AWS Budgets: A Quick Guide
Managing cloud expenses doesn’t have to be a daunting task, whether you’re a budding IT professional, a student exploring cloud technologies, or a small business owner diving into the digital landscape. Imagine having a virtual financial advisor that alerts you before you overspend—sounds great, right? That’s where AWS Budgets comes in!
In this blog, we’ll dive into a step-by-step guide on how to effortlessly set up:
- A zero-spend budget which ensures you never exceed your budgeted amount.
- A monthly cost budget which keeps track of your expenses on a regular basis.
AWS Budgets Explained
AWS Budgets is a robust tool from AWS (Amazon Web Services) designed to help you manage and control your cloud spending. With AWS Budgets, you can:
Create Personalized Budgets: Tailor your budgets to fit your specific needs and receive notifications when your spending approaches or exceeds your set thresholds.
Get Frequent Updates: AWS Budgets refreshes its data up to three times a day, typically within 8–12 hours of the previous update.
Gain Timely Insights: Stay informed about your cloud expenses with timely updates, helping you maintain control of your budget and avoid unexpected charges.
Creating and Managing Your Budgets
To create and manage your budgets, follow these steps:
1. Log in to your AWS Management Console: Start by signing in to your AWS account using your credentials.
2. Navigate to the Billing Dashboard: Click on your account name or the profile icon in the top-right corner of the console. From the dropdown menu, select “Billing and Cost Management”.
3. Access AWS Budgets: In the left-hand navigation pane, choose “Budgets” under the “Budgets and Planning” section.
4. Create a New Budget: In the AWS Budgets dashboard, click on the “Create budget” button.
5. Choose a Budget Type: You will see two options. The first is “Use a template,” and the second is “Customize.” If you want to create a budget from scratch with parameters tailored to your specific needs, select the “Customize” option. In this blog, I am selecting the “Use a template” option, which utilizes a predefined template that fits common budget scenarios. AWS provides several templates to help you get started quickly. We will select the “Zero Spend Budget” option. This will notify you immediately if your spending exceeds $0.01.
6. Naming and Configuring Your Budget: Next, you need to assign a meaningful name to your budget. The name should be between 1 and 100 characters long. After naming the budget, provide the email addresses where notifications will be sent when the budget exceeds $0.01. You can specify up to 10 recipients, separated by commas. For demonstration, I have added two example email addresses. This budget will cover all AWS services. Once you’ve entered the details, click “Create budget” to finalize the setup.
7. Creating a Monthly Cost Budget: Now, let’s see how to create a Monthly Cost Budget. First, return to the Budget dashboard and select “Create budget.” Choose “Use a template” again, but this time, select the “Monthly cost budget” template.
8. Configuring Your Monthly Cost Budget: First, provide a meaningful name for your budget. Next, set the budgeted amount; for this example, I have set it to $10. Enter the email addresses where notifications will be sent. This budget will apply to all AWS services.
A key feature of this template is that you will not only be notified when you reach your limit but also when your spending reaches 85% of the budget. In this case, the budget is $10, and I will be notified at $8.50. Additionally, the template includes a forecast feature that predicts when you are likely to reach 100% of your budget based on your previous month’s spending. This proactive notification helps you stay ahead of your expenses.
9. Monitoring Your Budget: My bill was $0.09, which exceeded the zero spend budget. As you can see in my AWS Budgets dashboard, my monthly cost budget was within limits, but my zero spend budget was exceeded. This demonstrates how you can monitor your budgets and receive alerts when they are breached.
10. Receiving Budget Notifications: You should also receive a notification whenever you exceed your budget or are forecasted to exceed it. I received an email notification for exceeding my zero spend budget. This email was sent to the address I provided during the budget setup. You can directly navigate to your AWS dashboard using the link provided in the email.
Summary
In this blog, we covered using AWS Budgets to manage cloud expenses. We started by setting up a zero spend budget to catch unexpected charges and a monthly cost budget to track regular spending. We also configured alerts and notifications to stay updated on spending patterns and potential overages. Finally, we showed how to monitor budgets and receive timely email notifications through the AWS Budgets dashboard.
By – Deepthi Narayan