Introduction
Many teams set up development, testing, or staging environments in AWS without a clear usage and shutdown strategy. The result: servers running 24/7, databases active over the weekend, and resources being paid for… without being used. If your goal is to reduce costs in AWS, this is one of the best places to start.
The Problem: Forgotten but Active Environments
Development environments are essential for any product or engineering team. However, since they’re not production-critical, they’re often used sporadically or only during working hours. Still, it’s common to find:
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EC2 instances running 24/7 when they’re only used Monday through Friday.
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RDS databases for testing that remain active after each sprint.
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Duplicated resources across multiple test projects.
All of this can significantly increase your monthly AWS bill without adding real value to your business.
Best Practices to Reduce Costs in Non-Production Environments
If your organization wants to start reducing costs in AWS, implementing specific policies for dev/staging environments is essential:
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Shut down what’s not in use after hours: Automate the shutdown of instances during nights and weekends.
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Use spot instances or low-cost options for testing tasks.
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Set up lifecycle policies to automatically delete temporary resources.
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Tag non-production environments properly so you can filter and analyze them.
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Regularly review which environments are still active and why.
How Cloud-Trim Helps
Cloud-Trim helps you quickly identify development environments that are generating costs without delivering value. It performs free scans of your AWS account and detects:
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Instances with low usage or no recent activity.
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Duplicated or leftover resources after tests.
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EBS volumes or Elastic IPs left active.
With this information, you can make specific decisions to optimize usage without compromising team productivity. And thanks to its automatic recommendations, applying those improvements is simple and effective.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for ways to reduce costs in AWS, start by examining your development environments. You’ll likely find quick savings opportunities there—without impacting your business.
Cloud-Trim gives you the tools to detect and act on those hidden budget drains.
Try it free and start optimizing your cloud today!