Monitor Amazon WorkSpaces usage and optimize costs with the Cost Optimizer for Amazon WorkSpaces solution

Publication date: January 2017 (last update: March 2023)

The Cost Optimizer for Amazon WorkSpaces solution analyzes all of your WorkSpaces usage data and automatically converts the WorkSpace to the most cost-effective billing option (hourly or monthly), depending on your individual usage. Amazon WorkSpaces is a fully managed, secure Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) offering that eliminates the need for you to procure, deploy, and manage complex virtual desktop environments.

This solution helps you monitor your WorkSpaces usage and optimize costs and uses AWS CloudFormation to automatically provision and configure the necessary Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) services to convert the billing mode for individual WorkSpaces. This solution supports a multi-account environment in AWS Organizations and is capable of running in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

This implementation guide provides architectural considerations and configuration steps for deploying this solution on the AWS Cloud. It includes links to CloudFormation templates that launch, configure, and run the AWS compute, management, storage, and other services required to deploy this solution on AWS, using AWS best practices for security and availability.

This solution includes and integrates with AWS Service Catalog AppRegistry and AWS Systems Manager Application Manager, which register the solution’s CloudFormation template and its underlying resources as an application in both AWS Service Catalog AppRegistry and AWS Systems Manager Application Manager. With this integration, you can centrally manage the solution’s resources. This implementation guide provides an overview of the Cost Optimizer for Amazon WorkSpaces solution, its reference architecture and components, considerations for planning the deployment, and configuration steps for deploying the Cost Optimizer for Amazon WorkSpaces solution to the AWS Cloud.

Use this navigation table to quickly find answers to these questions:

If you want to . . .	Read . . .
Know the cost for running this solution The estimated cost for running this solution in the US East (N. Virginia) Region is USD $ 5.00 per month.	Cost
Understand the security considerations for this solution	Security
Know how to deploy the solution	Deploy the solution
View or download the AWS CloudFormation template included in this solution to automatically deploy the infrastructure resources (the “stack”) for this solution	AWS CloudFormation templates

This guide is intended for solution architects, business decision makers, DevOps engineers, data scientists, and cloud professionals who want to Cost Optimizer for Amazon WorkSpaces in their environment.