Struggling to optimize cloud costs, or maybe you’re not sure how to see your AWS finances at a more granular level? Well, we’re about to make your life easier: the AWS cost management console makes budgeting a piece of cake, providing you with a host of tools to reduce your AWS bill.
Cutting down your bill in AWS is often a case of understanding the services and resources you’re using and paying for. Note: there’s a difference between the two. It’s all about optimizing costs without compromising on the required resources, allowing you to save money on your cloud bill while getting the same – if not better – performance.
Now, this may sound confusing and perhaps a little too good to be true. But bear with us and you’ll get there.
What is the AWS Cost Management console?
There’s only so much digging you can do by looking at your AWS bill. But you need to dig deeper to find out where your money is going. How else can you find new ways to save money on your cloud bill?
The AWS Cost Management console is a feature integrated into the billing console in AWS. When you use these tools together, you can view your costs and billing with a more holistic approach.
The console consists of several free-to-use tools that enable you to better understand, organize, and detect anomalies within your cloud billing:
- AWS Cost Explorer
- AWS Budgets
- Cost anomaly detection
- Savings Plans
Keep reading to discover how each tool works and how it can help you manage your finances in the cloud.
AWS Cost Explorer
The AWS cost management Cost Explorer tool allows you to visualize cost data for deeper analysis. For example, you can filter graphs to include cost allocation tags, availability zones, regions, and other purchase and service options.
Alongside getting the scoop on your current costs, you can forecast future expenses based on previous data to help you better understand your spending and how you can optimize your cloud costs further.
AWS Budgets
Setting budgets on AWS ensures you don’t go over your forecasted amount. Or, at the very least, you’ll receive a notification so you can take immediate action to prevent your spending from spiraling out of control.
The budgets tool uses AWS Cost Explorer to show a visual representation of your budgets, including forecasts for estimated costs to help you better visualize your spending.
You can also set notifications to alert you (or your team) when you near certain budget amounts – allowing you to stay on track without any nasty surprises.
Cost anomaly detection
If you thought you had to scan your billing report or invoice to detect an anomaly, think again!
Within the AWS Cost Management console, the cost anomaly detection tool alerts you when a potential anomaly is detected (for example, a rapid cost increase). This allows you to quickly identify the anomaly, keeping your cloud spending on budget without any unnecessary hiccups.
Savings Plans
Finally, we have Savings Plan. And sorry to disappoint, but you don’t get a pink pig to store your change in…
The AWS Savings Plan is a pricing plan that helps you better manage costs.
You pay for a specified amount of compute power, which is measured per hour, over a one or three-year period. Due to the long-term commitment, you get to save money. This plan is great for organizations that require set compute power over an extended period. But it comes with its downsides, you can read more about them here: AWS Savings Plan – Can You Reduce Your Cloud Bill Further?
This AWS pricing model isn’t for every business, but if it’s a good fit for you, you can get your hands on some nice discounts compared to regular pay-as-you-go service options.
Why is AWS cost management important?
AWS costs can easily get out of control without a plan and regular management.
But it’s not just about reducing costs. It’s also about reducing waste – finding the perfect ratio between performance and cost.
You can read more about cloud cost management in our blog post: How to Convince Your Dev Team that Cloud Cost Management Is Important.
Gain better control over your AWS spending
From the very first bill you receive from AWS, you may be a little shocked at how much you spent, especially if you operate on a pay-as-you-go pricing plan.
But taking a step back and using the AWS cost management console tools is how you gain a clearer understanding of your finances.
Take advantage of these tools and the billing console to optimize your spending, saving money without affecting performance.
Remember that most of the time, AWS Cost Explorer and other built-in cost management tools may not be enough. After all, they always analyze data with some delay – and what happens if you rack up a $72k bill during a few hours like that startup did? To learn more about optimizing cloud costs efficiently, take a look here: Why AWS Cost Explorer Isn’t Enough to Seriously Reduce Your Cloud Expenses
FAQ
To gain more control over your cloud finances, you should use the AWS cost management console and its tools. This is how you get a better understanding of where your money is spent, where you can save money, and whether all services you’re using are entirely necessary.
There are multiple tools to help manage costs in AWS, but a few standouts include budgets (and alerts), Savings Plans, and general TLC using the AWS Cost Explorer.
Cost optimization focuses on decreasing spending with no negative impact on results. In other words: you’re finding new ways to save money without impacting your current cloud operations.
AWS can quite quickly become expensive, especially if your cloud resources are left idle without a set budget or if you’re on the wrong plan. Choose the right plan and manage your services correctly to reduce your AWS bill.
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