Datadog's efforts to optimize cloud costs led to significant savings through a collaborative initiative involving their FinOps and engineering teams. By utilizing the Datadog Cloud Cost Management (CCM) tool, the FinOps team initially identified storage inefficiencies in Amazon S3 usage and recommended migrating to a more cost-effective storage class. This collaboration sparked further investigation by the engineering team, which uncovered additional savings opportunities related to managing non-current object versions. The implementation of new S3 Lifecycle rules, designed to reduce unnecessary storage costs, resulted in an estimated annual savings of $1.5 million. This initiative not only exemplified the potential for substantial cost reductions but also fostered a culture of cost-consciousness across the organization. By promoting transparency and trust in data, engineering teams were empowered to prioritize cost efficiency alongside performance, reliability, and security. The success of this initiative has encouraged ongoing optimizations and sharing of cost-saving achievements to motivate other teams within Datadog.