Going Cloud-Live Without Losing Sleep

Posted by James Vince on June 2nd, 2025

🚀 Going Cloud-Live Without Losing Sleep

The 7-Step Checklist to Launch Your SaaS on the Cloud — Without Waking Up to a Surprise AWS Bill

You’ve built your SaaS. You’ve got your landing page, your Stripe account, and your audience hyped.

But before you hit "Deploy," you need to make sure your infrastructure is as tight as your funnel.
Because the last thing you want is waking up to a $1,200 AWS bill, or a broken app because you forgot to set a retention policy on your logs.

This is the checklist every cloud-based SaaS founder wishes they had before going live.

✅ Step 1: Lock in the Budget — Set Your AWS Pricing Alerts

If you haven’t set up AWS Budget Alerts, you’re asking to get rinsed. Head to AWS Budgets and:

  • Set a monthly threshold (e.g. $50 to start)

  • Configure email and SNS notifications

  • Set a separate alert at 80%, 100%, and 120% of budget

💡 Pro tip: Enable free-tier alerts if you're using services like EC2, Lambda, or S3 — AWS won’t tell you when you’ve gone over unless you ask.

✅ Step 2: Choose the Right Instance — Don’t Wing It

If your dev just spun up a random EC2 instance, stop. T3.micro is great if you're eligible for the free tier. Otherwise:

  • Use AppRunner if you’re deploying containers without deep infra knowledge.

  • Use Fargate with ECS for serverless-style scaling

  • Use Elastic Beanstalk for quick launch with auto-scaling baked in

Avoid manually managing EC2s unless you know what you're doing.

✅ Step 3: Set Up Logs — Then Cap Them

Your app needs logs. But logs without limits are just an invoice waiting to happen.

  • Use CloudWatch Logs for app logs

  • Set retention policies (7–14 days is fine to start)

  • Archive logs to S3 for long-term storage at lower cost

  • Use structured logging (JSON) for easier debugging

✅ Step 4: Use Tags Like Your Accountant Is Watching

The 7-Step Checklist to Launch Your SaaS on the Cloud — Without Waking Up to a Surprise AWS Bill

You’ve built your SaaS. You’ve got your landing page, your Stripe account, and your audience hyped.

But before you hit "Deploy," you need to make sure your infrastructure is as tight as your funnel.
Because the last thing you want is waking up to a $1,200 AWS bill, or a broken app because you forgot to set a retention policy on your logs.

This is the checklist every cloud-based SaaS founder wishes they had before going live.

✅ Step 1: Lock in the Budget — Set Your AWS Pricing Alerts

If you haven’t set up AWS Budget Alerts, you’re asking to get rinsed. Head to AWS Budgets and:

  • Set a monthly threshold (e.g. $50 to start)

  • Configure email and SNS notifications

  • Set a separate alert at 80%, 100%, and 120% of budget

💡 Pro tip: Enable free-tier alerts if you're using services like EC2, Lambda, or S3 — AWS won’t tell you when you’ve gone over unless you ask.

✅ Step 2: Choose the Right Instance — Don’t Wing It

If your dev just spun up a random EC2 instance, stop. T3.micro is great if you're eligible for the free tier. Otherwise:

  • Use AppRunner if you’re deploying containers without deep infra knowledge.

  • Use Fargate with ECS for serverless-style scaling

  • Use Elastic Beanstalk for quick launch with auto-scaling baked in

Avoid manually managing EC2s unless you know what you're doing.

✅ Step 3: Set Up Logs — Then Cap Them

Your app needs logs. But logs without limits are just an invoice waiting to happen.

  • Use CloudWatch Logs for app logs

  • Set retention policies (7–14 days is fine to start)

  • Archive logs to S3 for long-term storage at lower cost

  • Use structured logging (JSON) for easier debugging

✅ Step 4: Use Tags Like Your Accountant Is Watching

Tag everything.
This isn’t optional. AWS tags help you track costs, manage resources, and avoid shadow spend.

Tag by:

  • Project or App

  • Environment (dev, staging, prod)

  • Owner or Team

  • CostCenter

✅ Step 5: Create a Dashboard for Peace of Mind

Don’t wait until customers complain.

  • Use CloudWatch Dashboards to track latency, CPU, memory, 5XX errors

  • Set alarms for key metrics

  • Bonus: integrate with Slack or Email to notify you instantly

✅ Step 6: Use Auto Scaling — So You Don’t Panic at 1,000 Users

One of the top mistakes is not preparing for success.

  • Use Auto Scaling Groups for EC2 setups

  • Set thresholds on CPU or memory usage

  • Use Application Load Balancer (ALB) to route traffic smoothly

✅ Step 7: Lock Down Your Data — Not Just for Compliance

Even if you're not under HIPAA or SOC2, you still have to be responsible.

  • Enable automated backups (RDS snapshots, S3 versioning)

  • Use IAM roles, not access keys

  • Use Secrets Manager for your credentials, not .env files

💡 Bonus: Turn on Cost Explorer (and check it weekly)

AWS Cost Explorer helps you visualize spend trends before they become a problem.

  • Activate it on Day 1

  • Filter by service, tag, and time period

  • Identify anomalies early

Ready to Ship?

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So you — or your dev — can implement these best practices without spending a penny.

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