AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
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A company observes an increase in Amazon EC2 costs in its most recent bill. The billing team notices unwanted vertical scaling of instance types for a couple of EC2 instances. A solutions architect needs to create a graph comparing the last 2 months of EC2 costs and perform an in-depth analysis to identify the root cause of the vertical scaling. How should the solutions architect generate the information with the LEAST operational overhead?
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UAnonymous
A
Use AWS Budgets to create a budget report and compare EC2 costs based on instance types.
B
Use Cost Explorer's granular filtering feature to perform an in-depth analysis of EC2 costs based on instance types.
C
Use graphs from the AWS Billing and Cost Management dashboard to compare EC2 costs based on instance types for the last 2 months.
D
Use AWS Cost and Usage Reports to create a report and send it to an Amazon S3 bucket. Use Amazon QuickSight with Amazon S3 as a source to generate an interactive graph based on instance types.
Explanation:
Explanation
Correct Answer: B - Use Cost Explorer's granular filtering feature to perform an in-depth analysis of EC2 costs based on instance types.
Why this is correct:
- Least operational overhead: Cost Explorer is a built-in AWS service specifically designed for cost analysis with minimal setup required.
- Granular filtering: Cost Explorer allows filtering by service (EC2), usage type (instance types), time periods (last 2 months), and other dimensions.
- Built-in visualization: It provides ready-to-use graphs and charts that can compare costs across different time periods.
- No additional infrastructure: Unlike option D, it doesn't require setting up S3 buckets, reports, or QuickSight.
Analysis of other options:
A. AWS Budgets: Primarily for setting budget alerts and tracking costs against thresholds, not for detailed historical analysis and root cause investigation.
C. AWS Billing and Cost Management dashboard: While it provides some graphs, it lacks the granular filtering capabilities needed for in-depth analysis of specific instance types over time.
D. AWS Cost and Usage Reports with QuickSight: This approach provides maximum flexibility but has the HIGHEST operational overhead, requiring:
- Setting up Cost and Usage Reports
- Configuring S3 buckets
- Setting up QuickSight
- Creating visualizations from scratch
- Maintaining this entire pipeline
Key AWS Services for Cost Analysis:
- Cost Explorer: Best for ad-hoc analysis with minimal setup
- AWS Budgets: Best for proactive cost monitoring and alerts
- Cost and Usage Reports: Best for detailed, granular data for custom analysis tools
- AWS Cost Anomaly Detection: For automated anomaly detection
Best Practice: For immediate analysis with least operational overhead, always start with Cost Explorer's built-in capabilities before considering more complex solutions.
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