Stratus10

05/04/2026

We gathered insights from cloud and security leaders about the organizational barriers that stop companies from acting on recommendations.

The answers ranged from misaligned incentives and unclear ownership to legacy processes and one stubborn holdout who can undermine an entire control.

If your cloud reports keep surfacing the same issues quarter after quarter, this one's worth a read.

👉 https://kaloscloud.io/blog/challenges-with-cloud-optimization

Struggling with cloud costs or security? Learn the top challenges with cloud optimization and why organizations fail to act on critical recommendations.

04/29/2026

"Three easy ways to cut your cloud bill." We've all seen this headline.

If you've ever tried to follow that advice on AWS, you know it's not as simple as it sounds. Right-sizing, tagging, scheduling, savings plans — all are real opportunities, but all significant engineering work that competes with the other priorities on your team's plate.

We broke down what the "easy wins" crowd leaves out — and what cost optimization really looks like for a lean team. 👉 https://kaloscloud.io/blog/aws-cost-management-smb

04/09/2026

The 6R framework was never meant to be a checklist for migration, but a decision-making framework for the lifecycle of workloads. 🧭

The biggest mistake we still see is teams optimizing for the move instead of planning what happens after.

Sometimes over-ambitious modernization creeps in, or worse, nearly everything gets rehosted.

Each path—rehost, replatform, repurchase, re-architect, retire, retain—carries different implications for:

💰 Cost
🔐 Security
⚙️ Performance
👥 Team capacity

Modernization is about choosing the *right* path for each workload. We accomplish that through focusing on operating models, cost control, and long-term sustainable architecture. 🏗️

04/07/2026

Most teams know there’s cloud waste, but few know exactly what to do about it without risking disruption.

Idle ≠ safe to stop.
Low usage ≠ unnecessary.
Schedules risk disruption.

We make it easy to see where you’re overspending and which actions cut costs now.

Automatically identify, classify, and schedule underutilized and zombie resources.

👉 Get your free AWS resource optimization report: https://stratus10.com/kalos/free-trial

Learn more about cloud waste management: https://youtu.be/1ynJMQrVVBY

Cut AWS spend quickly by setting resource schedules. But finding those resources and building the schedules is time-consuming and sometimes risky.AWS gives y...

03/30/2026

Identifying and deleting “zombie resources” sounds straightforward, but in practice it's not.

A common approach is:
Low CPU = underutilized = candidate for removal.

That works in some cases, but where it breaks is often:

➡️ Memory-heavy workloads with low CPU
➡️ Resources used intermittently (batch jobs, failover systems)
➡️ Systems intentionally kept idle for availability

The more effective approach is defining underutilization based on how your workloads behave, not using a signle fixed threshold across everything.

Different resource types usually need different definitions.

Get a free cloud waste assessment ➡️ https://stratus10.com/kalos/free-trial

02/23/2026

Handling large datasets on AWS can be as tricky as it is rewarding. Efficient management tools like S3, Athena, and Glue can be essential in this process.

Keep your costs in check with these tips:

✅️ Before storing your data, utilize AWS Glue to transform it into a streamlined format like Parquet.

✅️ Reduce Glue Crawler spend by updating partitions with custom ETL logic instead of frequent crawls.

✅️ Keep a close eye on streaming data—it’s often the sneaky cost inflator.

Keeping your AWS data operations cost-efficient doesn't have to be like conquering Everest. Simple shifts in approach can ensure that your cloud scales efficiently.

Read more ➡️

Discover effective strategies for managing large datasets on AWS while optimizing costs with tools like S3, Athena, and Glue. Learn how to reduce storage costs, improve query efficiency, and leverage AWS-native services for scalable and cost-effective cloud solutions.

01/13/2026

For small engineering teams juggling feature delivery and ops, the struggle with cloud cost control and security is that data is siloed, buried, and noisy, especially when everything lives in the AWS console.

Extracting clarity on cloud costs and security risks shouldn't take a week of digging and stitching together reports.

If you want a baseline on where your cloud spend is going and which security issues actually matter, you can accomplish that by Friday...for free.

Surface the signals you care about:

🔍 See where spend is accumulating without reconciling multiple cost views
🔐 Understand which security risks impact which compliance frameworks, so effort goes where it actually improves posture
🧭 Know which optimizations are worth doing first instead of treating everything as urgent
🧩 Share a consistent view with lenses for engineering, finance, and leadership

The Kalos by Stratus10 Free Tier is a low-friction way to establish that baseline. Start with clearer data, validate your assumptions, and determine next steps with less guesswork.

Learn more: https://stratus10.com/kalos/free-trial

01/07/2026

Cloud costs aren’t a budgeting problem; they’re an architectural outcome.

🏗️ Every choice your team makes early on, how a system scales, stores data, or integrates, quietly defines the cost curve. Once that architecture is deployed, most of the “easy levers” are already gone.

🧹 Many teams are encouraged to start cost optimization by cutting idle resources, resizing instances, cleaning up unused storage, or chasing better commitment pricing. These steps matter and often deliver quick wins.

🧠 But that’s only half the journey. The deeper issues that drive long-term inefficiency live inside the architecture itself.

🔍 When we dive into an application, our goal is to design for the cost structure at the foundation, not just optimize what already exist.

🏛️ Short-term optimization saves money. Architectural design changes how money is spent.

Read more ➡️
https://oscarmoncada.substack.com/p/stop-chasing-cloud-costs-after-deployment

01/05/2026

AWS Audit Manager automates evidence collection across AWS-native services, replacing spreadsheets with dashboards, control mappings, and downloadable audit reports.

🧾 What it does well
Audit Manager automates the evidence-collection grunt work across AWS services and frameworks. For audit prep, it’s a clear improvement over manual processes.

💸 The cost reality
Pricing starts at $1.25 per 1,000 resource assessments in a given account and region, but because evidence is collected across multiple controls and frameworks, costs scale with the number of resources, services, and frameworks you monitor. The result: spend grows in ways that are hard to predict and loosely tied to actual compliance risk. It’s an ambiguous, frustrating cost model.

⏱️ The real limitation
Audit Manager isn’t continuous. Most teams run it periodically, which means you only see your compliance posture at specific points in time (and only pay for it then).

🚦 Bottom line
AWS Audit Manager is a solid starting point for automating compliance busywork and giving leaders dashboards instead of spreadsheets. But modern compliance is about staying audit-ready across teams, accounts, and frameworks, not just checking the box before the next audit.

Get the detailed rundown on AWS Audit Manager ➡️ https://oscarmoncada.substack.com/p/the-pros-and-cons-of-aws-audit-manager

10/08/2025

We were proud to sponsor SIM San Diego’s Technology Leadership conference yesterday and connect with so many local IT leaders driving innovation across our region.

A highlight was the keynote from Paul Leonardi, author of The Digital Mindset. His perspective on enterprise AI adoption was both practical and inspiring, emphasizing that success with AI isn’t just about deploying new tools, but transforming culture, skills, and technology together.

And it all starts with senior leaders as the role models for AI experimentation, measurement, and adoption.

Paul’s AI framework breaks it down:

1️⃣ Where do we start?

✔️ With specific, routine workflows (not jobs)

✔️ An abundance of high-quality examples

✔️ Taking advantage of underutilized, unstructured data

✔️ Creating opportunities to free people to do higher-value work

2️⃣ Build team skills on multiple levels:

✔️ 🧠 Mindset: Recognize and act on new digital opportunities.

✔️ ⌨️ Skillset: Build the ability to use and understand digital tools, such as NLP, Python, prompt engineering, data analysis, etc.

✔️ 🛠️ Toolset: Empower teams with technologies like TensorFlow, AWS, OpenAI, Slack, Salesforce, and others to accelerate innovation.

3️⃣ Get to phased maturity by encouraging teams to:

✔️ Workshop “workflow opportunities”

✔️ Experiement with ChatGPT and Co-Pilot

✔️ Prototype automation/augmentation

✔️ Find vertical SaaS AI tools that build on experimentation success

As a sponsor, we’re energized by the conversations and shared commitment to driving meaningful change.

06/27/2025

Struggling to make sense of your AWS bill? 🤔 You're not alone.
AWS-native tools like Cost Explorer and Budgets are powerful, but only if you know how to use them effectively.

Check out our guide that breaks down how to best leverage cost tools and learn:
✅ What AWS cost tools do well
⚠️ Where they fall short (especially in multi-account setups)
🫰 What they actually cost to use
💡 How to fill the gaps with smarter workflows and alternative data sources

Get the guide ➡️ https://stratus10.com/training/aws-cost-tools-guide