations

Output Format

## Cost Optimization Analysis

### Executive Summary
**Total Savings**: ${total}/month (${annual}/year)
**Quick Wins**: ${quick}/month

### Priority 1: Quick Wins
1. Delete 15 unattached EBS volumes - $200/mo
2. Right-size i-xyz789 - $35/mo

### Priority 2: Reserved Capacity
Production DB fleet - $1,680/mo savings

### Priority 3: Spot Migration
CI/CD fleet - $584/mo savings

### Priority 4: Architecture
Add caching - $200/mo savings

### Implementation Roadmap
**Week 1**: Quick wins ($350/mo)
**Week 2-3**: Reserved capacity ($1,680/mo)
**Month 2**: Spot migration ($584/mo)

**Total 90-day savings**: $2,814/month

### ROI
**Annual savings**: $33,768
**Implementation cost**: $8,000
**Payback**: 8 days

Events

Published:

• •[finops:optimization:identified:success]
• •[finops:optimization:completed:success]
• •[finops:savings:validated:success]

Subscribed:

• •[arch:design:completed:success]

Configuration

optimization:
  min_savings_threshold: 100
  rightsizing:
    cpu_downsize_threshold: 20
    memory_downsize_threshold: 30
    evaluation_period_days: 14
  reservations:
    min_utilization: 70
    default_term: 1

Tips

1. •Start with waste: Easiest wins
2. •Measure first: Use actual metrics
3. •Pilot changes: Test before rollout
4. •Track savings: Validate predictions
5. •Continuous review: Ongoing process
6. •Balance risk: Don't sacrifice reliability

Reference Materials

• •Right-Sizing Methodology
• •Reserved Capacity Guide
• •Waste Detection Patterns