COST05-BP06 Perform cost analysis for different usage over time
Workloads can change over time. Some services or features are more cost effective at different usage levels. By performing the analysis on each component over time and at projected usage, the workload remains cost-effective over its lifetime.
Level of risk exposed if this best practice is not established: Medium
Implementation guidance
As AWS releases new services and features, the optimal services for your workload may change. Effort required should reflect potential benefits. Workload review frequency depends on your organization requirements. If it is a workload of significant cost, implementing new services sooner will maximize cost savings, so more frequent review can be advantageous. Another initiation for review is change in usage patterns. Significant changes in usage can indicate that alternate services would be more optimal.
If you need to move data into AWS Cloud, you can select any wide variety of services AWS offers and partner tools to help you migrate your data sets, whether they are files, databases, machine images, block volumes, or even tape backups. For example, to move a large amount of data to and from AWS or process data at the edge, you can use one of the AWS purpose-built devices to cost effectively move petabytes of data offline. Another example is for higher data transfer rates, a direct connect service may be cheaper than a VPN which provides the required consistent connectivity for your business.
Based on the cost analysis for different usage over time, review your scaling activity. Analyze the result to see if the scaling policy can be tuned to add instances with multiple instance types and purchase options. Review your settings to see if the minimum can be reduced to serve user requests but with a smaller fleet size, and add more resources to meet the expected high demand.
Perform cost analysis for different usage over time by discussing with stakeholders in your organization and use AWS Cost Explorer’s forecast feature to predict the potential impact of service changes. Monitor usage level launches using AWS Budgets, CloudWatch billing alarms and AWS Cost Anomaly Detection to identify and implement the most cost-effective services sooner.
Implementation steps
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Define predicted usage patterns: Working with your organization, such as marketing and product owners, document what the expected and predicted usage patterns will be for the workload. Discuss with business stakeholders about both historical and forecasted cost and usage increases and make sure increases align with business requirements. Identify calendar days, weeks, or months where you expect more users to use your AWS resources, which indicate that you should increase the capacity of the existing resources or adopt additional services to reduce the cost and increase performance.
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Perform cost analysis at predicted usage: Using the usage patterns defined, perform analysis at each of these points. The analysis effort should reflect the potential outcome. For example, if the change in usage is large, a thorough analysis should be performed to verify any costs and changes. In other words, when cost increases, usage should increase for business as well.
Resources
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