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“We cannot optimize what we cannot see.”
Looking at the dynamic nature of cloud management in today’s time, that’s more true than ever.
If you are among those entities that are leveraging the cost optimization offered by the AWS Enterprise Discount Program, then you have already taken a conscious step to save a lot on cloud costs in the long run. But the main issue still prevails - no mechanism to manage your actual spend vs the committed spend. That is the reason why CloudKeeper has launched the AWS EDP Tracker in CloudKeeper Lens to provide complete real-time visibility on cloud spending, along with an estimated forecast.
The Issue with Managing AWS EDP Spend Today
Theoretically, everything looks good for Enterprise Commitment from a cost point of view i.e. commit to spending a big amount and in lieu of it, you can get above average discounts.
But what happens when:
- There is no track of the cost, and teams keep on over-consuming.
- Projects underdeliver, leaving the spend unused?
- Are there different definitions of budget for Finance and Engineering?
This major disconnect at times results in overspending, sub-optimal utilization of discounts, and frustrated teams.
There are some tools available that display only the snapshots or lagging reports, but this is not what businesses need. Below is the actual requirement of an aware business unit:
- A real-time dashboard
- that has knowledge of AWS EDP pricing
- and facilitates teams to act before the cost overruns (or underspends), not react
That is the real reason behind bringing in the AWS EDP Tracker in CloudKeeper Lens.
What is the AWS EDP Tracker?
It is a purpose-built, real-time interactive dashboard in CloudKeeper Lens, built to facilitate you:
- Keep a track of the actual and forecasted AWS EDP spend for the entire tenure of EDP (1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, and so on).
- Compare costs involved in AWS EDP,that is, spend that was committed, actual spend, and what the forecast would be based on the current trend.
- Visualize and draw patterns from monthly spends, deviation from the committed amount and the overall health of the system.
- Take corrective actions to ensure the delta between committed spend and actual spend gets reduced.
Irrespective of what your EDP worth is, the AWS EDP tracker makes it very convenient and easy for you to track and manage the monthly and yearly spends.
What is in it for you?
This is not just another dashboard for tracking the spend, it is much more than that. It’s your AWS EDP cloud spend control unit.
1. Stay aware of the budget and actual spend — Always
This tool allows you to have the visibility of real-time actual spend and forecasted costs, which keeps you always aware of AWS EDP spend, and you can also draw a lot of inferences by understanding the spending patterns. No more unpleasant surprises at the end of the financial year.
2. Optimize Savings
Ensure that you are not missing out on the opportunities for savings. Spending every dollar of commitment should be as per a well-thought-out plan. The aim should be to optimize spending every month so that cumulative savings are hitting those discount thresholds.
3. Enable Smart, Timely Decisions
Tracking the AWS EDP monthly spending trends helps in identifying the cost patterns so that reallocation decisions can be taken. For example, moving workloads to adjust the spend, pausing some services, or reallocating resources.
4. Single view of AWS EDP spends for all teams
Different teams within the company, such as the Engineering team, the Finance department, and DevOps, all stakeholders get to access the same dashboard for AWS EDP spend trends. No more misalignment or miscommunication among the groups.
5. Own your Cloud FinOps
As per FinOps, there should be accountability for cloud spend within the teams. The AWS EDP Tracker serves as the fundamental tool for any company that is trying to adopt a FinOps culture.
Feature Highlights
Below are the functionalities that customers would get in the AWS EDP Tracker:
1. Tenure-Based Cost Granularity
Track year-by-year AWS EDP spends and compare it with your commitments to understand the deviation. It gives a good idea of the pace at which spending is being done and the current status of the overall health of the system.
2. Actual spend vs. Committed value vs. Forecasted spend
Track how many dollars have been spent to date, what is the forecasted spend, and how close or far the value is to the committed amount. This helps in ensuring that you are not underspending so that you do not have to pay for resources that you never used.
3. Health Indicators
Users can see in real time that, are they spending optimally or underspending, or the costs are touching the roof. This feature gives an indication to the customers whether there is any need for any action to be taken.
4. Month-wise spend breakdown
Granular month-on-month tracking to identify sudden increases or decreases in cloud spending so that corrective measures can be taken immediately instead of waiting for the entire year.
5. Interactive Graphs
Cumulative spend trends, commitment identifiers, and projected forecast— all visual, all intuitive.
6. Deviation %
Now users would always be aware that what is the delta between the actual spend and committed spend.
Scenarios in which AWS EDP Tracker can assist
Scenario 1: If the Engineering team needs more environments to function, they spin up a new one, the overall cost goes up, and you can witness a deviation from the committed amount, then course correction can be done within time, as you had the option of tracking your monthly costs.
Scenario 2: Due to seasonal changes, the cloud spend goes down in quarter 1, forecasts adjust itself as downward, business has the opportunity to move the underutilized commitment to other services within the company.
Scenario 3: Senior management wants to know whether we will cross $15M EDP this year? AWS EDP Tracker is the single source of truth for you to answer this in seconds.
There is more to come!
This is just the V1 of AWS EDP Tracker. CloudKeeper is actively working on advanced functionalities to ensure AWS EDP Tracker becomes even more powerful to give you better insights about your committed spend.
- Alerts based on the actual spend.
- Granular level insights as per region, service, etc.
- Forecasted spend modeling based on historic workloads to draw more meaningful patterns.
- Goal estimation and corresponding tracking for FinOps team members.
All Set to Take Charge of Your AWS EDP Spends?
CloudKeeper Lens is already optimizing AWS spends, avoiding budget overruns, and assisting in staying ahead of the curve for 400+ customers across various industries.
If you want your AWS investments to drive maximum business value, the AWS EDP Tracker is the visibility layer you’ve been missing.
👉 Schedule a demo with CloudKeeper Lens, we will love to optimize cost for you.
Allow data and insights to lead the way!
