Cloud waste

As explained in Infrastructure as Code, Patterns and Practices: With examples in Python and Terraform

Cloud waste is unnecessary consumption of cloud resources or expenditure that does not provide corresponding business or technical value.

Cloud waste is the consumption of unused or underutilized infrastructure resources. It commonly appears as forgotten test servers, oversized machines, or resources that run outside actual usage patterns. section 12.2

Reduce cloud waste by:

• Deleting, expiring, or stopping unused resources after confirming their dependencies. section 12.2 section 12.2.1
• Scheduling or autoscaling resources to match usage patterns. section 12.2 section 12.4
• Right-sizing infrastructure by assessing the appropriate resource size or type. section 12.2
• Tagging resources with ownership and expiration information. section 12.4

Forgotten production sandbox

Two untagged n2d-standard-16 production instances cost about $700 monthly. Usage metrics showed zero activity, and the team confirmed they were forgotten sandbox servers. Removing their IaC configuration deleted the instances, disks, and attached resources. If deletion is risky, stop the resources temporarily and monitor for failures first. section 12.2.1

Figure 12.5 You can reduce cloud waste by removing unused resources, or scheduling and sizing resources to accommodate usage patterns.

Use the figure to compare removal, scheduling, scaling, and sizing as complementary ways to reduce waste. section 12.2

How Infrastructure as Code, Patterns and Practices: With examples in Python and Terraform covers it

How deep it goes

Explains identification, metrics checks, dependency validation, stopping, deletion, scheduling, scaling, and right-sizing.

Examples

Uses forgotten sandbox servers, zero-usage metrics, a conference bill, and scheduled or on-demand environments.

What it assumes

Assumes familiarity with infrastructure resources, metrics, teams, and infrastructure as code while teaching waste identification from operational scenarios.

What you can do after

Operate/configure infrastructure by finding waste, validating dependencies, removing or stopping resources, and matching capacity to usage.

How it connects

Connects cloud waste with infrastructure as code, autoscaling, tagging, right-sizing, cost estimation, and policy tests.

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Related concepts

• infrastructure resourcekind of · An infrastructure resource is an identifiable supporting component or service that provides technical capabilities on which applications or other system components depend.
• infrastructure as codeused by · Infrastructure as code is the practice of defining, provisioning, and managing computing infrastructure through machine-readable code or configuration rather than manual procedures.
• private clouduses · A private cloud is a cloud computing environment dedicated to or isolated for the use of a single organization and operated by it or a designated provider.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Infrastructure as Code, Patterns and Practices: With examples in Python and Terraform. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.