Technical and Financial Decommission

Prove that old resources and recurring obligations were removed.

CoreFinOps keeps technical shutdown and financial confirmation as independent states. This distinction is central to defensible migration ROI.

Technical shutdown

Record the technical termination of supported source assets and the relevant evidence. A server being powered off does not prove the customer's data-center, software, support or licensing costs have stopped.

Financial confirmation

Confirm removal of the exact remaining recurring source cost in the same currency, or apply a properly approved exception for an identified discrepancy. The confirmation should include evidence, amount, actor and timing; an unsupported smaller value must not silently clear the remaining obligation.

Stranded cost

Any remaining obligation after cutover may be stranded legacy cost. Review contracts, licenses, shared infrastructure, support commitments and termination dates. Assign an owner and record resolution or a controlled exception.

Example

A workload has a modeled $2,000 monthly source run rate. Stopping the VM does not automatically remove the $2,000. If the lease and license continue, the financial exposure remains; only evidence of removal or an authorized exception can complete the financial track.

Where the result goes

A genuinely completed decommission supports the program's savings narrative. It still should not be described as independently measured AWS optimization savings without the corresponding baseline, observation and attribution evidence.