AWS Tools for Reporting and Cost Optimization - Laying the Foundation: Setting Up Your Environment for Cost Optimization

AWS Tools for Reporting and Cost Optimization

To help you track, report, and analyze costs over time, AWS provides several reporting and cost-optimization tools:

  • AWS Cost Explorer – See patterns in AWS spending over time, project future costs, identify areas that need further inquiry, observe Reserved Instance utilization, observe Reserved Instance coverage, and receive Reserved Instance recommendations.

  • AWS Trusted Advisor – Get real-time identification of potential areas for optimization.

  • AWS Budgets – Set custom budgets that trigger alerts when cost or usage exceed (or are forecasted to exceed) a budgeted amount. Budgets can be set based on tags and accounts as well as resource types.

  • Amazon CloudWatch – Collect and track metrics, monitor log files, set alarms, and automatically react to changes in AWS resources.

  • AWS CloudTrail – Log, continuously monitor, and retain account activity related to actions across AWS infrastructure at low cost.

  • Amazon S3 Analytics – Automated analysis and visualization of Amazon S3 storage patterns to help you decide when to shift data to a different storage class.

  • AWS Cost and Usage Report – Granular raw data files detailing your hourly AWS usage across accounts used for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) analysis (e.g., determining which Amazon S3 bucket is driving data transfer spend). The AWS Cost and Usage Report has dynamic columns that populate depending on the services you use.