Cost Optimization Pillar

The cost optimization pillar focuses on avoiding unnecessary costs. Key topics include understanding and controlling where money is being spent, selecting the most appropriate and right number of resource types, analyzing spend over time, and scaling to meet business needs without overspending.

The Cost Optimization pillar includes the ability to run systems to deliver business value at the lowest price point. This pillar provides an overview of design principles, best practices, and questions to consider when architecting cloud solutions with cost optimization in mind.

Cost Optimization Questions

COST01: How do you implement cloud financial management?

COST02: How do you govern usage?

COST03: How do you monitor usage and cost?

COST04: How do you decommission resources?

COST05: How do you evaluate cost when you select services?

COST06: How do you meet cost targets when you select resource type, size and number?

COST07: How do you use pricing models to reduce cost?

COST08: How do you plan for data transfer charges?

COST09: How do you manage demand, and supply resources?

COST10: How do you evaluate new services?

COST11: How do you evaluate the cost of effort?

AWS Services for Cost Optimization

AWS Cost Explorer

Visualize, understand, and manage your AWS costs and usage over time with detailed analytics and forecasting capabilities.

AWS Budgets

Set custom cost and usage budgets that alert you when your budget thresholds are exceeded or forecasted to be exceeded.

AWS Cost and Usage Report

Access comprehensive cost and usage data for your AWS account with detailed billing information and usage metrics.

AWS Trusted Advisor

Provides recommendations that help you follow AWS best practices for cost optimization, performance, security, and fault tolerance.

AWS Compute Optimizer

Recommends optimal AWS resources for your workloads to reduce costs and improve performance using machine learning.

AWS Cost Anomaly Detection

Uses machine learning to identify unusual spends and root causes, helping you act quickly on cost anomalies.

AWS Savings Plans

Flexible pricing model that provides significant savings on AWS usage in exchange for a commitment to consistent usage.

Reserved Instances

Provide significant discount compared to On-Demand pricing in exchange for a commitment to use specific instance types.