1.
Event-driven logic runs only when it needs to, cutting compute waste.
Gonzalo Corbijn (Cloud Engineering Director) - August 1, 2025
Cloud savings start with your apps
The biggest cloud savings don’t come from cheaper servers: they come from applications designed to run smarter in the cloud.
This article is for anyone responsible for cloud bills: engineers, IT teams, and managers, who are tired of quick fixes and want a clearer way to cut costs that actually lasts.
Key insights
Infrastructure fixes don’t last – resizing servers or buying discounts only lowers costs for a short time.
Applications are where real savings happen – fixing how apps are built and scaled prevents waste and keeps cloud bills down.
Why quick fixes don’t deliver lasting savings
When companies try to save money in the cloud, the playbook is usually the same:
- Resize or shut down servers
- Buy reserved instances
- Enable autoscaling
- Turn off resources at night
These tricks can cut the bill briefly, but savings fade and costs return. Why? They’re infrastructure-first tactics. They focus on servers, storage, and networking, without fixing the real issue: how the application is built and runs in the cloud.
Focusing on infrastructure alone won’t solve cloud costs
Infrastructure metrics are convenient. You can log into a dashboard and instantly see which VM costs the most. You can resize, shut down, or buy a cheaper plan.
But apps are where the real costs hide.
- An inefficient database query can cost more than a dozen small VMs.
- A monolith that scales “all or nothing” will waste resources no matter how cheap the servers are.
- Apps that stay “always on,” even when no one is using them, silently rack up charges.
If the application isn’t cloud-efficient, all the infrastructure tweaks in the world are just temporary fixes.
Why application-first thinking saves more
2.
Stateless services scale up and down cleanly, instead of dragging the whole app with them.
3.
Microservices and containers allow only the busy parts of the app to consume resources.
4.
Caching and optimized queries reduce database and network bills dramatically.
5.
Resilient, asynchronous design avoids expensive over-provisioning during traffic spikes.
The benefits go beyond costs
Consistent performance and faster scaling because you’re not overloading a monolith.
Simpler monitoring and management with a clear view of how each part of the app consumes resources.
Easier security and compliance tailored to specific app components.
Future-proofing because modular apps can adopt new cloud features without painful migrations.
The future of cost optimization
The next wave of cloud savings will belong to teams that think application-first:
- FinOps culture that looks beyond dashboards to actual application behavior.
- AI-driven insights that spot inefficient code paths, not just idle VMs.
- Serverless-first and containerized architectures that scale only what’s needed.
- Cost-aware Infrastructure-as-Code to catch expensive design choices before they’re deployed.
- Sustainable design that cuts waste in both dollars and energy.
If you want long-term savings, don’t start with the servers, but with the app. That’s where the real money and real efficiency lives.