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How to Manage AWS Costs

Here are easy steps on how to manage your AWS costs. The Cost Management Center gives visibility on how costs vary with time. Once you familiarize yourself with the cost management panel, managing AWS costs will be easy. Use resource tags to track the usage of multiple projects. As you navigate the dashboard, explore each menu, and see how it can help you manage AWS costs. After gaining visibility, use these steps:

Step 1: Manage AWS Costs Using Custom Reports

Custom Reports lets users create custom charts, tables, and data reports. You can compare costs vs. usage in a visualization. Have more accounts? You can easily identify high expense accounts. Custom Reports help users make data-driven decisions on managing AWS costs.

Step 2: Set Ideal Budgets Using the Budget Feature

AWS Budgets lets you create an ideal budget. You can add an alert to notify you when you have exceeded this budget. AWS allows users to set monthly, quarterly, or annual budgets. This flexibility helps users manage budgets on their desired schedules.

Step 3: Assign a Tag to Each AWS Resource

AWS Tags have tag keys to assign labels to certain functions. Ensure you use common tags, such as cost center, project, and business units. Have tags and tag policies for each business unit. On the other hand, cost allocation tags help you track the costs you use. Each cost center should have its own tag policy. That way, you can visualize how costs vary for each project, business unit, or department on the reports dashboard.

Step 4: Study AWS Usage Report

AWS has a cost and usage reports service. This finds information on the usage for each category, usage for each user, and information on allocated tags. Users can customize these per day or month. Use these data to reduce high expenses.

Can I Manage AWS Costs Using Billing Notifications?

Yes. AWS sends notifications on billings for free. Billing alarms is a service that notifies you based on a defined criterion. For example, you can set it to get an SNS when costs pass a certain limit. AWS also tracks patterns and sends notifications about any abnormal usage pattern.

Can Third-Party Tools Help Manage AWS Costs?

AWS has certified partners to help you manage AWS costs. Within AWS, you can combine several factors and integrate them to reduce costs. However, a third-party tool gives deeper visibility into cost centers. It also puts everything under one dashboard for an easy experience. nOps has various features to help track costs, optimize redundant resources, and send instant notifications for high-cost processes. nOps cost reporting allows you to filter costs by cloud employee, dates, spending amount, among others.

When managing AWS costs, efficiency is key. You’ll need the right tools, whether from AWS or third-party providers. Since the cloud spreads out cost-increasing elements, the best practice is to have all cost factors in one dashboard. nOps has AWS resource and cost optimization service to help you keep costs under control.

 

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