Cloud cost optimization for dev and staging environments means matching cloud spending to the work your team actually does. Start by identifying idle virtual machines (VMs) and reducing unused runtime with auto-shutdown. Then review oversized machines and leftover resources.

A VM needed for 50 hours a week can spend the other 118 hours stopped, if its workload allows it. This guide focuses on standalone AWS and Google Cloud VMs.

Why do dev and staging costs grow?

Non-production environments often outlive the work that created them. A demo ends, a branch is merged, or a developer changes projects, but the VM keeps running. Machines copied from production may also have more capacity than development needs.

Development machines often support individual work sessions. Staging may support overnight tests, integrations, or customer demos.…