Cloud Rightsizing and Reclamation Playbook

Most cloud savings come from boring work done consistently:

deleting idle resources
right-sizing oversized instances
cleaning up unused storage and snapshots
preventing recurrence with simple governance

This playbook installs a reclaim sprint you can run every month.

Beginner-safe definitions

Idle: running or stored resources with little or no meaningful usage.

Rightsizing: reducing resource size to match actual utilization.

Reclaim sprint: a time-boxed cleanup effort with owners and deadlines.

The reclaim sprint (repeatable)

Step 1: Pick a narrow scope for sprint 1

Beginner-safe scope:

one environment (production or dev)
one top cost service category
one owner team

Do not start by trying to clean the whole cloud.

Step 2: Build a candidate list

Candidate types:

idle compute instances
oversized compute (low utilization)
unused volumes, snapshots, images
orphaned IP addresses and load balancers
stale environments

Each candidate needs:

owner
action (delete, downsize, schedule off-hours)
risk notes
deadline

Step 3: Implement safe change rules

Safety rules:

require owner approval for deletion
schedule changes in low-risk windows
start with dev before production when possible
record rollback steps for high-risk resources

Step 4: Validate savings

Do not trust only dashboards. Validate by:

charge trend over the next billing cycle
unit cost trend (cost per transaction, cost per user, cost per environment)

Step 5: Prevent recurrence

Prevention mechanisms:

tagging enforcement at creation
default off-hours schedules for non-production
alerts for untagged or idle resources
monthly reclaim cadence

Templates

Reclaim sprint tracker (copy/paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
Reclaim Sprint Tracker

Sprint dates:
Scope:
Owner lead:

Candidates:
- Resource:
- Type:
- Owner:
- Action:
- Risk:
- Deadline:
- Status:
- Expected monthly savings:

Weekly reclaim standup agenda (15 minutes)

Copyable template (TEXT)
Weekly Reclaim Standup

1) Completed actions (and any incidents)
2) Blocked items and escalations
3) Upcoming high-risk changes
4) Expected savings by next bill