I’m working on a Cloud Cost Optimization assignment and need some advice on structuring my approach. The goal is to complete the following tasks:
Reduce delay in cost awareness: Teams should know about unexpected costs as soon as possible.
Identify wasted resources easily: Instead of playing a guessing game, we should pinpoint which resources are consuming costs unnecessarily.
Find top cost contributors: Generate a report showing the top 5-10 resources that are contributing to high costs.
Cloud Environment
The architecture involves AWS and Azure, and I also have GCP in my setup (though I’m unsure if I need to include it).
Initial Thoughts & Challenges I initially considered building a unified platform for AWS, GCP, and Azure, but I’m worried it might be too complex and time-consuming for a beginner. Would it be better to focus on a single cloud provider first?
Possible Solutions I Thought Of
Idle Resource Notifications: If a resource (e.g., volumes, snapshots) is unused for a certain period, send alerts via email/Slack.
Resource Tagging Policy: Enforce tagging when creating resources to make cost attribution easier.
Real-Time Cost Monitoring: Monitor costs every 3, 6, or 12 hours and notify the team if spending exceeds a defined threshold.
Top Cost Contributors Report: Gather usage data and sort resources in descending order of cost.
Questions I Need Help With Should I build a unified multi-cloud system, or is that too ambitious for a beginner?
What key cost optimization cases am I missing?
Does my approach make sense, or are there better strategies I should consider?
I’m working on a Cloud Cost Optimization assignment and need some advice on structuring my approach. The goal is to complete the following tasks:
Reduce delay in cost awareness: Teams should know about unexpected costs as soon as possible.
Identify wasted resources easily: Instead of playing a guessing game, we should pinpoint which resources are consuming costs unnecessarily.
Find top cost contributors: Generate a report showing the top 5-10 resources that are contributing to high costs.
Cloud Environment
The architecture involves AWS and Azure, and I also have GCP in my setup (though I’m unsure if I need to include it).
Initial Thoughts & Challenges I initially considered building a unified platform for AWS, GCP, and Azure, but I’m worried it might be too complex and time-consuming for a beginner. Would it be better to focus on a single cloud provider first?
Possible Solutions I Thought Of
Idle Resource Notifications: If a resource (e.g., volumes, snapshots) is unused for a certain period, send alerts via email/Slack.
Resource Tagging Policy: Enforce tagging when creating resources to make cost attribution easier.
Real-Time Cost Monitoring: Monitor costs every 3, 6, or 12 hours and notify the team if spending exceeds a defined threshold.
Top Cost Contributors Report: Gather usage data and sort resources in descending order of cost.
Questions I Need Help With Should I build a unified multi-cloud system, or is that too ambitious for a beginner?
What key cost optimization cases am I missing?
Does my approach make sense, or are there better strategies I should consider?
Share Improve this question asked Mar 28 at 6:45 AakashAakash 1 1- Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. – Community Bot Commented Apr 1 at 12:14
2 Answers
Reset to default 1You're on the right track. I do a ton of this in my day job as an AWS TAM for an MSP**
RE: Reduce delay in cost awareness**: Teams should know about unexpected costs as soon as possible.
AWS Budgets allows gives you a few options here. You can not only set up spend-based alert thresholds, which could go to your email address, but I would use a distro. There are also some newer AI-oriented anomaly detection functions also.
RE: Identify wasted resources easily: Instead of playing a guessing game, we should pinpoint which resources are consuming costs unnecessarily.
Two options jump out at me here:
#1 The AWS Trusted Advisor report. This is an in-depth spreadsheet sent out to clients with enterprise-grade support levels, meaning partner-led support with a 3rd party accredited support provider, AWS OnRamp, or AWS Enterprise-level support tiers.
This report tells you exactly which servers are grossly oversized and other components that could be optimized, archived, or downscaled to save money.
#2 There's a module for an opensource tool called PowerPipe called "Thrifty", which can assist there also.
The AWS console under Cost Explorer will also show you your available instance reservation options and/or savings plans.
RE:Find top cost contributors: Generate a report showing the top 5-10 resources that are contributing to high costs.
I would highly encourage you to learn how AWS Cost Allocation tags work. There are defaults which will give you what you're asking for, but there's some much more advanced and granular options with what are called "User Generated" Cost allocation tags.
RE: Questions I Need Help With Should I build a unified multi-cloud system, or is that too ambitious for a beginner?
If you are new to cloud infrastructure, I would definitely not start off with a multi-cloud environment. Even if you weren't a beginner, there needs to be a very compelling reason to chase "best in breed" services across a provider boundary. This is almost always more hassle than it's worth.
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