Cost Management with AWS Budgets - Budget Alerts and Automated Actions
Set alerts on both actual and forecasted values, and use Budget Actions to automatically apply IAM policies or stop instances. Integrate with Slack to raise cost awareness across the team.
Budgets Overview
AWS Budgets is a service that lets you set budgets for cost, usage, and RI/Savings Plans coverage, and execute alerts and automated actions when thresholds are exceeded. While Cost Explorer provides cost analysis and visualization, Budgets specializes in setting budgets and automating responses when they are exceeded. It automates cost management through SNS notifications and automatic IAM policy application.
Alerts and Automated Actions
Budget alerts can be set on both actual and forecasted values. A common configuration sends a warning when actuals reach 80% of the budget and an urgent notification at 100%. Budget Actions are actions that execute automatically when a budget is exceeded, including applying IAM policies (blocking new resource creation), stopping EC2 instances, and stopping RDS instances. You can incorporate an approval workflow that requires administrator approval before automatic execution.
Automating with Budget Actions
Budget Actions automatically execute actions when a budget is exceeded. You can attach IAM policies to restrict new resource creation or apply SCPs to stop usage of specific services. Actions to stop EC2 and RDS instances are also configurable. Enabling the approval workflow requires approval from a designated IAM user before an action executes, preventing accidental automatic shutdowns. Budgets can be set on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, with four types available: cost budgets, usage budgets, RI/Savings Plans coverage budgets, and RI/Savings Plans utilization budgets. For a comprehensive look at cost reduction strategies with Budgets, check out technical books (Amazon).
Budgets Pricing and Operations
AWS Budgets includes the first two budgets for free, with each additional budget costing approximately $0.62/month. Budget Actions are available at no extra charge. You can create up to 20,000 budgets per account, and tag-based budgets enable cost management by project or team. Integrating SNS notifications with Chatbot delivers alerts to Slack channels, sharing cost status across the entire team. Setting budget thresholds at 50%, 80%, and 100% in three tiers is recommended so you can take action early.
Summary
AWS Budgets is a service that provides budget setting and automated responses to cost overruns. Set alerts on both actual and forecasted values, and use Budget Actions to automatically apply IAM policies or stop instances. Integrate SNS and Chatbot to deliver alerts to Slack, sharing cost status across the team while proactively controlling the risk of budget overruns.