Importance of Cost Visibility

Cloud usage can dynamically change to suit customer needs. This can result in potential price increases. Therefore, cost visibility is crucial to understanding the value a cloud environment will deliver to an organisation.

AWS Billing and Cost Management

Bill and Cost Management is the set of cost reporting and monitoring tools provided by AWS. With these tools, we can view our paid and unpaid bills, manage payment methods, and monitor and analyse our costs and usage.

How Can We Use Billing and Cost Management

The four most commonly used features are:

  • AWS Cost Explorer: visualise, understand, and manage AWS costs and usage over time.
  • AWS Cost and Usage Reports: achieve visibility into AWS spend.
  • AWS Budgets: improve planning and cost control with flexible budgeting and forecasting.
  • AWS Cost Anomaly Detection: help reduce cost surprises with machine learning.

AWS Billing Dashboard

The AWS Billing Dashboard is a web-based interface that gives access to the many AWS Billing features described previously.

AWS Cost Management Console

The Cost Management console is closely integrated with the Billing Dashboard. Both are often used together to manage costs in a holistic manner.

Billing console is used to manage ongoing payments and generate reports, while Cost Management console is used to optimise future costs.