Cloud & DevOps
Kubernetes in Production: A Readiness Checklist
Getting a Kubernetes cluster running takes an afternoon. Running it safely in production takes discipline. A checklist for security, reliability and operations.
Key takeaways
- FinOps is an operating model, not a tool.
- Tagging and allocation come first — you cannot optimise what nobody owns.
- Rightsizing, scheduling and commitment discounts deliver the fastest savings.
- Measure unit cost, such as cost per customer or transaction.
What FinOps is
FinOps is a cultural practice and operating model that brings financial accountability to variable cloud spend. The FinOps Foundation describes three iterative phases: Inform, Optimise and Operate.
Inform: visibility and allocation
- Define a tagging standard — owner, application, environment, cost centre.
- Enforce tags through policy at deployment time.
- Allocate shared costs such as networking and support fairly.
- Provide teams with dashboards showing their own spend and trends.
Optimise: where savings come from
| Lever | Typical impact |
|---|---|
| Delete idle resources | Unattached disks, old snapshots, unused IPs |
| Rightsize | Match instance size to actual utilisation |
| Schedule | Stop non-production outside working hours |
| Commitment discounts | Reserved instances and savings plans for steady workloads |
| Storage tiering | Move infrequently accessed data to cheaper tiers |
| Architecture | Serverless, autoscaling, managed services |
| Licensing | Bring-your-own-licence and hybrid benefits where eligible |
Operate: making it stick
Set budgets and anomaly alerts, review costs in sprint ceremonies, include cost in architecture decisions and celebrate savings. A small central FinOps team enables; engineering teams own their spend.
Unit economics
Total spend rising is not necessarily bad if the business is growing. Track cost per transaction, per customer or per environment. Falling unit cost while volume grows is the sign of a healthy cloud practice.
Common traps
- Buying commitments before rightsizing, locking in waste.
- Optimising only compute while data transfer and storage grow.
- Central teams making changes without engineering buy-in.
- Ignoring SaaS spend, which often rivals infrastructure.
A 90-day FinOps start
| Weeks | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1–4 | Tagging policy, cost allocation, dashboards |
| 5–8 | Idle cleanup, rightsizing, scheduling |
| 9–12 | Commitment strategy, anomaly alerts, unit metrics |
How NAZZTEC helps
We run cloud cost assessments, implement FinOps practices and tooling, and embed cost governance into cloud operations.
Next step: see NAZZTEC CloudPosture on our product roadmap or engage our Cloud & DevOps team for a cost review.
Frequently asked questions
How much can FinOps save?
Savings vary widely; organizations without prior optimisation commonly find significant waste in idle, oversized and unscheduled resources.
Who should own cloud cost?
Engineering teams own their consumption; a central FinOps function provides tools, data, commitments and governance.
Do we need a third-party FinOps tool?
Native cost tools are a good start. Multi-cloud estates often benefit from a dedicated platform.
NAZZTEC Editorial TeamWritten and reviewed by NAZZTEC practitioners. This briefing is general guidance, not legal advice.
