AWS cost optimization
Pay for what you use, not for what you forgot
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the largest cloud infrastructure services in operation today. Unfortunately, their billing system is one of the most complex too, with each service measuring usage in different ways. Are you worried - maybe even sure - that you are overpaying for AWS? White Raven IT has the expertise and tools to compare your gut feeling with hard data. Read on to learn all about AWS cost optimization, or contact us now to lower your spend.
AWS services you pay (too much) for
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon's cloud platform. Instead of buying and maintaining your own servers, you rent computing power, storage and software from Amazon over the internet. AWS runs this infrastructure in large data centers grouped into regions around the world. As a customer, you pay only for what you use. That flexibility is both AWS's biggest strength and the reason costs can quietly spiral. AWS offers hundreds of services, including these three:
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
Virtual servers you rent by the second or hour. Choose the size, power and operating system you require. You pay for as long as you need them to run.
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
Online storage for files, backups and data. You pay per gigabyte stored each month, plus small fees for accessing and retrieving that data.
Amazon Connect
Cloud-based contact center that handles customer calls and chats. Rather than paying per agent license, you pay per minute of use, plus the cost of the phone calls themselves.
Pricing, the start of AWS cost optimization
The monthly AWS invoice has gone up again. Finance wants to know why. Nobody has a clear answer. Or maybe your commitment agreement with AWS is up for renewal, and Amazon proposes a bigger spending promise in exchange for a better discount.
Do these hypothetical situations sound familiar? Both require you to find out if you are paying a fair price for the cloud capacity you actually need and use. AWS measures almost everything you use and bills it separately. Your invoice is essentially the sum of three things:
how much computing power you use and for how long
how much data you store
how much data you send out of AWS
On top of that, you choose how you pay. Pay-as-you-go is both the most flexible and most expensive option. Committing to a certain level of usage for one or three years, through Savings Plans or Reserved Instances, earns substantial discounts. Large organizations often go further and negotiate a private agreement in which they promise a total spend over several years in exchange for a lower price.
Factors that influence your AWS bill
The size and type of your servers, and how many hours they run
The region you use, as prices differ between locations
The storage class you choose, storing rarely accessed data costs significantly less
Data transfers, especially data leaving AWS for the internet or moving between regions
Rented or owned software licenses, for example Windows Server or SQL Server
Your pricing model and the discounts in your long-term contract
5 practical tips to optimize your AWS costs yourself
1) Cloud cost optimization starts with visibility. Label every resource by team, project or environment so you know who is responsible for which costs. Set budget alerts to catch unexpected spikes.
2) Check whether your servers are larger than they need to be. Switch off test and development environments outside operating hours.
3) Commit to discounts only for the usage you can reliably predict. Unused commitments are wasted money.
4) Move old data to cheaper storage automatically. Make sure to keep an eye on data transfer fees.
5) Treat cost optimization as a recurring habit. Your usage changes. So do AWS's prices and services.
White Raven IT, your independent partner for AWS cost optimization
Many AWS partners resell cloud capacity or earn more when you consume more. White Raven IT does neither. Our advice has only one aim: making sure you pay for the cloud capacity you need.
You get a clear, independent picture of what your AWS environment costs today and where that money goes. White Raven IT analyzes your actual usage and uncovers waste. Profit from strategic and operational optimizations, from choosing the right pricing models and discounts to cleaning up oversized, idle or forgotten resources. To do this, we work with two specialist partners: ProsperOps for rate and discount optimization and TechNative for insight, governance and cost allocation.
Expect a fixed project fee with guaranteed ROI. In return you get a leaner AWS bill and the visibility to keep it that way. Ready to see where your AWS budget really goes? Contact White Raven IT and start spending less.