Duckbill

Trench warfare was a miserable, protracted conflict. So is cleaning up your AWS account after junior engineers "fix" the Terraform state and then quit. Now you get to spend your days hunting for the expensive, orphaned resources they left behind.
#finops

The Israelites wandered for 40 years seeking the promised land. Your finance team is on a similar journey trying to decode the "EC2-Other" charge on the AWS bill. Spoiler: there is no promised land at the end of this quest. There are only support tickets.
#finops

When Moses saw the golden calf, he shattered the tablets in rage. That's our reaction to seeing S3 cross-region replication on all buckets. It's a form of financial idolatry that creates horrifyingly large bills. That kind of confidence is... a choice.
#finops

A word of advice for your next AWS migration, courtesy of the Old Testament: don't look back. Specifically, don't look back at your data transfer bill, or you too will be turned into a pillar of expensive, artisanal pink Himalayan salt.
#finops

Sure, pressurizing a bathroom with a poorly installed bidet is bad. But you know what's worse? Enabling S3 object versioning across the board and forgetting about it. You're creating a data graveyard that will haunt your monthly bill. The therapy will feel like a bargain.
#finops

We believe in radical honesty. The kind that makes you tell a friend his kombucha "tastes like divorce." In that spirit: you don't need four RDS read replicas. Your app just isn't that popular, Greg. It's time to stop over-provisioning for your ego.
#finops

God told Noah to build the ark once. He didn't give him 47 attempts with a buggy IaC template. Every failed run that leaves abandoned resources is a cardinal sin of cloud waste. It's time to repent. Build your infrastructure like you mean it.
#finops

The biblical figure Job suffered greatly, but at least he could blame a higher power. You, on the other hand, have only yourself to thank for the horrors of your AWS bill. Every trial is self-inflicted. Think this won't happen to you? Oh, there's a word for that.
#finops

Remember how King Solomon offered to cut a baby in half? AWS does that every time you split a workload across multiple accounts. Sure, security loves the "isolation," but every new account is another place for horrifying costs to hide.
#finops

The Battle of Antietam was the deadliest day in American history. A close second is the day your finance department discovers a smattering of on-demand instances spread across six AWS regions. Before you cause an accounting catastrophe, learn what to look for.
#finops

Should you use an AWS reseller? For the most part, no. But there are exactly three situations where they aren't a complete waste of time. If you're just buying AWS from them and getting nothing else, you've just added a useless—and expensive—middleman.
#finops

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

Cloud bills are a special kind of nightmare, full of things that defy logic and explanation. Instead of screaming into the void, ask an expert. Bring us your confusing billing questions; leave with clarity and a plan.

Scream at us instead: duckbillgroup.com/officehours
#finops

So you want to know how your cloud spend stacks up against the competition? Great. Do you also want to be profoundly mediocre? Chasing benchmarks strips away everything unique about your business. Compete with the only company that matters: yourself, last month.
#finops

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

Tired of generic advice that doesn't apply to your architecture? Get personalized answers on YOUR problems from people who do this all day. Stop guessing, start asking.

Get advice that isn't useless: duckbillgroup.com/officehours
#finops

Want to start a FinOps program? The secret first step: do almost nothing. Just measure everything and show people the numbers. Let the gentle, persistent shame of a public dashboard work its magic. You'll be amazed how quickly costs go down.
#finops

Is your entire FinOps "team" just one person who looks perpetually haunted? The centralized vs. decentralized debate is a trap. The real answer is a hybrid "Cost Champions" model—like little sleeper agents of fiscal responsibility embedded in your teams.
#finops

Trying to negotiate with AWS when your spend is shrinking? You have the negotiating leverage of a wet napkin. The only winning move is not to play. Let your contract expire, slash your costs, and then come back to the table from a position of power.
#finops

Missed your AWS spend commitment? Don't panic. AWS has a neat trick with a hidden "available balance" that lets you kick that shortfall down the road, as long as you keep signing new deals. Learn how to play their game.
#finops

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

"Just cut your AWS bill in half!" says the guy on the internet who's never seen your infrastructure. Real optimization is harder. We've created a no-judgment zone to discuss practical solutions and connect with other pros who get it.

Escape the hot takes: duckbillgroup.com/officehours
#finops

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

Planning your next big AWS contract negotiation? Don't go in blind. Our Negotiation Edition Office Hours give you access to specialists who can help you secure the best possible terms.

Bring your questions, leave with leverage: duckbillgroup.com/officehours
#finops

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

So your AWS bill made you cry again.
Come scream into the void with us. We call it Office Hours.

Budget drama
Architecture chaos
Unfiltered answers (and opinions)

Every Thursday. No slide decks. No gatekeeping.
duckbillgroup.com/officehours

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

AWS billing is built to confuse you.
Office Hours is built to explain it.

Thursdays. No pitch. No fluff.
www.duckbillgroup.com/officehours

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

Cloud costs got you in a corner?
Let’s talk it out.

Office Hours is free and open to all. Every Thursday.

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

Are you:
• Drowning in cloud costs
• Gaslit by your billing console
• Wondering if Reserved Instances are a prank

You might be entitled to free therapy.
We just call it Office Hours. Thursdays.
duckbillgroup.com/officehours

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

Your AWS bill: a mystery wrapped in an enigma, billed hourly.

Office hours TOMORROW 10-10:30am PDT. Free therapy for cloud costs.

Register now! www.duckbillgroup.com/officehours/

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

AWS bill makes no sense? Join the club.

Free office hours Thu 10-10:30am PDT. We speak fluent AWS nonsense. FinOps and contract help.

Sign-up: www.duckbillgroup.com/officehours/

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

TOMORROW! We’ll tackle your questions, your bills, your war stories, and, why not, your peace stories, too. Join us at 10:00a PDT: www.duckbillgroup.com/officehours/...

Office Hours Bring your questions and horrifying AWS bills to this interactive session.

🤯We’re doing it LIVE🤯: Duckbill Group experts dissect your bills and field your questions. Register now: www.duckbillgroup.com/officehours/

Figma's $300k Daily AWS Bill Isn't the Scandal You Think It Is Well, the internet did what the internet does best this week: it collectively lost its mind over a number in an S-1 filing. Figma disclosed they signed a ~$550 million contract with AWS, someone used…

We've seen more AWS invoices than most have seen Marvel movies. Figma's infrastructure costs are about as scandalous as Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

But sure, let's panic about a company with 91% gross margins spending on infrastructure that runs their business.

Figma's $300k Daily AWS Bill Isn't the Scandal You Think It Is Well, the internet did what the internet does best this week: it collectively lost its mind over a number in an S-1 filing. Figma disclosed they signed a ~$550 million contract with AWS, someone used…

Hyperbolic reactions to Figma's AWS spend reveal something more concerning than any cloud bill: a fundamental misunderstanding of enterprise-scale infrastructure costs in 2025.

Spoiler: Serving real-time collaborative experiences to 13M users isn't cheap.