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I recently helped save $150k per year by deleting node_modules. I noticed that one of our S3 buckets had high data transfer costs, a bucket that our app downlo
by gurchik 3y ago
I recently helped save $150k per year by deleting node_modules.
I noticed that one of our S3 buckets had high data transfer costs, a bucket that our app downloads HTML+JS assets from when we push out a new release. I downloaded the "directory" of files for our latest release and saw it was mostly node_modules. I checked the code and confirmed that, yes, if this file exists in the bucket then it'll be downloaded by the user. I wrote a quick Python script to list out each directory that had this problem, and a quick Slack message to the appropriate team later, we discovered the specific commit that was the cause, a change to our CI that inadvertently uploaded that directory when we wanted to ignore it.
A few months later, I checked the billing metrics, the effect was an avg of $12,500 reduction in cost for this bucket, or around $150k per year, or 4% of our bill. Not bad for one hour of work. Over the course of a quarter I reduced our bill by over $1m, or around 30% of our bill.
I might write a blog post explaining how to go about something like that. A lot of people are not familiar with tools like Trusted Advisor which can easily tell you if you have, for example, unused EC2 instances that can be terminated.
- tuananh 3y agoplease do :) i would love to learn more about this
- Detrytus 3y agoNow, the inconvenient question: how much of that $1m savings ended up in your bank account as a bonus? Because certainly some of it should :-D
- gurchik 3y agoNot sure yet, but probably nothing. I completely understand the expectations written in this thread to receive something in return, but I've given this thought and I'm not sure how to do this in a fair way in this situation. First, I was given dedicated time that quarter to work on cost savings and other people weren't, if I received a bonus is that fair to other people who didn't have the same opportunity? Not to mention the possibility of people abusing this process. I would be happy to receive some extra cash, don't get me wrong, but I work for non-monetary benefits as well, and I have received some of those as part of this work. If I worked at a company with a different culture and I was being punished for doing the work, I would demand some bonus.
- krageon 3y agoYou being at peace with "non-monetary benefits" is what depresses wages and real rewards for you, but more importantly all your colleagues.
- gurchik 3y agoJust curious, do you feel the same way when someone chooses a job that pays less but has a better work life balance, or a shorter commute, or more opportunities for growth, or similar?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]