The Real Cost of Cloud Waste: How UK Organisations Are Losing Thousands Monthly

December 8, 2025

Cloud computing promised cost savings through pay-per-use models and elastic scaling. Yet many UK organisations discover their cloud bills steadily increasing without corresponding business growth. The culprit? Cloud waste - unnecessary spending on unused or inefficiently configured resources.

Common Sources of Cloud Waste

Over-provisioned resources top the list of wasteful spending. Organisations frequently select instance sizes based on peak demand rather than typical usage, paying for capacity that sits idle most of the time. Development and testing environments that run 24/7 despite only being needed during business hours represent another significant waste source. Forgotten resources—instances launched for specific projects and never decommissioned—continue generating charges long after their purpose ends.


Storage costs accumulate through unoptimised strategies. Organisations store everything at premium performance tiers when much data could reside in cheaper archival storage. Duplicate data, undeleted snapshots, and old backups that serve no purpose all contribute to mounting storage bills.


Quantifying the Impact

Industry research suggests organisations waste 30% or more of their cloud spending. For a company spending £100,000 monthly on cloud services, that's £30,000 in waste—£360,000 annually that could fund innovation, hiring, or simply improve profitability. The impact compounds as cloud usage grows, making waste reduction increasingly critical.


Implementing Cost Controls

Effective cloud cost optimisation requires continuous monitoring rather than one-time fixes. Right-sizing instances to match actual workload requirements provides immediate savings. Implementing automated shutdown schedules for non-production environments eliminates unnecessary runtime charges. Reserved instances or savings plans for predictable workloads deliver substantial discounts compared to on-demand pricing.


Storage optimisation includes implementing lifecycle policies that automatically move data to appropriate tiers based on access patterns. Regular audits identify and eliminate orphaned resources, unused volumes, and unnecessary snapshots.


Governance and Visibility

Technical optimisation only succeeds with proper governance. Tagging resources by project, department, or cost centre enables accurate cost allocation and accountability. Budget alerts prevent surprise overspending. Regular cost reviews ensure optimisation remains ongoing rather than becoming a forgotten initiative.


Taking Action

Cloud cost optimisation isn't about cutting corners—it's about ensuring every pound spent delivers genuine business value. Altiatech's Cloud Centre of Excellence provides comprehensive cost analysis, implements monitoring tools, and establishes governance frameworks that typically reduce cloud spending by 20-30% without impacting performance.


Is your organisation overspending on cloud services?

Contact us today for a comprehensive cloud cost assessment and discover where your budget is going.


📞 +44 (0)330 332 5482 | 📧 innovate@altiatech.com

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