Every government agency I audit wastes 30–40% on AWS
Your agency is spending taxpayer dollars on AWS nobody audited.
One engagement. Permanent savings. No recurring contracts. No savings? No fee.
I read the architecture, find the mismatch between your infrastructure and your mission, and tell you exactly what to change — while your team stays focused on delivery. 🏛️
15 min · free · no pitch deck 😏
David Plappert
10 yrs in gov healthcare · 19 yrs AWS ☕
Trusted by government agencies and public sector organizations
The math on a typical government agency 🧮
$50K/mo AWS spend · 35% waste found
$210K
Annual savings found
$158K
Max total fee (15% + 60%)
$210K
Returned to the mission — every year 🏛️
Year 1 net: $53K kept · Year 2+: full $210K/yr goes straight to your budget
How it works for government agencies
Three steps. Less paperwork than a change request. 📄
STEP 1
Your team grants read-only access
CloudFormation template, 15-minute setup. External ID for confused deputy protection. You control it, you revoke it when we're done. 🔒
STEP 2
David audits the account
Read-only, 5-10 business days. Full report: every waste item, dollar amounts, compliance-safe recommendations. All findings maintain your existing security posture. 🔍
STEP 3
Savings hit the budget
Your agency keeps the savings permanently. One-time fee. Available through AWS Marketplace or Carahsoft for simplified procurement. 🏛️
🗓️ Book Your Free Intro Call
with David Plappert · 19 years on AWS
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Taxpayer dollars, accounted for
Every dollar of cloud waste is public money. I find the waste dashboards miss because dashboards don't read architecture — they read meters. I read your infrastructure like an auditor reads a ledger.
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No recurring contract
Government procurement hates ongoing SaaS. This is a one-time engagement. No annual renewals. No subscription fatigue. One audit, permanent savings. Your budget office will love you.
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Compliance-safe recommendations
10 years inside HIPAA government healthcare. Every recommendation maintains your security and compliance posture. I've worked inside FedRAMP, HIPAA, and IRS Pub 1075 environments. Your ATO is safe with me.
Your agency is a good fit if… 🎯
Not every agency needs this. Here's who gets the most value.
Spending $5K+/mo on AWS
Infrastructure has been growing without a formal cost review
Team is focused on mission delivery, not cloud optimization
Nobody has done a cost audit in the last 12 months
Architecture decisions were made 2+ years ago
📋 See It In Action
10 years. 3 state healthcare exchanges. 6 AWS accounts. Here's the full story.
EC2 → Microservices: 30% Cloud Savings Across 3 State Exchanges
How David led DevOps for DC Health Link, the MA Health Connector, and more — migrating from monolithic EC2 to Lambda, ECS, and EKS while maintaining HIPAA compliance and 24/7 uptime.
30%
Cost reduction
6
AWS accounts
HIPAA
Full compliance
What people say after working with David
🧠
"David is a dev genius."
VP of IT
Fortune 100
💬
"David responds quickly and makes sure to explain things as best as possible."
CTO
Marketing Firm w/ $25M Annual Revenue
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"David's a commando. He is fast and efficient at getting results."
CTO
Non-Profit w/ $10M Annual Budget
🕵️ What I Find in Every Government Account
Decisions that made sense when the grant was approved. The grant was 4 years ago.
Procurement-Friendly. We Made It Easy. 🏛️
Three ways to purchase — use whichever fits your agency's process.
AWS Marketplace
Use your existing cloud budget. No new vendor paperwork.
Carahsoft
GSA Schedule and government contract vehicles.
🔒 Your Data. My Paranoia.
I've worked with organizations that handle the most sensitive data in the country. Your AWS account is in good hands. Careful, experienced, slightly paranoid hands. 🫡
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HIPAA
Protected health information? Been there, secured that.
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DC Health Link
Health exchange data for the nation's capital.
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PII & eCommerce
Customer data, payment data, the stuff that keeps you up at night.
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IRS Pub 1075
Federal tax information. The government trusted me. You can too.
🛡️ How access works
- ✅Read-only IAM role — scoped policy, your team provisions it. I can look but I literally cannot touch. 👀
- ✅No data extraction — I audit infrastructure and architecture, not your application data.
- ✅SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP environments — I've worked inside all of them. I know the rules. 🏗️
- ✅Access revoked when we're done — you control it the entire time. Delete the role and I'm gone.
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FREE Security Audit
Normally 10% of AWS annual spend. Free for the next 21 days.
Misconfigs, public S3 buckets, overprivileged IAM roles — the stuff that keeps CISOs up at night.
Connect with me on LinkedIn 👋 Who's poking around my AWS account?
I'm David Plappert — an actual human being with 19 years of AWS experience who will personally dig through your account, read your architecture, and understand your business. 🍱 Not an AI-generated summary. Not a dashboard with traffic lights. Not a junior analyst following a checklist. Me. On a call. With opinions. And a mildly aggressive sense of humor.
I build and run production serverless SaaS at Fortune 100 scale — Lambda, API Gateway, S3, SES, the whole buffet. I even have a U.S. patent on cloud infrastructure (because apparently I don't spend enough time with AWS already). I know where AWS hides the markup because I've been paying it myself for years. Most cloud cost optimization tools tell you what you're spending. I tell you why your tech doesn't match your business — and I make it not just cheaper, but better. 🎯
Should that EC2 fleet be Lambda functions? (Probably.) Does that RDS instance need to be that big? (It does not.) Is your architecture built for a business model that pivoted two years ago? (Almost certainly.) I ask the questions a dashboard can't. 🤔
I only need read-only access for the scan. 🔒 No write permissions. I can look but I can't touch. Think of it as window shopping your infrastructure. Very judgmentally.
When I'm not auditing your infrastructure, I'm in the suburbs of Peoria, IL with my wife and two young kids. 🏡 The honest truth? I started Cut My AWS because I want to pay off our house and get my family completely debt-free. That's it. No VC funding. No exit strategy. Just a dad who's really good at AWS and really motivated to find your savings — because every dollar I earn pays off my house faster. 😅
Yes, "Cut My AWS" is a real business name registered with the state of Florida. No, I will not apologize for it. ✂️
❓ Questions government buyers ask
🏛️ Can you work with FedRAMP-authorized environments?
Yes. 10 years in HIPAA government healthcare at IdeaCrew, working inside FedRAMP and IRS Pub 1075 environments. Every recommendation I make maintains your existing security and compliance posture. Your ATO is safe. 🛡️
📋 How does procurement work?
Available through AWS Marketplace (use your existing cloud budget), Carahsoft (GSA Schedule and government contract vehicles), or direct engagement. The Report deposit (1% of AWS annual spend) may fall under your agency's micro-purchase threshold. 🏛️
🔒 What access do you need?
Read-only IAM role provisioned by your team using a CloudFormation template I provide. External ID for confused deputy protection. You control it the entire time, you revoke it when we're done. I can look but I literally cannot touch. 👀
🏢 Can you audit multiple agency accounts?
Yes. Government agencies often have 3-10 AWS accounts across programs and environments. I audit them all. Volume pricing available — email david@cutmyaws.com for details. 📊
⚠️ Will your recommendations break our ATO?
No. Every recommendation maintains your existing security and compliance posture. I spent 10 years inside government healthcare infrastructure — HIPAA, FedRAMP, IRS Pub 1075. I know what you can and can't change. If something is compliance-sensitive, I flag it and explain the tradeoff. 🎯
🤔 What if you don't find savings?
No savings = no fee. You literally cannot lose. But in 19 years and 150+ accounts, this has happened exactly zero times. Government accounts are some of the most waste-heavy I've seen — because nobody's job is to look. 🤷
Every dollar saved goes back to the mission.
One engagement. Permanent savings. Available through AWS Marketplace and Carahsoft. No recurring contracts. 🏛️
🗓️ Book Your Free Intro CallProcurement questions? Email David — happy to work with your procurement office 📋