Problem
Provisioned Direct Connect capacity and recurring port cost no longer clearly reflected observed traffic demand, but any change had to preserve critical connectivity and failure tolerance.
Learned to Right-Size AWS Direct Connect Capacity for Lower Recurring Cost
AWS Direct Connect is easy to treat as fixed infrastructure, especially when it supports production traffic. I learned to approach it as a FinOps and reliability decision: first understand real port utilization and traffic growth, then validate the redundancy design before changing capacity. That made it possible to reduce recurring Direct Connect cost without making availability a trade-off.
Action
Reviewed utilization trends, peak periods, traffic paths, and redundancy requirements. Used those findings to right-size capacity and remove cost that was not supporting a real operational need.
Impact
Reduced recurring AWS Direct Connect spend while retaining a resilience-first design and a clearer process for reviewing connectivity cost over time.
- Connected AWS billing data with port utilization and traffic trends
- Validated redundancy and failure scenarios before reducing capacity
- Right-sized Direct Connect for actual demand rather than historic assumptions
- Created a repeatable FinOps review for ongoing connectivity cost control