Mike Julian

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FinOps Is Solving the Wrong Problem

We’ve long been known for our hot takes on cloud at Duckbill, and here’s the hottest one: the cloud isn’t expensive. “Expensive” implies a judgment, a comparison. If cloud is expensive, what’s it expensive compared to? Every argument we’ve heard is one considered in isolation, rather than in the full context of the business. Cloud […]

The Duckbill Guide to AWS Reserved Instances

We’re sharing the must-know facts and insights about RIs based on our extensive experience fixing our clients’ horrifying AWS bills through our work here at The Duckbill Group. In this article, you’ll learn what RIs are, how to pay for them, how they’re applied, and interesting edge cases.

The Duckbill Guide to AWS Savings Plans

We’re sharing what we’ve learned about SPs based on The Duckbill Group’s extensive experience fixing our clients’ horrifying AWS bills. In this article, you’ll learn what SPs are, how to pay for them, and how they’re applied.

A Simple, Yet Effective Cost Optimization Framework

When Corey and I started The Duckbill Group in 2019, I sat down with Corey and asked him to braindump everything he looks at when assessing a client’s AWS spend in the first pass. I then came up with a simple framework that’s easy to memorize and still serves us today. Step 1: Turn that […]