Billing Details for AWS EC2 Environments: DEV, QA, PROD | Cloud Cost Optimization

Billing Details for AWS EC2 Environments

Question

A client who is using AWS cloud services has multiple environments for the EC2 servers like DEV, QA, PROD respectively.

The client would like to know billing details for each of these environments to make informed decisions related to saving costs.

Using which of the following options the requirements can be achieved?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

Correct Answer: C.

Cost allocation tags appear as additional columns in detailed billing reports.

As an example, let's say an AWS Region has 50 EC2 instances running out of which 15 are DEV, 15 are QA & the remaining are PROD.

While launching these instances, one can apply a tag named “env” providing value of DEV for 15 instances, QA for 15 instances and PROD for 20 instances.

These tags then appear in a detailed billing report as columns which can be filtered based on the environment and the cost of a set of environment servers calculated easily.

Option A is incorrect since consolidated billing is a feature that applies to scenarios where a client has multiple accounts and would like to receive one bill for all his accounts.

Option B is incorrect since AWS Budgets are used for setting custom budgets budgeting costs to track costs and usage of resources & get alerted when actual or forecasted cost and usage exceeds the limits set for that budget.

Option C is CORRECT.

Refer above description for the same.

Option D is incorrect.

AWS Organizations allows you to consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an Organization that can be centrally managed for billing.

They can have Service Control Policies applied at the organization level that can override policies set up by IAM for individual accounts.

Reference:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/cost-alloc-tags.html

The correct answer is C. AWS Cost allocation tags.

AWS Cost allocation tags are a way to label and categorize AWS resources for better cost management and allocation. With cost allocation tags, you can categorize resources in a way that makes sense for your business, such as by environment (DEV, QA, PROD), project, department, or team.

You can use cost allocation tags to create reports and budgets that show the cost of each environment separately, allowing you to make informed decisions related to saving costs. You can also use cost allocation tags to track resource usage and cost allocation across multiple AWS accounts.

Consolidated billing (A) is a feature of AWS Organizations that allows you to consolidate billing for multiple AWS accounts under a single payer account. It simplifies billing and payment, but it doesn't provide the level of cost allocation detail needed to track costs by environment.

AWS Budgets (B) are a way to set custom cost and usage budgets for your AWS resources and receive alerts when costs or usage exceed the budgeted amount. While budgets can help you monitor costs, they don't provide the level of cost allocation detail needed to track costs by environment.

AWS Organizations (D) is a service that allows you to centrally manage multiple AWS accounts. It provides features such as consolidated billing, policy management, and access control, but it doesn't provide the level of cost allocation detail needed to track costs by environment.