Peer-Driven Insights

Cost Optimization

About this topic

Cost optimization is a business-focused, continuous discipline to drive spending and cost reduction, while maximizing business value

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Community Posts

Are any of your IT budget items recession-proof? Which ones?

Financial ManagementCost Optimization+1 more
Director in Manufacturing2 years ago
Only software contracts with longer terms that don’t have a declining usage clause. We usually purchase for X number of seats +/- some percentage. If we had a divestiture or layoff large enough then that license budget ...read more
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If you've lost (or suspect you will lose) a significant amount of your annual budget due to government funding cuts, what measures are you implementing from a sourcing and supplier management perspective to optimize costs without cancelling contracts?

Crisis ManagementFinancial Management+4 more
CEO in Services (non-Government)8 days ago
If you're losing or expect to lose Federal contracts, here is what we're advising contract holders to do immediately (before terminating supplier contracts):

1. Audit Software Licenses
2. Rationalize SaaS Across ...read more
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919 viewscircle icon2 Comments

If you're implementing cost-optimization or reduction initiatives as a result of government funding cuts, which departments are responsible for setting the strategy? Is it primarily finance, or have you established a cross-functional team?

Crisis ManagementFinancial Management+1 more
Director, Experience Design in Education9 days ago
We have a cross-functional group that looks at an organization-wide approach. There, we discuss where consistency is needed across the organization, the risks associated with funding and job reductions, and where we need ...read more
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721 viewscircle icon4 Comments

How does your team approach FinOps best practices to optimize cloud costs while ensuring performance? Any insights on budgeting, cost monitoring, or application rationalization that have worked well for you?

Cost OptimizationFinancial Management+1 more
Director of IT23 days ago
The entire team needs to be educated to become cost sensitive. We also have the luxury that the Cloud PO is an MBA and strong in tech and finance. Finally it helps to have good tools which indicate potential savings. Obviously ...read more
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What challenges have you recently encountered in managing the increasing number of SaaS vendors within your organization? And how did you handle it?

New to RoleApplications & Platforms+14 more
Director of IT in Bankinga year ago
In our company, each SaaS has to run through the process for purchasing software including a due diligence by its architecture and security even if the SaaS is used for free. Each SaaS must be added to the EAM-repository. ...read more
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7.1k viewscircle icon6 Comments

Has your org managed to reduce its cyber insurance premium over the past year? (If so, comment to explain how this was achieved if you can)

Security Strategy & RoadmapRisk Management+1 more

Yes56%

No30%

I don’t know11%

Org doesn’t currently have cyber insurance3%

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What framework or approach do you use to help you decide when to build vs. buy?

Software DevelopmentCost Optimization+1 more
Director of Architecture in Banking23 days ago
I find it best to drive this decision through organizational strategy and competences within the business and IT.

For instance:

- What tier is the business and BCP group defining this initiative/solution will ...read more
620 viewscircle icon2 Upvotescircle icon1 Comment

If you’re told that your software team needs to increase delivery speed but you can’t spend budget on new tooling or platforms, where would you make improvements?

Software DevelopmentCost Optimization+2 more
CTO in Mediaa month ago
I would take three immediate actions:
1) Clarify the "need to increase delivery speed", what are you being told, and is it clear enough?  "Faster" is generally a poor mandate, and you'll need clarity of expectations to ...read more
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What sorts of innovative approaches have you found to optimize your cybersecurity budget? Have you adopted any new strategies for maintaining protection levels despite financial constraints?

Financial ManagementCost Optimization+1 more
CISO| Legal & Regulatory APAC lead in Media5 months ago
I believe it’s crucial to incorporate certain cybersecurity responsibilities into the job roles of business heads. For instance, fostering a culture of ‘Security by Design’ within the development and product teams can significantly ...read more
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867 viewscircle icon3 Comments

Have you been able to convince leadership that generative AI tools will have a positive ROI for your engineering team?

Cost OptimizationEngineering+1 more

Yes, but they were hard to persuade8%

Yes, and they agreed readily60%

Not yet, but I’m working on it24%

No, leadership opted out of generative AI for now6%

I haven’t been involved in these discussions1%

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459 viewscircle icon1 Comment

Would love to hear from anyone who has successfully taken a more proactive approach to cloud cost-savings versus a reactive approach? What strategies or tactics have been key in your success?

CloudHybrid Cloud+5 more
Head of Cloud & Platforms in Banking2 years ago
A compelling objective; curious to learn from others. My experience, though relatively recent due to the recent budget focus on this topic, emphasises the importance of understanding the organisation's model, culture, ...read more
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How are you tackling cost estimation for your AI projects? Are there any specific frameworks/methods that have worked well for you?

IT Symposium 2024AI & Machine Learning+1 more
Chief Data Officer in Software5 months ago
We recently completed a major Generative AI project for a large retail client. Here are some frameworks we used to estimate costs:

Cloud-Native Approach: Most AI projects, especially Generative AI, require significant ...read more
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3.5k viewscircle icon3 Comments

What’s your primary strategy for managing cloud costs in 2025?

CloudCost Optimization

Implementing FinOps practices16%

Optimizing workloads for cost-efficiency39%

Negotiating better terms with cloud providers21%

Scaling down unused or underutilized resources7%

Automating cloud monitoring and reporting2%

All of these10%

None of these2%

Something else3%

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345 viewscircle icon1 Comment

Have GenAI projects increased cloud costs for your org, and are you scaling back on GenAI initiatives as a result?

Cost OptimizationAI & Machine Learning+2 more
Director of IT in Transportation6 months ago
We initially looked at training our own models on our own data, motiviated primarily around two mistaken notions:  1) that general LLM couldn't undertand our data, and 2) that we wanted to control the confidentiality of our ...read more
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2.7k viewscircle icon1 Upvotecircle icon4 Comments

Will rising cloud costs lead to a reverse migration, from cloud to on-prem?

CloudCost Optimization+1 more
Director IT | CTO Office | Digital Factory / Industry 4.0 in Hardware3 years ago
I don't think rising costs will make people migrate back to on-prem because they're too  invested. If you're already in the cloud, you would have to bring everything down and set up an on-prem environment, which ...read more
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For MuleSoft: what are some of the best practices you used to keep the costs in check?

Enterprise ArchitectureEngineering+2 more
Head of Demand to Value Data, Digital & Technology in Healthcare and Biotecha year ago
Model optimisation internally and challenge the vendor! We spent a lot of time designing, managing and improving our node stucture if I remember correctly, and had to push back on over capacity (cost) a lot until we could ...read more
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