Many environments continue using io1 volumes for high-performance workloads due to legacy provisioning or lack of awareness of io2 benefits. io2 volumes provide equivalent or better performance and durability with reduced cost at scale. Failing to adopt io2 where appropriate results in unnecessary spend on IOPS-heavy volumes.

When large numbers of objects are deleted from S3—such as during cleanup or lifecycle transitions—CloudTrail can log every individual delete operation if data event logging is enabled. This is especially costly when deleting millions of objects from buckets configured with CloudTrail data event logging at the object level. The resulting volume of logs can cause a significant, unexpected spike in CloudTrail charges, sometimes exceeding the cost of the underlying S3 operations themselves. This inefficiency often occurs when teams initiate bulk deletions for cleanup or cost savings without realizing that CloudTrail logs every API call, including `DeleteObject`, if data event logging is active for the bucket.

Without lifecycle policies, data in OCI Object Storage remains in the default storage tier indefinitely—even if it is rarely accessed. This can lead to growing costs from unneeded or rarely accessed data that could be expired or transitioned to lower-cost tiers like Archive Storage.

Block volumes that are not attached to any instance continue to incur charges. These often accumulate after instance deletion or reconfiguration. Unlike boot volumes, unattached data volumes may be harder to track if not labeled or tagged clearly.

OCI Object Storage buckets accrue charges based on data volume stored, even if no activity has occurred. Buckets that haven't been read from or written to in months may contain outdated data or artifacts from discontinued projects.

When a Compute instance is terminated in OCI, the associated boot volume is not deleted by default. If the termination settings don’t explicitly delete the boot volume, it persists and continues to generate storage charges. Because boot volumes are managed under the Block Volumes service, not within the Compute UI, they’re easy to overlook—especially in environments with frequent provisioning and teardown. Over time, these orphaned boot volumes can accumulate and contribute to unnecessary costs.

When replicating an EFS file system across AWS regions (e.g., for disaster recovery), the destination file system does not automatically inherit the source’s lifecycle policy. As a result, files replicated to the destination will remain in the Standard storage class unless a new lifecycle policy is explicitly configured. Over time, this can lead to significantly higher storage costs, particularly in DR environments where data is rarely accessed but still replicated in full.

EFS offers lifecycle policies that transition files from the Standard tier to Infrequent Access (IA) based on inactivity, significantly reducing storage costs for cold data. When this feature is not enabled, infrequently accessed files remain in the more expensive Standard tier indefinitely. This often occurs when the file system is initially provisioned for performance but long-term access patterns are not reevaluated.

EBS volumes often remain significantly overprovisioned compared to the actual data stored on them. Because billing is based on the total provisioned capacity—not actual usage—this creates ongoing waste when large volumes are only partially used. Overprovisioning may result from default sizing in templates, misestimated requirements, or conservative provisioning practices. Identifying and remediating these cases can lead to meaningful storage cost reductions without impacting workload performance.

EBS Snapshot Archive is a lower-cost storage tier for rarely accessed snapshots retained for compliance, regulatory, or long-term backup purposes. Archiving snapshots that do not require frequent or fast retrieval can reduce snapshot storage costs by up to 75%. Despite this, many organizations retain large volumes of snapshots in the standard tier long after their operational value has expired.