The Power of Asking “Why” in FinOps: A Simple Question That Saves Big Money

In my years navigating the FinOps space, coming from an engineering background, I’ve discovered a fascinating phenomenon: sometimes, the key to cloud cost optimization lies in simply asking “Why?” — and not just once, but up to three times. This approach, while simple, has consistently uncovered hidden inefficiencies and led to significant savings.

The Problem with the First “Why”

When FinOps professionals ask engineers, “Why do we need this resource?” or “Why are we using this plan or making these API calls?”, the initial answer is often vague or dismissive. The response might be something like, “It’s part of the system,” or, “That’s how it was set up.” These answers don’t truly address the root cause but reflect the engineer’s belief that it’s not important enough to dig deeper.

Persist with the “Why”

This is where the magic happens — by continuing to ask “Why?” you can break through the surface and uncover the real reason (or lack thereof) behind cloud costs. Just as Simon Sinek’s Start with Why helps startups and leaders define their purpose, starting with “Why?” in FinOps reveals inefficiencies and drives cost optimization.

Let me share two real-world examples that highlight the power of this approach.

Example 1: AWS VPC Endpoints — The Case of the Monitoring Account

A large company noticed unusually high costs for VPC endpoints in their AWS Monitoring account. Here’s how the “Why” process unfolded:

1. First Why:

“Why do we need so many VPC endpoints in the Monitoring account?”

Answer: “Because it’s part of the VPC.”

2. Second Why:

“But why does the Monitoring account need more VPC endpoints than production?”

Answer: “Because it’s part of the Terraform setup.”

3. Third Why:

“I still don’t understand. Why are they actually necessary in the Monitoring account?”

Silence. It turned out they weren’t needed at all.

The Result:

By challenging the assumption, they reduced VPC endpoint costs by 70%.

Example 2: S3 API Calls — A Spike in Costs

In another case, a company saw their S3 costs skyrocket, driven by ReadACL and GetObjectTagging API calls. Here’s how we approached it:

1. First Why:

“Why are we making so many ReadACL and GetObjectTagging calls?”

Answer: “Because the bucket is heavily used for writing and reading millions of files.”

2. Second Why:

“But why do we need these specific operations?”

No one had an answer.

Upon investigation, the team discovered that AWS Backup was enabled for a bucket containing millions of files, resulting in 8 API calls per object per day. For data retained longer than 30 days, this became incredibly expensive.

The Result:

Disabling the backup plan for this bucket instantly dropped costs, saving thousands of dollars monthly.

Automating the “Why” with Wiv.ai

While asking “Why?” manually is effective, it’s not always scalable in fast-paced cloud environments. That’s where tools like Wiv.ai come in. Wiv.ai helps identify these savings opportunities automatically and sends them directly to the relevant owner with context:

• “Why are you keeping this stopped EC2 instance?”
• “Why is this resource still tagged as production?”

By empowering teams with tailored FinOps workflows, Wiv.ai not only saves money but also saves time, allowing engineers and FinOps teams to focus on impactful work.

Start Asking “Why” Today

The next time you see an unusual cost spike or question the necessity of a resource, don’t stop at the first answer. Persist with the “Why” until you uncover the real reason — or the lack of one. The results might feel like magic, but they’re just good FinOps practice. With tools like Wiv.ai, you can make this process even smoother and more impactful.

Start with “Why” — and watch your cloud costs drop.