Netflix’s DIY AWS Cost Optimization Approach Still Resonates 7 Years Later

In 2017, Netflix gave a talk at AWS re:Invent that left a lasting impression on me. The session, "Tooling Up for Efficiency: DIY Solutions @ Netflix", presented by Andrew Park and Sébastien Delarquier, shared how Netflix built in-house solutions to optimize cloud costs at scale.

This talk profoundly shaped my perspective on AWS cost management. Netflix laid out their approach to cloud management, with a particular focus on cost efficiency. They also made a compelling case for why large AWS users might benefit from developing their own cost optimization tools.

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Trade-offs in Cloud Management
One key insight that I believe shapes any organization’s cost optimization efforts is understanding the trade-offs required when setting cloud management priorities:

• Innovation – Experimenting, iterating quickly, and developing new features.
• Reliability – Ensuring uptime, system resilience, and handling failure gracefully.
• Security – Protecting data, preventing breaches, and meeting compliance needs.
• Efficiency – Optimizing cloud costs and resource utilization.
  

No organization can maximize all four at once. If you’re going to prioritize something, something else must be deprioritized. Conversely, if everything is a priority, nothing truly is.
With this in mind, Netflix walked through how they manage cost efficiency and the tooling they developed to support it.

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The Key Takeaway: Data-Driven Decision Making
Whether you’re using commercial tooling, cloud-native cost tools, DIY solutions, or a mix of all three, their approach still makes sense.
The biggest takeaway for me? Data-driven decision-making is essential for cloud cost optimization. The approach will feel familiar to many enterprise data teams—it’s a blend of business intelligence (BI), data analysis, data engineering, and data science.

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A Personal Observation
Many of the capabilities Netflix outlined in their 2017 talk have since been incorporated into AWS’s native cost and billing tools, as well as the Well-Architected Framework. These tools are a great starting point—and for most shops, they get you most of the way there.

However, I’ve found that developing additional tooling for deeper data analysis, automation, and alerting can significantly enhance AWS’s built-in capabilities.

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What’s Your Cloud Cost Management Strategy?
How does your organization approach AWS cost management? Do you prefer native AWS tools, commercial dashboards, DIY solutions, or a combination? Join the conversation over on LinkedIn, or connect with me directly on my LinkedIn page to share your experience or explore how we can help build a tailored cost optimization strategy for your organization.