IT cost and resource visibility is a challenge shared by all organizations. According to RightScale’s 2017 State of the Cloud Survey, 53% of cloud users and 64% of mature cloud adopters cited cost focusing as one of their strategic initiatives. With wasted cloud spend accounting for nearly a third of cloud investments, having the right tools available is key to satisfying both innovation opportunities as well as the accounting department.
If you’re looking for a cloud resource management tool, you might not find it in your current platform. For some organizations, this gap is filled with a third-party solution while for others, choosing a new platform altogether is simply easier. With Amazon Web Services (AWS), you get the best of both worlds in a leading cloud solution and cost management solutions:
- Billing Dashboard: The AWS Billing Dashboard lets you view the status of your month-to-date AWS expenditure, pinpoint the services that account for the majority of your overall expenditure, and understand at a high level how your costs are trending. Within the dashboard are further data points that break down costs by resource used.
- Cost Explorer: AWS Cost Explorer helps you visualize, understand, and manage your AWS costs and usage over time. This is done via an intuitive interface that enables you to quickly create custom reports (including charts and tabular data) that enable you to analyze your cost and usage data, both at a high level and for highly-specific requests. Whether you’ve been using cloud for the past decade or just began a month ago, you’ll be able to understand where changes need to be made.
- Set Custom Cost and Usage Budgets: AWS Budgets lets you set custom cost and usage budgets that alert you when those thresholds are breached. Each budget can have up to five associated alerts, shared through email or text alerts. With this type of immediate notification, everyone from you to your boss will know if forecasts are too conservative or just enough.
- Comprehensive Data: The Cost & Usage Report is your one-stop-shop for accessing the most granular data about your AWS costs and usage. Here, you’ll find out just how much you’re spending down to the second.
If you’re still on the fence about migrating to the cloud, fear no more. With granular data from AWS, you’ll always know how you’re doing. Download our guide below for even more best practices around AWS and email us at sales@perficient.com with any questions.
