How to Save Money in AWS Using Cost Explorer

Cloud costs can quickly spiral out of control without proper management. However, Amazon Web Services offers a solution to help businesses optimize their cloud costs in AWS Cost Explorer.

This blog will equip you with the knowledge and strategies to unlock Cost Explorer's full potential, helping you optimize your AWS spending and maximize your cloud ROI.

1. Identify Underutilized Resources

In the Cost Explorer navigation pane, select "Right Sizing recommendations."

This section analyzes your EC2 instances and suggests potential cost savings through downsizing or termination.

You can filter recommendations by:

• Idle instances: Targeting instances that can be terminated.

• Underutilized instances: Identifying instances running below a specific utilization threshold.

• Existing Savings Plans/Reserved Instances: Considering existing cost-saving plans in recommendations.

You can either downsize to a smaller instance type or leverage AWS Compute Optimizer for broader recommendations.

2. Analyze Cost and Usage Data with Filters

Within Cost Explorer, explore the "Cost and Usage" reports. Utilize filters to focus on specific services (like EC2) and timeframes.

Pay close attention to metrics like:

• EC2 Instance Type: Identify instance types with high costs.

• CPU/Memory Utilization: Look for consistently low utilization percentages.

• Network In/Out: Analyze usage patterns to see if a smaller instance might suffice.

By combining Rightsizing Recommendations and analyzing cost data with filters, you can effectively pinpoint underutilized resources in your AWS environment.

3. Explore Reserved Instances and Savings Plans

Start by understanding your resource usage patterns. Look for consistent workloads that run for predictable hours each day or month. These are ideal candidates for RIs. AWS offers a Reserved Instance Recommendation tool within the Management Console or Billing and Cost Management Console. This tool analyzes your historical EC2 usage and suggests potential RI configurations to save money.

Here's how to access it (steps might vary slightly depending on the specific console):

1. Go to the AWS Management Console or Billing and Cost Management Console.

2. Search for "Reserved Instances" or "Savings Plans" (depending on your initial focus).

3. Look for a section named "Recommendations" or similar.

4. Consider Savings Plans

If your workloads are variable or unpredictable, Savings Plans offer more flexibility. Explore Savings Plans options within the AWS Management Console or Billing and Cost Management Console.

• You'll likely land on a page dedicated to Savings Plans. Here, you can explore different aspects:

  • Savings Plans Recommendations: This section (similar to Reserved Instances) might analyze your historical usage and suggest potential Savings Plans configurations that could save you money.

  

• Savings Plans Types: You'll typically find options for choosing a commitment tier:

  • Compute: Applies to EC2 instances and Fargate.

  •  

    Compute & Lambda: Covers EC2 instances, Fargate, and Lambda functions.

  • All Services: Extends discounts to a broader range of services beyond compute (check the official documentation for the latest eligible services).

  • Commitment Explorer: This tool allows you to define a commitment tier, dollar-hour value (based on your projected spending), and term (1 or 3 years) to estimate potential savings.

Additional Tips

• Consider setting a utilization target. Found in the Cost Explorer display options, this helps visualize resource usage compared to a benchmark.

• Tag your resources effectively. This allows filtering costs by specific environments or applications, making it easier to identify underutilized resources within a particular context.

• Cost Explorer allows setting budgets and alerts. This helps you stay informed about your spending and identify potential cost overruns.

From startups to global enterprises, cloud costs can spiral out of control without proper oversight. AWS Cost Explorer can provide the cloud cost analysis businesses need to ensure they can spend their budgets on improving marketing and sales capabilities that drive revenue. 

Contact us at Oshyn to learn where else you can optimize your spending, from optimizing website performance to automating marketing processes and implementing modern composable software solutions.