Cloud hosting costs can spiral quickly, but you don’t need to be an expert to rein them in. By focusing on a few high-impact areas, you can dramatically reduce your hosting bill. Here we take a look at Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting but these strategies are equally relevant with hosting on Microsoft Azure or other cloud hosting providers. Here are 5 proven strategies to start saving today!

Eliminate Unused Resources

One of the biggest (and easiest to fix) money drains is paying for resources you don’t use—like EC2 instances or RDS databases left running after testing. Think of it as leaving the lights on in an empty room.

Action: Regularly review your environment and shut down unused servers or databases. Even turning off a handful of test instances can save hundreds of dollars per month.

Manage and Clean Up Backups and Snapshots with AWS Backup Manager

Backups are essential, but unused snapshots and old backups often pile up unnoticed—quietly driving up costs.

Action: Use AWS Backup to automate retention policies. Define backup plans that keep what you need and automatically delete old recovery points. This keeps you protected without paying for unnecessary storage.

Right-Size Your Instances

Oversized instances are a common source of wasted spend. Running a powerful server when a smaller one would work is like renting a mansion when you only need an apartment.

Action: Use AWS Compute Optimizer for free, data-driven recommendations. For example, downsizing from db.r6g.xlarge to db.t4g.large could nearly cut your database costs in half—without impacting performance.

Leverage Savings Plans

For steady, long-term workloads, Compute Savings Plans can slash costs. By committing to a consistent hourly spend for one or three years, you’ll unlock discounts of up to 66% versus on-demand rates.

Action: Analyze your historical usage, set a stable baseline, and commit. Three-year plans usually deliver the deepest savings.

Set Budget Alerts

Mis-configurations or unexpected usage can cause bills to spike overnight. Budget alerts act as your early warning system.

Action: In the AWS Billing console, create an AWS Budget with thresholds (e.g., $500/month) and set alerts at 80% and 100%. If something unusual happens, you’ll know in time to fix it—before the bill arrives.

By consistently applying these five tactics—shutting down waste, managing backups, right-sizing, committing wisely, and monitoring spend—you’ll build a leaner, more cost-efficient AWS environment. If you need help putting any of this into practice don’t hesitate to Contact Us anytime for further guidance.

 
I’m Gil Austin, the founder of Coretechs.  This month I thought I’d go in depth on the sales process here at Coretechs. If you want to fill out our contact form, please do. If you want to get our pricing information, please do. However, if what you really want to do is get answers to your questions as rapidly as possible then Talk to Gil (Call Me) at 202-540-0002.

Talk to Gil: We have this plastered all over the website for a reason.  It’s the single fastest way to get started.  You get to provide as much information as possible about your current situation and how we can help.  I’ll start listening immediately and won’t waste your time going through a formulaic approach with a lot of rote questions.  Your challenges are unique and the hallmark of the custom software development experience is treating every situation on its own merits. On the phone we dive right into your needs and I can immediately assess what’s needed and how best to proceed.

Discuss Your Needs: This is NOT a high pressure sales process.  If we’re going to be working together we need to be a good fit for your needs and each other.  I have over 40 years of experience in the software development industry and my 30 person team of developers, designers and project managers are the best there is. We can dive right into the technical requirements for your project and I can offer immediate feedback on what might help.

Get Feedback and Estimate: Most of the time I can give you a fairly quick idea of what it’s going to take to bring your vision to reality. Here are some things that you might like to have ready for the call, if at all possible. If not, that’s fine too but the more information we have the easier it is to figure out next steps. Some things that are useful to know coming into our call are: urls of your current software, if any; language; frameworks; versions; repositories; hosting; access credentials; design requirements; wire-frames, etc. That’s a long list and you may not have any of it but if you’re considering your options with your existing team those are all good things to know regardless of where your next steps take you.

Finalize Contract & Retainer: The list of things we need to get you on board is pretty short; a contract and a small retainer.  We have a short contract that we work with.  Some people might describe it more like a master services agreement.  It does not bind you to any long-term agreement.  You own 100% of your system, your code, your site, your concept.  If you decide at any time to find a new provider you own and manage the hosting account (typically at Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure) and have complete control of that environment. We want to make things as easy as possible for you now and in the future so we keep it simple and set you up for success.

Project Execution Begins: With a contract in hand we can get started as soon as you’re ready.  We constantly have team members whose activity level changes and they’re ready to get started on something new. The basic team makeup on any new client engagement includes a project manager and a lead developer. In many cases, it may only be a small amount of time of each of these individuals. That all depends on the size and scope of your project. Your project manager will get to know all the ins and outs of your system. They will not only work with the lead developer to breathe life into your requirements but also make informed recommendations on possible future updates to increase your income and efficiency.

Your System Goes Live: We’re eager to get your MVP (minimally viable product) live asap. The sooner you go live the sooner you can start to build business, get feedback on the new site and get your team and customers using the new tools to make sales. We find this creates a virtuous cycle where your business becomes more efficient and you see the value in further investments in your technology. Truly a win-win for everyone!

 
If you have a great idea for a web-based business process or you have already built out a website for that process then White Labeling your software might be a good fit for you.  White Labeled software can have different meanings depending on your relationship to the product.  In this article we’re assuming that you own the original system and wish to market it to others. Let’s say that you have developed software for your dry cleaning business, “Bob’s Dry Cleaning”.  You have three locations and all locations use the software.  You tell your competitor who owns “Sally’s Dry Cleaning” about the software you’ve developed.  They don’t have a comparable solution and would like to use your software.  Even though they’re a competitor they’re willing to pay you a monthly fee to use your system.  You decide this is a good idea and now you need a software development company like Coretechs to help you “White Label” your software.

We’ll work with you to update your software so that not only can you and your team login to manage your own business but also your competitor can login and manage their own business as well.  Both of you would only see operations related to your own business even though you would be using the same software.  The difference is, now it’s designed to be multi-tenant with complete anonymity and security for all users.  With your first successful client on board you can now market your software to additional businesses within the dry cleaning industry and establish a potentially considerable monthly revenue stream.

White Labeling your software is not a new idea. In fact it is becoming more common. If you have a good product and can make it dynamic enough for others to use it, then you can set yourself up with a good business.  We have helped customers create brand new white label solutions, upgrade and move existing white label products to new environments and have taken existing solutions and turned them into white label products. All of these paths come with unique challenges but here are some things our team has learned along the way.

Software solutions should have a specific function in mind. The software needs to satisfy a need for your customers. It does not need to fit every single industry. Find your niche and cater to that market. If you are taking an existing system and making it a white label solution, if at all possible have some potential customers ready to use your new system.

Be ready for scalability and growth costs. Once you get everything “perfect”, have a plan on how to support growth of data and usage. With the way information spreads today, it is very possible you could hit the jackpot in business and might need to support that demand. This includes your server costs, databases and other infrastructure.  What do monthly costs look like?  Can your hosting company scale quickly  and efficiently to handle greater volume?  Can you handle ten clients as easily as one?

More features means greater client retention and a broader audience. On Day one your clients will start requesting additional features.  Those new features in turn will bring in more new clients and your business will grow.  However, you should be “choosy” with what new functionality you want to add.  Try to make sure it will have the broadest possible client appeal.  Teaching your customers why the software is the way it is, how it was intended to be used and how they can make it work for them, will win you those long client relationships. Reach out to Coretechs and we can help and advise you every step of the way!

 
When clients reach out to us for help with their web-based solutions it might seem that we’d always start from scratch. While that might make some things easier it’s actually the exception rather than the rule. Something like 85% of the projects we start working on are existing systems in various stages of development. While it might be more straightforward to start with a new website than to shepherd an inherited, partially completed effort all the way to completion we do it every day. Much like building a house the biggest challenges may come nearer the end than the beginning. That’s where that often lengthy punch-list comes into play of all the things that need to happen to wrap up. Here are a few of the situations we inherit when we try to get you over the finish line to Go Live!

In some cases, the client has worked with an offshore team or individual for initial development. Now that they’re getting closer to their anticipated ‘Go Live’ date they want to start working with a US based team to add the finishing touches, which can be considerable. They also want to ease any communication burdens and have their development team better align with their US based time zone. Another common situation is that the client started with a trusted family member or friend or had a single in-house developer. They may have worked with that person for many years but then something changes. They find a different job, retire or the needs of the site exceed their personal capabilities or their available development time.

Another regular occurrence is that one or more legacy systems require enhancements. If the system has been operational for a long time but not maintained there may not be anyone on client staff who understands how it works and/or has the requisite technical skills to make the needed updates. We’ve often dealt with sites that have not been updated in 5-10 years or more! At Coretechs we have deep cross-platform experience in so many web technologies (Python, .Net, PHP, Java, ColdFusion, native IOS and Android apps just to name a few) that we can help with almost anything that comes in. This multidisciplinary environment across so many technologies and so many of our team members allows us to deliver world class solutions from any starting point.

So, if you have an existing system that you think is not salvageable or the development resources you have are no longer able or available to move the project forward, please give us a call. And if you have a brand new project then that’s always a nice surprise! We have our own dedicated design team, project managers, front and back end developers so we can see your project from dream to reality whether you’re starting from the 21st century or the 90’s! As we like to say “If you can imagine it, we can build it!” Please visit our Contact Us Page and reach out for more information.

 
Not surprisingly, many of the systems we develop don’t operate in a vacuum. Although it’s possible your inventory control system might not need to talk to any other resources, it’s unlikely. Hence the need for integrated services. One of the ones we work with most frequently is SendGrid. SendGrid is an SMTP mailer. There are of course competitors, but SendGrid has always stood us well. Many systems we develop need to send outbound email traffic to the management team and/or customers or other stakeholders. Although it’s possible to use your gmail account to send this traffic it’s problematic and subject to relay blocking and poor deliverability. With SendGrid you designate SendGrid as an authorized sender on your behalf using DNS entries. Then we use various SendGrid APIs to smoothly route any outbound email efficiently, with a strong reputation score and many tools to track deliverability and recipient engagement. To make all this happen we help to get you signed up with your own SendGrid account and then use API keys from within that account to send email automatically from within your system on your behalf.

Another feature that our clients often require is a payment processing portal. If your project plans to collect payments for items or services we’ll likely need to integrate your application with a payment processor. As with SMTP Mailers like SendGrid there are many alternatives such as Authorize.net and Sage. However, our preferred option, if the client doesn’t have a preference, is Stripe. Stripe offers a ton of features, detailed reporting and the ability to send incoming payments to multiple entities thus offering very sophisticated routing options for your funds. It’s easy to see what’s coming in and out each month, create monthly recurring payments and much more all through API communication that we integrate into your project.

If your system needs to store millions of documents (MS Word, PDFs, Excel docs, etc.) then you may need an integration to a document storage repository such as AWS S3. S3 storage containers provide low cost storage solutions for custom document storage and retrieval. We’ve helped create integrated API solutions for customers where they have terabytes of documents spanning a decade or more and need quick and easy retrieval to those documents within their system.

The above is just a taste of all the things to which we can connect your custom software development project. Most modern businesses expect and encourage you to interact with their platforms via automated Rest API traffic . They provide robust support and myriad APIs with which to do so. Then we help wire it all together. So, if you have a need to get data from A to B to C we can help you accomplish that task and do so every day. As we like to say “If you can imagine it, we can build it!” If you need more information please visit our Contact Us Page and reach out.

 
We’ve been creating blog posts since back in 2021 and I think we’ve created a lot of useful content over the years. So, I thought it might be fun to go back over some of our greatest hits. If you’re too young to remember vinyl then you may want to check out this Wikipedia entry. So, off we go… I wanted to start with one I think may be quite valuable since you’re already reading our blog. Back in February 2022 we talked about Outsourced vs In-House Software Development and why you might choose one or the other. That can be super useful as you try to figure out the path forward for your development project. Of course you can always call me at 202 540 0002 anytime if you need further insight or want my personal take on your situation.

If you’re wondering what a project manager does, the answer is a lot! Check out Confessions of a Project Manager from October 2022 to find out how our amazing project managers create the magic against the background of never-ending requests. Our dedicated project managers are one of the key differentiators at Coretechs. Many software development houses harken more to the “Body Shop” model. They simply rent out developers and hope you’ll have enough insight to get value out of the developer. However, without a project manager in between who fully understands what you need and can turn that into “developer speak” to get it done quickly and efficiently that often goes awry.

 
On the other side of the fence, figuratively speaking, are our developers. Earlier this year we dug into that with Confessions of a Coretechs Developer. Our developers are, simply put, amazing! Unlike some traditional shops our developers work across multiple language environments. So, they might have Python/Django as their go to language but be quite comfortable working in PHP or Perl when the need arises. This comes up more often than you think as some of our clients have platforms as varied as Python, Grails, PHP and .Net, all under one roof, and need help managing and supporting that weighty blended environment.

Finally, I wanted to touch on our core mantra. How We Help Businesses Grow Through Custom Software from July 2023. This one digs into the true value you get from Custom Software. Most every industry has a few COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) offerings that may provide an adequate solution for many businesses. Depending on the size of your company, the number of staff you have and the per seat pricing model this could be a good solution for you. However, if your needs stray from what’s available in a generic solution, you want to fully own your system and you know what’s needed to revolutionize your industry then, if you can imagine it, we can build it! If you need more information please visit our Contact Us Page and reach out. I hope you’ve enjoyed this stroll down memory lane. See you next month, same bat-time, same bat-channel!