Definition
Right sizing is the practice of matching cloud computing resources to the specific performance and capacity needs of an application or workload. It involves analyzing current resource utilization and adjusting compute, storage, and network configurations to eliminate overprovisioning and underprovisioning. This ensures optimal performance and cost efficiency by avoiding paying for unused capacity while preventing performance bottlenecks. For instance, reducing the CPU and RAM of an underutilized virtual machine instance is a common right sizing activity. It differs from simply shutting down unused resources, as right sizing focuses on optimizing the configuration of active resources. This concept is crucial for cloud financial management and appears on AWS certification exams like the Solutions Architect Associate.