Case Study: The $847/month idle RDS instance (and how to avoid it)

Hey IH community,

I'm a solo founder building CloudWise (AWS cost optimization platform), and I just published a case study that I think will resonate with a lot of you.

The Problem:

I found an AWS account with an RDS instance costing $847/month that had ZERO connections over 30 days. It was provisioned for a development project, the project ended, but nobody remembered to shut it down.

This is incredibly common. As indie hackers and bootstrapped founders, we're often wearing too many hats to catch these things.

The Analysis:

I broke down the full discovery and optimization process in a detailed article:

→ How we identified the idle resource (utilization metrics, cost breakdown)
→ The exact 5-step optimization strategy we used
→ How to set up alerts to prevent this from happening again
→ Lessons learned that apply to any AWS environment

Read the full case study here: https://dev.to/cloudwiseteam/the-847-idle-rds-instance-a-deep-dive-into-aws-cost-optimization-4mhf?utm_source=indiehackers&utm_medium=community

Why I'm sharing this:

As someone building in public, I've learned that AWS cost waste is everywhere. Most founders don't have visibility into what they're actually paying for. A simple tagging strategy and budget alerts can prevent 80% of these issues.

Even if you're not using CloudWise, the principles in this article can save you hundreds (or thousands) per month.

Question for the community:

What's the most expensive idle resource you've ever discovered in your AWS account? Or what's your biggest AWS cost challenge right now?

I'm happy to take a look and offer some free advice if it helps.

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Building CloudWise has been a journey. If you're interested in following along, you can try the platform at cloudcostwise.io (there's a forever free tier).