About
CloudBurn came out of real AWS cleanup work.
CloudBurn is built by Towards the Cloud, our AWS consultancy. We kept seeing the same expensive AWS decisions show up in Terraform, CloudFormation, and live environments, then watched teams discover them too late inside another FinOps dashboard.
So we encoded those patterns into a deterministic rule engine engineers can actually run where the work happens: in CI before deploy, and again against live AWS with discover.
- Built by AWS consultants
- Terraform + CloudFormation
- CI + live AWS
What we learned in the field
AWS waste usually does not come from one dramatic mistake. It comes from repeated patterns that look harmless in code review, then get multiplied across accounts, regions, and teams.
Before deploy
Review infrastructure cost risk while the change is still easy to fix, not after it becomes a production cleanup project.
Deterministic rules
Every finding comes from an explicit rule the team can inspect, discuss, and roll out deliberately.
Same engine on AWS
The checks you trust in CI can be reused with discover against what is already running in production.
Operating model
We are trying to replace expensive dashboard-first FinOps with something engineers can actually run.
CloudBurn turns AWS cost experience into a rule engine. Instead of asking teams to stare at another BI layer, it gives them clear checks they can use before deploy and against the estate that is already live.
Why teams care
Developers get cost feedback at review time instead of weeks later in a finance workflow.
Platform teams get one rules surface they can inspect, tune, and explain to leadership.
Consulting knowledge becomes repeatable policy instead of tribal knowledge trapped in slide decks.
Rule engine
Deterministic by design
CloudBurn is built around explicit AWS cost rules shaped by years of implementation work. The goal is not to score infrastructure with a black box. The goal is to make waste patterns visible in a way engineers can trust.
Workflow
Runs where changes are still cheap
Use scan in CI against Terraform and CloudFormation before infrastructure ships. That moves cost review into the delivery workflow instead of waiting for a monthly dashboard review after the spend already happened.
Production
Checks the environment you already run
Run discover against live AWS and reuse the same rules against deployed resources. That gives teams one policy surface for both prevention and remediation instead of splitting the story across different tools.
Adoption
Built for terminal-native rollout
Start with the open-source CLI, inspect the rules, and wire it into one repo before expanding further. The output works in the terminal, in CI logs, and in JSON workflows if you need to automate around it.
What comes next
We want cost review to become part of the delivery system, not a separate industry layered on top of it.
CloudBurn starts with the rule engine and CLI because that is the most direct way to give engineers signal. Over time, the product should help teams broaden coverage, tighten rollout controls, and make cost discipline operational across more of AWS without turning into another vague dashboard product.
Broader rule coverage
Keep expanding the AWS surface so more cost mistakes can be caught before deploy and revisited later in discovery.
Stronger rollout controls
Help teams move from one-repo adoption to organization-wide cost policy without losing clarity around why a rule exists.
Clearer remediation flow
Make live findings easier to prioritize so the same system that blocks future waste also helps clean up what is already burning money.