How to Optimise Cost on AWS: Best Practices and Techniques

Rohan Mathew

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Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is one of the industry leaders in on-demand cloud computing platforms. It is a reliable service and has found its customer base ranging right from individuals to governments. They offer a wide variety of plans from which to choose. 

One doesn’t need to be an expert in cloud cost optimization to identify the exact computational requirement and select a plan accordingly. With over 200 services being offered, such as computing, storage, networking, database, analytics, application services, etc., AWS is the choice of more than one-third of cloud computing users worldwide. 

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What is cloud cost optimization?

Cost optimization is an integral part of running any business successfully. One always needs to be wary of the resources at hand and the ideal consumption of resources and predict the peak demand of resources to ensure that the business does not get a performance hit when the need is at the maximum. 

Overcompensating in terms of resources would also mean wastage of money in most circumstances. While it is easy for a trained person to use judgment to manage tangible resources, intangible assets like computational power and energy requirements, and storage space are mainly not compensated. 

This optimization identifies one’s business’s requirements and then figuring out what services one needs and does not need. These days it is run mainly by third-party software that will have access to the AWS console. 

Does one need Cloud Cost Optimization? 

Data drives today’s world. With almost every available resource, every business is doing everything they can to increase their presence on the internet. And any business website deserves nothing less than the best. 

It is why people are choosing to store their important and sensitive data on an industry-leading service like Amazon Web Services. With multiple features like CPUs, RAM, GPUs, etc., already available at our disposal, configuring a business website has been more accessible than ever before. 

While basing one’s business on the cloud has many advantages, one significant trade-off must adhere to preset tariffs and rates. If this step is not done carefully, one might only look at the amount to pay for and not the actual resource their business utilizes. A cost optimization service could do this and save one over $100k a month.

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How does Cost Optimization Work?

The foremost task in cost optimization is to find a service that is developed for a specific cloud service provider in mind. The service providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, etc., vary a lot in terms of the terminologies used for different services and how they bill. 

Therefore it is of utmost importance to choose a cost optimization service built for the cloud service one’s business operates. Softwares such as CloudFix by DevGraph is an excellent service that helps companies to identify their resource utilization and plan accordingly. 

The user interface is designed to give one-touch access to the dashboard, where one can see the resource utilization concerning how much one is paying. It provides an intuitive picture of the areas in which one could adjust the AWS plan so that optimal performance can be derived from the service.

This works by identifying cost-cutting opportunities present in one’s plan. Typically, these cost-cutting opportunities include tracking the number of spot instances, managing the unused ones to save cost, identifying the legacy applications one uses, and substituting them for better, newer applications designed to save resources, time, and power, thereby saving the cost one pays. 

In addition to identifying and removing not-so-resource-friendly instances from one’s AWS account, it also lets one know other services they could add to their AWS account tailored for their workflow. This way, they will also be saving a lot of time by using the facilities that are already designed for the kind of workflow their business demands. 

Analytics offered by these Optimization services

Performance review is essential for any business to identify and take care of shortcomings or over-expenditure. The cost-usage report generated by such services showcases the daily or hourly performance, enabling us to understand the peak load and adjust accordingly. 

They also have a dashboard that shows the relevant information in graphs, tables, and images that make it easier for businesses to identify and cater to individual issues that come up at any point in time.

Businesses, small or large, are almost always subject to unexpected performance hits that can happen due to a wide variety of reasons. If not correctly taken care of, the system can overstress, which would almost always cause over-expenditure. These optimization services are necessary to provide a hassle-free service to their customers.