Cost Allocation, Billing, and Support

1. Cost Allocation, Billing, and Support

Let's understand why there is a need for more granular and detailed billing and how to set it up.

2. How AWS billing works?

Let's say you are working for a cloud storage provider called "CloudDrive". Their application is similar to DropBox. Here is what a default AWS billing breakdown might look like for CloudDrive. The billing items are separated by the services used. CloudDrive wishes to offer pay-as-you-go pricing option for its customers which is not provided in default AWS invoice. Let's see how to do this using cost allocation tags.

3. What are cost allocation tags?

A tag is a label that you assign to an AWS resource. Each tag consists of a key and a value. A key can have more than one value. You can use tags to organize your resources, and cost allocation tags to track your AWS costs on a detailed level. In this example, we've added a new cost allocation tag called: app-username. Similar to a library, tags help organize thousands of individual resources in AWS cloud.

4. Adding tags to files

After enabling cost allocation tags, there are multiple approaches to adding the tag values to individual files. CloudDrive can choose to create separate S3 buckets per user with a tag on them, or it may keep a single bucket but add tag values to individual files. Once a resource is tagged, the tag value appears in the object property. Once cost allocation tags are present, AWS Cost and Usage Reports can generate detailed reports per user and per tag. This gives operational insights and enables the analysis of cloud usage patterns across users and departments.

5. AWS Organization

"CloudDrive" wishes to track their AWS spend using internal team organization - development, test, and production. AWS Organization offers a potential solution. It can track the charges across multiple accounts and view the combined cost and usage. This enables each department to stay within their budgets. The organization shares discounts and savings across these accounts, helping everyone save money.

6. AWS Health

AWS Health helps monitor service disruptions affecting your resources. It provides real-time alerts to manage potential issues proactively. This can be beneficial before you create a ticket with AWS Support .

7. AWS support options

If you need assistance while working with AWS, there are multiple support options to choose from. The Basic plan is free, while the Developer, Business, and Enterprise plans have monthly fees and provide direct access to support engineers. Only the Business and Enterprise plans offer 24/7 support and API access Support channels expand from forums only in the Basic plan to email, chat, and phone in the Business and Enterprise plans, with training programs also included. Response times improve with each plan, from less than 24 hours for the Developer plan to less than 15 minutes for the Enterprise plan. Training programs are offered with Business and Enterprise plans and the Enterprise plan also includes a Technical Account Manager.

8. Let's practice!

Let's work on some interactive exercises.

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