We don't know which team incurs which cloud cost
Tag every resource with team, env, app and cost-center. Then activate cost-allocation tags in billing and you get a monthly breakdown. Tagging is one day's work that delivers 12 months of insight.
Try this first
- 1Define a tag policy: at minimum team, env (prod/staging/dev), app, and cost-center. Write it in a README, not just in someone's head.
- 2Activate cost-allocation tags in AWS Billing, Azure Cost Management or GCP Billing. Only then do they count in cost reports. Off by default.
- 3Enforce tag checks in IaC (Terraform modules or CDK aspects) so an untagged resource can't deploy. Otherwise it stays catch-up work.
- 4For existing resources: AWS Tag Editor or Azure Resource Graph for bulk tagging. Cleaning up untagged resources is a day's work, then you're done.
- 5Build a per-team dashboard in Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management or Looker Studio. Show that dashboard monthly. Otherwise it stays abstract.
When to bring us in
If you want real showback or chargeback with invoice per business unit, the step is bigger. Setting up FinOps with someone who's done it before avoids restart work.
See also
- Everyone logs in with the AWS root accountRoot is for emergencies and billing. Day-to-day work belongs in IAM users or SSO.
- Every developer has AdministratorAccessAdministratorAccess everywhere is convenient now, painful later. Start with role-based policies.
- Everyone has individual IAM users with their own passwordIdentity Center (formerly AWS SSO) links to your IdP and issues temporary credentials per session.
None of the above fits?
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