Mike Julian
February 18, 2026
FinOps Is Solving the Wrong Problem
We’ve long been known for our hot takes on cloud at Duckbill, and here’s the hottest one: the cloud isn’t expensive. “Expensive” implies a judgment, a comparison. If cloud is expensive, what’s it expensive compared to? Every argument we’ve heard is one considered in isolation, rather than in the full context of the business. Cloud [...]
Mike Julian
November 18, 2025
Skyway: Cloud cost management for the 9-figure club
Introducing Skyway: contract management for enterprise cloud spend. Built by the team overseeing tens-of-billions in enterprise cloud spend.
Mike Julian
June 9, 2025
What To Do When You’re Underwater on Your AWS EDP
Underwater? Let’s go swimming. You have options…
Mike Julian
September 26, 2024
The Duckbill Guide to AWS Reserved Instances
We’re sharing the must-know facts and insights about RIs based on our extensive experience fixing our clients’ horrifying AWS bills through our work here at The Duckbill Group. In this article, you’ll learn what RIs are, how to pay for them, how they’re applied, and interesting edge cases.
Mike Julian
September 26, 2024
The Duckbill Guide to AWS Savings Plans
We’re sharing what we’ve learned about SPs based on The Duckbill Group’s extensive experience fixing our clients’ horrifying AWS bills. In this article, you’ll learn what SPs are, how to pay for them, and how they’re applied.
Mike Julian
November 11, 2023
Cloud Cost Compass: Duckbill’s FinOps Maturity Assessment
Duckbill’s FinOps maturity assessment methodology.
Mike Julian
September 26, 2023
Overhauling AWS account access with Terraform, Granted, and GitOps
Duckbill breaks down their method of accessing thousands of client AWS accounts in a way that preserves ease-of-access, maintains data confidentiality, and still providing all the permissions needed.
Mike Julian
September 22, 2023
A Simple, Yet Effective Cost Optimization Framework
When Corey and I started The Duckbill Group in 2019, I sat down with Corey and asked him to braindump everything he looks at when assessing a client’s AWS spend in the first pass. I then came up with a simple framework that’s easy to memorize and still serves us today. Step 1: Turn that [...]
Mike Julian
June 30, 2023
Should I Purchase AWS Through a Reseller?
There are multiple good reasons to purchase AWS through a reseller — and a couple big reasons why you shouldn’t.
Mike Julian
June 29, 2023
Why Benchmarks Miss The Mark for AWS Spend
How much should I be spending on an AWS service? External benchmarks for AWS spending and usage aren’t as useful as you might think.
Mike Julian
May 23, 2023
What’s the Difference Between an EDP and a PPA?
What’s the Difference Between an EDP and a PPA?
Tl;dr Nothing, they’re functionally the same thing.
Mike Julian
October 18, 2022
Why Cloud Finance Is Broken and Ineffective
Cloud finance is more “cloud” than “finance.” This fundamental misunderstanding leads to very ineffective cloud finance efforts. Here’s how to fix them.