How Data Oceano Turned Their AWS Bill from Black Box to Crystal Clear with CloudYali

Data Oceano transformed their cloud cost management from reactive guesswork to proactive budget control—and discovered $15K/month in hidden savings along the way.

The Challenge

Before CloudYali, Data Oceano’s AWS bill arrived every month as a black box. They knew the total—that number was clear enough. But understanding what was driving that total? That was a different story entirely.

“We had no clue what was driving our costs,” said Ajay Potnis, CEO of Data Oceano. “We couldn’t tell which projects or services were responsible for what. Budgets were basically wishful thinking.”

For a startup trying to scale efficiently, this lack of visibility was a real problem. Every dollar matters when you’re growing. Month-end billing surprises became routine. And somewhere in the infrastructure, resources were quietly running up costs without anyone noticing.

Ajay needed more than a dashboard. He needed a way to see exactly where every dollar was going—and a system to keep spending from spiraling before it became a problem.

Why CloudYali?

Data Oceano chose CloudYali for its depth of cost visibility and practical budget management capabilities. Unlike native AWS tools, CloudYali offered drill-down views from high-level spend trends to individual resource costs—broken down by service, project, and region.

But visibility alone wasn’t enough. Data Oceano needed proactive controls. CloudYali’s budget alerting system, with configurable thresholds at 50%, 75%, and 90%, meant they could catch potential overruns before they happened—not discover them in a month-end postmortem.

Complete Cost Transparency

The impact was immediate. For the first time, Ajay could see exactly where cloud spend was going. Historical cost tracking revealed spending patterns he’d never noticed. Real-time visibility eliminated month-end surprises.

“The cost visibility dashboards are game-changing,” said Ajay. “I can drill down from high-level spend trends to individual resource costs in seconds.”

For a scaling startup, this kind of clarity is invaluable. Instead of guessing which projects were burning through budget, Ajay could see the numbers and make informed decisions about where to invest—and where to cut.

Budget Management That Actually Works

Setting budgets used to be an exercise in optimism. Data Oceano would pick a number, hope for the best, and find out weeks later they’d blown past it.

CloudYali changed the equation entirely. Ajay configured budgets per project, with alerts at custom thresholds. Getting notified at 50%, 75%, and 90% of budget gave him time to adjust course before costs became a problem.

“The alerts actually work,” said Ajay. “Budget management has prevented several overspends. The forecasting helps us see if we’re on track to blow past budgets before it happens.”

Surfacing Hidden Costs

Here’s where CloudYali paid for itself—literally.

With clear visibility into what was actually running in their environment, Data Oceano discovered $15,000 per month in forgotten development resources. Untagged resources nobody remembered spinning up. Orphaned volumes silently consuming budget. Test environments that should have been torn down months ago.

“CloudYali surfaces hidden costs,” Ajay explained. “We found several untagged resources and orphaned volumes that were silently eating budget. The visualization makes it dead simple to identify cost anomalies and track them back to specific resources or configuration changes.”

For a startup, $15K per month isn’t a rounding error—it’s runway. These costs had been hiding in plain sight. They just needed the right lens to find them.

From Reactive to Proactive

The transformation wasn’t just about saving money—though that certainly helped. It was about changing how Data Oceano related to their cloud spending.

Before, cloud costs happened to them. Bills arrived, budgets got blown, and everyone scrambled to figure out what went wrong.

Now, spending stays visible and manageable. Historical patterns inform realistic budget planning. Alerts arrive with enough lead time to make adjustments. The cloud bill stopped being something to dread and became something they could actually control.

“The visibility alone justified the investment,” Ajay concluded. “Budget management features turned our cloud spending from reactive to proactive.”

Looking Ahead

As Data Oceano scales, Ajay has shared feedback with the CloudYali founders on Slack/Teams integration for budget alerts—ensuring notifications don’t get lost in busy email inboxes—as well as advanced forecasting features for seasonal variations and planned scaling events.

For now, though, the core problem is solved: they finally know where their cloud dollars go, and they have the tools to keep them from going where they shouldn’t.