6 ms·

I've been joking with friends that my next job will be AWS efficiency guru. I've somewhat optimized our own use, but I think I could use similar, simple rules t

by teh 10y ago

I've been joking with friends that my next job will be AWS efficiency guru. I've somewhat optimized our own use, but I think I could use similar, simple rules to get 20% out of a 500k / month budget. Give me what I save you in 2 months and I'll have a good business :)

andreapaiola 10y ago
If I have to give that to you it's not "savings"... :D
- xj9 10y ago
  but you do save money every month after that!
cheez 10y ago
I don't think that's a bad proposition at all. If I were a business person running on AWS, I'd do it.
officelineback 10y ago
I'm pretty much that in my current job only with a salary. Here's why: I can make all the recommendations I want but change has to be driven by the will of the higher ups, often as high as C-level folks (CIO/CTO). So you pay me to make recommendations, not to actually save you the money, because the second part is largely out of my control. Having said that, all the cost savings initiatives I've spearheaded are on my resume and LinkedIn profile and I take great satisfaction in optimizing those environments to save the client money.
sly010 10y ago
The simplest one might be to convince a company to reserve 3 years worth of AWS resources and paying upfront. I am in this situation right now, but and it's a tough pill to swallow. I decided that all of my personal projects will be GCE. It is much more cost efficient already and Google will soon allow me to commit to future usage and pay my commitment as I go (Right now AWS forces you to pay upfront to get the same discount (~50%))
- QuinnyPig 10y ago
  With a couple of exceptions, 3 year RIs are a poor move. You're locking in pricing, and opting out of both newer instance classes and future price reductions during that time period. Generally, they're only useful for "that database we WILL NEVER MOVE," or if you're writing portions of your cloud spend as CapEx and want to amortize depreciation.
  - sly010 10y ago
    I agree on AWS it's a hard move. On GCE, however, you would be buying CPU and memory units, not machines, which to me is much more appealing. Even if the the price drops 50% every year, i would break even.
aresant 10y ago
Go do it! I used that exact same model in Conversion Rate Optimization - get your conversion rate up, give me 30% of what we improve. And built that into a 20+ person digital agency billing millions of dollars a year before being bought out. Exactly how I did that and you can to: (1) Wrote topical, detail rich posts similar to the parent here about problems I was solving in CRO for a handful of customers, never disclosing confidential customer info. (2) Marketed those posts strategically. EG I wrote one about "Which trust symbol gives you the highest return on conversion rate." and then literally just bought Google Adwords of people searching for that question! StackOverflow and other forums also are great ways to market by answering questions (free + put your details in contact info) or running ad campaigns specifically on those topics ($5k+). (3) Turned the best performing / most viewed posts into "pitches" for speaking gigs at materially similar conferences, most were accepted and I became an "authority". Every post / conference / etc had a little "Want us to fix it for you? Full service, performance fee model." banner or mention. Work poured in after that and we were lucky enough to be very choosy. If you can SAVE large enterprises money and are willing to do it on a performance basis you've got a business.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- omarchowdhury 10y ago
  That's awesome, do you have more information about your acquisition?
  - aresant 10y ago
    This was several years ago before we had the "growth hackers" lexicon. One of our customers bought the entire company to get a hold of the core team + essentially continued the "30%" deal as a long term incentive as convertible equity. Was a good run, and reinforces my post of if you can bring measurable / substantial value to large enterprise companies amazing things can happen. Large enterprise have fun accounting terms like "capitalizing an acquisition", eg they don't buy you out of cash flow. And can even carry debt on the purchase / incentive programs etc that not only make you more valuable to them, but create incentives for them to buy smaller companies. Happy to answer any more specific questions.
sametmax 10y ago
2 months ? That's cheap. Make it a year.
a13n 10y ago
Or charge 20% of what you save them over the next year. This way you're charging more overall (especially if their costs are growing). Also your revenue will be more recurring rather than a one time thing. And by the time the 12 months is up, maybe they'll need your service again. :P
- a13n 10y ago
  Also as a SaaS founder running on AWS, I would totally do this once our AWS bill is in the 4-5 figures.
  - QuinnyPig 10y ago
    It's almost like clockwork. Companies start wondering around $10K a month; they start doing something about it at $50K a month. I can almost set my watch by it. This turns into a fun parlor trick when I can estimate a client's bill based upon the story they tell me!
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - vacri 10y ago
      We got pinged by our CEO to reduce our AWS bill which was $8k at the time. After a bit of work, we got it down by a little over a grand. One lunch, he said "guys, what are you doing about that bill?"... "What, we got it down by over a grand!"... "Yeah, but the exchange rate has gone the other way..." Gotta love the Australian dollar. The Australian economy is solid - about to set a world record for longest continuing period without recession, including the GFC years - but the AUD swings around like a mad animal.
  - user5994461 10y ago
    The savings are too miserable to pay a consultant. Remember that he has to charge at least $1000 a day. He's more expensive than your entire bill.
QuinnyPig 10y ago
I actually do this as a full time thing; I started a consultancy to fix horrifying AWS bills. Something I've learned is that flat fee pricing makes the most sense-- while tempting, the other models are off-putting. Hourly is a great way to starve to death, and "percentage of savings" grows difficult to quantify. "Okay, you just recommended the following reserved instance purchases. Is this really the best for us, or does it boost the number you're taking a percentage of?" It's very easy to end up misaligned with your clients as you go down that path...
- user5994461 10y ago
  Put a maximum amount to the fee. Let's say 100k for the month I am here.
  - QuinnyPig 10y ago
    If you're volunteering as a test case, I'm game! :-)
    - user5994461 10y ago
      Nope, I'm the consultant advising you how to charge more. Actually a daily $500 per day + 10% of the savings with an upper limit of 100k is an easier sell. My bills are so optimized you wouldn't make a penny :p
SatvikBeri 10y ago
Like many others, I'm interested, do you have a preferred way to contact you?
- teh 10y ago
  Hi, drop me a line at tom@wearewizards.io :)
rokhayakebe 10y ago
Remember LowerMyBills.com. You will LowerMySaasBills.com

by teh 10y ago

andreapaiola 10y ago

If I have to give that to you it's not "savings"... :D

xj9 10y ago
but you do save money every month after that!

cheez 10y ago

I don't think that's a bad proposition at all. If I were a business person running on AWS, I'd do it.

officelineback 10y ago

I'm pretty much that in my current job only with a salary. Here's why: I can make all the recommendations I want but change has to be driven by the will of the higher ups, often as high as C-level folks (CIO/CTO). So you pay me to make recommendations, not to actually save you the money, because the second part is largely out of my control. Having said that, all the cost savings initiatives I've spearheaded are on my resume and LinkedIn profile and I take great satisfaction in optimizing those environments to save the client money.

sly010 10y ago

The simplest one might be to convince a company to reserve 3 years worth of AWS resources and paying upfront. I am in this situation right now, but and it's a tough pill to swallow. I decided that all of my personal projects will be GCE. It is much more cost efficient already and Google will soon allow me to commit to future usage and pay my commitment as I go (Right now AWS forces you to pay upfront to get the same discount (~50%))

QuinnyPig 10y ago
With a couple of exceptions, 3 year RIs are a poor move. You're locking in pricing, and opting out of both newer instance classes and future price reductions during that time period. Generally, they're only useful for "that database we WILL NEVER MOVE," or if you're writing portions of your cloud spend as CapEx and want to amortize depreciation.
- sly010 10y ago
  I agree on AWS it's a hard move. On GCE, however, you would be buying CPU and memory units, not machines, which to me is much more appealing. Even if the the price drops 50% every year, i would break even.

aresant 10y ago

Go do it! I used that exact same model in Conversion Rate Optimization - get your conversion rate up, give me 30% of what we improve. And built that into a 20+ person digital agency billing millions of dollars a year before being bought out. Exactly how I did that and you can to: (1) Wrote topical, detail rich posts similar to the parent here about problems I was solving in CRO for a handful of customers, never disclosing confidential customer info. (2) Marketed those posts strategically. EG I wrote one about "Which trust symbol gives you the highest return on conversion rate." and then literally just bought Google Adwords of people searching for that question! StackOverflow and other forums also are great ways to market by answering questions (free + put your details in contact info) or running ad campaigns specifically on those topics ($5k+). (3) Turned the best performing / most viewed posts into "pitches" for speaking gigs at materially similar conferences, most were accepted and I became an "authority". Every post / conference / etc had a little "Want us to fix it for you? Full service, performance fee model." banner or mention. Work poured in after that and we were lucky enough to be very choosy. If you can SAVE large enterprises money and are willing to do it on a performance basis you've got a business.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
omarchowdhury 10y ago
That's awesome, do you have more information about your acquisition?
- aresant 10y ago
  This was several years ago before we had the "growth hackers" lexicon. One of our customers bought the entire company to get a hold of the core team + essentially continued the "30%" deal as a long term incentive as convertible equity. Was a good run, and reinforces my post of if you can bring measurable / substantial value to large enterprise companies amazing things can happen. Large enterprise have fun accounting terms like "capitalizing an acquisition", eg they don't buy you out of cash flow. And can even carry debt on the purchase / incentive programs etc that not only make you more valuable to them, but create incentives for them to buy smaller companies. Happy to answer any more specific questions.

sametmax 10y ago

2 months ? That's cheap. Make it a year.

a13n 10y ago

Or charge 20% of what you save them over the next year. This way you're charging more overall (especially if their costs are growing). Also your revenue will be more recurring rather than a one time thing. And by the time the 12 months is up, maybe they'll need your service again. :P

a13n 10y ago
Also as a SaaS founder running on AWS, I would totally do this once our AWS bill is in the 4-5 figures.
- QuinnyPig 10y ago
  It's almost like clockwork. Companies start wondering around $10K a month; they start doing something about it at $50K a month. I can almost set my watch by it. This turns into a fun parlor trick when I can estimate a client's bill based upon the story they tell me!
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - vacri 10y ago
    We got pinged by our CEO to reduce our AWS bill which was $8k at the time. After a bit of work, we got it down by a little over a grand. One lunch, he said "guys, what are you doing about that bill?"... "What, we got it down by over a grand!"... "Yeah, but the exchange rate has gone the other way..." Gotta love the Australian dollar. The Australian economy is solid - about to set a world record for longest continuing period without recession, including the GFC years - but the AUD swings around like a mad animal.
- user5994461 10y ago
  The savings are too miserable to pay a consultant. Remember that he has to charge at least $1000 a day. He's more expensive than your entire bill.

QuinnyPig 10y ago

I actually do this as a full time thing; I started a consultancy to fix horrifying AWS bills. Something I've learned is that flat fee pricing makes the most sense-- while tempting, the other models are off-putting. Hourly is a great way to starve to death, and "percentage of savings" grows difficult to quantify. "Okay, you just recommended the following reserved instance purchases. Is this really the best for us, or does it boost the number you're taking a percentage of?" It's very easy to end up misaligned with your clients as you go down that path...

user5994461 10y ago
Put a maximum amount to the fee. Let's say 100k for the month I am here.
- QuinnyPig 10y ago
  If you're volunteering as a test case, I'm game! :-)
  - user5994461 10y ago
    Nope, I'm the consultant advising you how to charge more. Actually a daily $500 per day + 10% of the savings with an upper limit of 100k is an easier sell. My bills are so optimized you wouldn't make a penny :p

SatvikBeri 10y ago

Like many others, I'm interested, do you have a preferred way to contact you?

teh 10y ago
Hi, drop me a line at tom@wearewizards.io :)

rokhayakebe 10y ago

Remember LowerMyBills.com. You will LowerMySaasBills.com