The Awesome Framework - Commutatus’ definition of awesome
The Awesome Framework - Commutatus’ definition of awesome
Cost Optimization
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Cost Optimization

Created
Apr 8, 2022 8:13 AM
Department
Engineering
Category
Cost
Technology
AWS
Tags
Date
URL

A cost optimization exercise should be conducted on all projects that run on AWS every 3 months at least. If the project needs to be done more frequently, it should be done!

Review - In brief

The general procedure that should be followed are

  • Review the usage of all fixed resources in the project (EC2 instances, load balancers, EB environments)
  • Review the family & type of instance based on its usage
  • Review the need for the fixed resource and if there are any alternatives
  • Review the possibility for savings plan/reserved instances implementation

Review - In detail

  1. Review usage of all fixed resource

      2. Log in to the AWS console and go through each of the following resources and answer the following questions

    1. EC2 Instances
    2. Load Balancers
    3. EB Environments
    4. Is the resource serving traffic and inactive usage (it might have been accidentally created, retried for the usage of new resources, etc)
    5. Is the resource being utilized effectively (at least 50% of CPU & Memory usage on a weekly average unless it is the lowest size possible)
    6. Is there a chance of using a spot instance? (Is it critical and does it have a graceful failure - best candidates are load balances EB environments)
  2. Review the family & type of instance based on its usage
    • Is the instance of the optimal size based on its usage?
    • Is the instance of the latest family?
  3. Review the need for the fixed resource and if there are any alternatives
    • Can we convert this fixed resource to a serverless alternative or deploy it to S3 + CloudFront or Amplify? The answer is generally yes for UI servers.
  4. Review the possibility for savings plan/reserved instances implementation
    1. Is the resource consistently used for 730 hours a month?
    2. Do we foresee removing the resource in the next 1 year?

      3. If the answer to question 1 is yes and question 2 is no, then we move forward with reserving capacity in the form of reserved instances or a savings plan.

Plan of action

Construct a plan of action with the following details to submit to the project manager/client for each action item after the review

  1. Title
  2. Method of approach
  3. Expected cost savings in USD
  4. Expected performance improvements (if applicable)
  5. Downtime
  6. The requirement from client (if applicable)