How To Optimize Cost on AWS : Best Practices and Techniques

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December 1, 2019

One of the most powerful cloud computing resources and the largest IaaS provider is Amazon Web Services. While its sheer size and computing resources are best in class, and the support is spot on, the pricing is a major user retaining reason for AWS’s great success.

AWS has an affordable pricing structure that customers like and publishes guides on reducing server costs and utilizing the resources effectively to get the most out of what you use and pay for. The pricing concept for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud is straightforward. You only pay for what you use at the end of each month and are free to start or stop using a product whenever you like.

Here are 5 AWS Cost Optimization Best Practices:

1. Pay as you go:

If you frequently utilize the AWS cloud server, you may have come across this phrase a lot. There are no minimum commitments or lengthy contracts necessary with the pay-as-you-go model. Low variable costs replace your upfront capital expense, and you only pay for what you utilize. There is no need to pay in advance for excess capacity or suffer the consequences of inadequate planning. This one is one of the most important service-side cost optimizations included in AWS’s pricing structure.

2. Reserve and pay less:

This results in overall savings of between 42% and 71% (depending on the type of instance you reserve) compared to equal on-demand capacity because you pay a little upfront cost and receive a much reduced hourly rate.

3. EC2 reserved instances optimization:

Determines the ideal number of Partial Upfront Reserved Instances by analyzing your Amazon EC2 computing consumption history. Recommendations are based on hour-by-hour use averaged over all consolidated billing accounts for the previous calendar month. The ability to estimate the number of hours of usage you will require this month based on the sum of last month’s hours is a crucial component of cost optimization.

4. Low Utilization Amazon EC2 Instances:

This tool counts the number of EC2 instances that are currently operating at less than 10% of their run capacity. It notifies you if the daily CPU utilization was 10% or less and the daily network I/O was 5 MB or less on four or more days. It reports instances that were active at any time over the last 14 days. Running instances result in use fees charged each hour.

5. Underutilized Amazon EBS Volumes:

Examines the configurations of Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes and issues warnings when underutilized volumes are detected. When a volume is produced, charges start. The user can delete a volume if it is detached or has very little write activity (apart from boot volumes) over an extended period of time.

To get an idea of your monthly bill, utilize the  AWS Simple Monthly Calculator. The calculator offers a breakdown of costs by service and a monthly total estimate. The calculator also provides an estimate and breakdown of expenses for popular options.

[ Read Next: AWS Security – What Makes Misconfiguration Critical? ]


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