---
title: Manage and Optimize Cloud Costs
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: Docs > Internal Developer Portal > Use Cases > Manage and Optimize Cloud Costs
---

# Manage and Optimize Cloud Costs

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# Important note for users on the following Datadog sites: app.ddog-gov.com

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This product is not supported for your selected [Datadog site](https://docs.datadoghq.com/getting_started/site). ().
{% /alert %}

{% /callout %}

Datadog's [Software Catalog](https://docs.datadoghq.com/software_catalog/), [Scorecards](https://docs.datadoghq.com/software_catalog/scorecards/), and [Workflow Automation](https://docs.datadoghq.com/service_management/workflows/) enable organizations to monitor and optimize cloud costs with team-level granularity, ensuring appropriate cost allocation and protocol compliance.

## Proactively monitor cost spikes{% #proactively-monitor-cost-spikes %}

[Datadog's Cloud Cost Management](https://docs.datadoghq.com/cloud_cost_management/) integrates with the Software Catalog to detect and alert on cost anomalies in real time. Teams can quickly investigate spikes by correlating them with service-level changes like traffic fluctuations, deployments, or PR merges.

{% image
   source="https://docs.dd-static.net/images/tracing/software_catalog/ccm-use-cases-cost-spikes.b28ed1278da1d775603e82b0640f7aa3.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=850 1x, https://docs.dd-static.net/images/tracing/software_catalog/ccm-use-cases-cost-spikes.b28ed1278da1d775603e82b0640f7aa3.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=850&dpr=2 2x"
   alt="The Costs tab for a service in the Software Catalog, showing cost metrics for different components of the infrastructure." /%}

## Ensure cost compliance and transparency{% #ensure-cost-compliance-and-transparency %}

Teams can monitor and optimize cost allocation by tagging cloud resources and tracking compliance with [Scorecards](https://docs.datadoghq.com/software_catalog/scorecards/).

For example, you can enable team-level cost tracking by applying the tag "team" to infrastructure components and setting a custom scorecard rule to enforce this practice.

Datadog offers preconfigured [Workflow blueprints](https://app.datadoghq.com/workflow/blueprints?selected_category=SCORECARDS) to help you build cost management processes. You can use the blueprints as-is or modify the evaluation logic to fit your use case.

{% image
   source="https://docs.dd-static.net/images/tracing/software_catalog/ccm-use-cases-finops.4a2166fe418e691d4d0f0839441c4b25.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=850 1x, https://docs.dd-static.net/images/tracing/software_catalog/ccm-use-cases-finops.4a2166fe418e691d4d0f0839441c4b25.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=850&dpr=2 2x"
   alt="A Scorecard rule that requires 80% of a service's costs to be tagged by team." /%}

## Further reading{% #further-reading %}

- [Datadog Software Catalog](https://docs.datadoghq.com/tracing/software_catalog/)
- [Datadog Scorecards](https://docs.datadoghq.com/tracing/software_catalog/scorecards/)
- [Datadog Cloud Cost Management](https://docs.datadoghq.com/cloud_cost_management/)
- [Best practices for monitoring cloud costs with Scorecards](https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/monitor-cloud-costs-with-scorecards/)