Core Functionality and Concepts
AWS Budgets provides a powerful mechanism to monitor and control AWS spending and resource usage.
AWS Budgets is a service that allows users to set custom budgets and thresholds to trigger actions and/or notifications to keep you aware of costs and usage.
It enables setting custom cost and usage budgets with alerts when thresholds are exceeded. This helps in staying informed about costs and usage, preventing overspending, and ensuring manageable costs as demand and usage grow.
You can choose custom budgets for costs, usage, Savings Plans, or reservations.
AWS Budgets supports monthly, quarterly, or yearly budget tracking with customizable start and end dates. You can be general with annual budgets or get down to daily budgets, enjoying the flexibility of granularity.
Technical Specs: Supports monthly, quarterly, or yearly budget tracking; Customizable start and end dates; Daily, weekly, monthly, or annual granularity
AWS Budgets uses Cost Explorer’s cost visualization to show budget status and forecasts.
Alerts and Notifications
AWS Budgets provides flexible options for sending notifications when budget thresholds are approached or exceeded.
Alerts can be configured based on actual or forecasted costs/usage, and notifications can be sent through multiple channels.
Alert Notification Triggers
Alert notifications can be received for actual usage or forecasted usage. For example, you can be alerted to an estimated overage for next month to have time to investigate what is causing that overage and take action before it happens.
trigger_types
Actual usage, Forecasted usage
Use Cases:
- Proactive cost management
- Investigating potential overages before they occur
Notification Channels
Alerts can be sent via email or Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS). Additionally, Chatbot Alerts can be set up in Chime or Slack.
channels
Email, Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), Chatbot Alerts (Chime, Slack)
Use Cases:
- Integrated team communication
- Real-time notifications for critical thresholds
SNS Pricing Model
SNS pricing is based on the number of messages you publish, deliver, and API calls used to manage topics and subscriptions.
pricing_basis
Number of messages published, delivered, API calls
Reporting Notifications
You can also choose daily, weekly, or monthly reports via notification as well.
report_frequency
Daily, weekly, monthly
Use Cases:
- Regular budget reviews
- Distributing budget information to stakeholders
Automated Actions
AWS Budgets can not only alert but also trigger predefined actions when budget thresholds are crossed, enabling automated cost control.
Users can set up actions to run automatically in response to budget alerts.
Action Configuration
Actions can be added to alerts. For instance, an action can be set to stop an RDS instance if actual costs hit a specified threshold (e.g., 95% of the budget amount). These actions can be configured to run automatically when the threshold is triggered.
action_triggers
Budget alerts (e.g., actual cost greater than 95% of budget)
Use Cases:
- Automating cost reduction by stopping non-critical resources
- Preventing budget overruns
Supported Automated Actions
Examples of automated actions include stopping EC2 or RDS instances.
examples
Stop EC2 instances, Stop RDS instances
Required Permissions for Actions
To enable an alert to take an action, an appropriate IAM role (e.g., CloudAdminRole) must be chosen that has the necessary permissions. The action will fail if the role lacks the required permissions.
permission_requirement
IAM role with necessary permissions (e.g., CloudAdminRole) for the specific action
Console View and Reporting
The AWS Budgets console provides a clear overview of budget status and trends, with options for further analysis and reporting.
When viewing budgets in the console, users can see the budget set, the amount used, and the current versus budgeted amount.
The console also displays forecasted data that helps give an idea of how usage is growing or shrinking.
The budget data can be downloaded into a CSV file, which makes it distributable to anyone who needs to view it.
Technical Specs: Export format: CSV file
While Budgets shows an overview, specific details regarding why costs are high or over budget can be viewed in AWS Cost Explorer.
Role in Cost Optimization
AWS Budgets is a critical component of a comprehensive cost management and optimization strategy within AWS.
AWS Budgets is part of a comprehensive suite of billing and cost management tools offered by AWS, alongside AWS Bills, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Cost and Usage Reports, and AWS Trusted Advisor. These tools collectively help manage and optimize cloud costs.
Setting custom cost and usage budgets is a key cost optimization principle, adhering to the 'pay only for what you need, when you need it' philosophy.
Utilizing cloud budgets and forecasts is a practice within cloud financial management, ensuring teams stay informed about costs and usage.
Budgets contribute to instilling cost awareness in every process by providing proactive monitors and notifications.