cloud-cost-management

SKILL.md

Cloud Cost Management

Table of Contents

Overview

When to Use

Quick Start

Reference Guides

Best Practices

Overview

Cloud cost management involves monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing cloud spending. Implement strategies using reserved instances, spot pricing, proper sizing, and cost allocation to maximize ROI and prevent budget overruns.

When to Use

Reducing cloud infrastructure costs

Optimizing compute spending

Managing database costs

Storage optimization

Data transfer cost reduction

Reserved capacity planning

Chargeback and cost allocation

Budget forecasting and alerts

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

# Enable Cost Explorer
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=2024-01-01,End=2024-01-31 \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics "UnblendedCost" \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE

# List EC2 instances for right-sizing
aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,InstanceType,State.Name,LaunchTime,Tag]' \
  --output table

# Find unattached EBS volumes
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query 'Volumes[*].[VolumeId,Size,State,CreateTime]'

# Identify unattached Elastic IPs
aws ec2 describe-addresses \
  --query 'Addresses[?AssociationId==null]'

# Get RDS instance costs
aws rds describe-db-instances \
  --query 'DBInstances[*].[DBInstanceIdentifier,DBInstanceClass,StorageType,AllocatedStorage]'

// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Guide
Contents

AWS Cost Optimization with AWS CLI
AWS Cost Optimization with AWS CLI

Terraform Cost Management Configuration
Terraform Cost Management Configuration

Azure Cost Management
Azure Cost Management

GCP Cost Optimization
GCP Cost Optimization

Cost Monitoring Dashboard
Cost Monitoring Dashboard

Best Practices

✅ DO

Use Reserved Instances for stable workloads

Implement Savings Plans for flexibility

Right-size instances based on metrics

Use Spot Instances for fault-tolerant workloads

Delete unused resources regularly

Enable detailed billing and cost allocation

Monitor costs with CloudWatch/Cost Explorer

Set budget alerts

Review monthly cost reports

❌ DON'T

Leave unused resources running

Ignore cost optimization recommendations

Use on-demand for predictable workloads

Skip tagging resources

Ignore data transfer costs

Forget about storage lifecycle policies

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