AWS Cost Management Reviews

Our organization uses AWS. I am a certified architect on AWS. Every month, we generate the cost via the internal consumption servers. Whatever we bill is replicated on the customer's side.

The budgeting tool of AWS Cost Management is the most valuable feature. I have my own set of servers to run and afternoon servers to run, therefore budgeting tells me how much is being spent for the month.

I would like to see AWS Cost Management be more precise in its calculations. There should be an option to adjust and have predictive abilities. For example, when I switch off the servers, like development servers that don't need to run all the time, I should be able to be in a position to better understand the cost of shutting down for so many days or hours.

In future releases, I would like to see scheduled reports or breakup costs at the superuser level.

AWS has been running in the organization for six years.

AWS Cost Management is a very stable solution.

This solution is easy to scale. In terms of AWS, there are very basic factors that you do not need to question, you can just let it run, and it won't fail. 

We have a dozen users of AWS Cost Management. This includes the people maintaining the system. 

Technical support is good. The moment you log a ticket, you have the option to get a call back. Their documentation is good too, it's easy to decipher. If you still require assistance or there is a major issue, you can raise a ticket, and they will respond quickly.

Positive

The initial setup of AWS Cost Management is complex. It is not straightforward. After setting up the OS part, the basic tools like Java and Apache are loaded. These are all defaults that come up with the operating system. When the configuration begins, it is unique for each customer and is complex. When the development environment has been finalized and tested successfully, it has to be pushed onto the production box, which takes time.

After the solution goes live, if a new feature is added, this process gets repeated either partially or fully again.

We implement in-house, however, we use tools like TeamCity. 

Our bottom line is affected because if the prices start to fluctuate, there is a direct consequence on our bottom line.

We have signed a long-term contract with AWS. There are different service levels that will determine the level of support you have.

If I compared Amazon with Azure, I don't see a lot of difference in pricing. Basically, if you save on one item, you will spend it on another. The final total remains consistent.

When considering basic services like AD, if you bring it to the cloud, it starts to get expensive when compared to maintaining a server and licenses. The on-premises edition would eventually become far less expensive than running the cloud edition.

I would rate AWS Cost Management an eight out of ten.

Currently, I am a Finance Consultant. My organization uses Cost Explorer and Compute Optimizer from AWS Cost Management. 

Our primary use case for the solution includes a review of monthly bills to ensure they are compliant with the budget that has been set. 

We also look for opportunities to optimize by breaking down the costs into different services, applications, teams, and projects. 

From here, we create dashboards for the leadership team to review.

AWS Cost Management is good for providing in-depth information in one place. The reports are good, particularly the CSV file, which is the master file. It has all the information you would need to do any analysis. Most of the analysis is done using one of the other services from AWS Cost Explorer. 

The solution is easy to use and easy to access any information that someone may be interested in, such as understanding why a particular cost is high.

I would like to see the forecasting models improved with AWS Cost Management. There is too much of a gap between what AWS forecasts and the actual bills we are charged. It is a machine learning system and relies on more data being collected over time. However, so far, we have not seen that.

I have been working with AWS Cost Management for four years.

This is a stable solution. This can depend on the cloud management tool or other third-party tools. Sometimes there is a lag of a few hours for the data to populate into the CMP tool. But the costs in Cost Explorer are in real-time.

AWS Cost Management is scalable.

When I used technical support, I found that they require a bit of time, particularly when it is a problem with a report or if we need an explanation of the cost that has been charged by AWS.

Positive

I worked with CloudChekr and other native cost management tools like Azure Cost Management and Computer Optimizer, and Cost Explorer.

The initial setup of AWS Cost Management is straightforward, it is not complex.

The implementation and data integration with AWS takes time to get all the information set up in the tool. It can take up to two weeks. We had three people deploy and maintain the solution.

We get AWS Cost Management for free because we use AWS services.

If you are just venturing into cost management, I believe this is the best solution to start with. I rate AWS Cost Management a nine out 10 overall.

Normally, my customer has a solution with AWS and GCP, and they have to monitor and optimize their services. They need a cost management tool. With this tool, they can optimize their data services, so they spend less with the cloud data services. With the cost management tool, clients can optimize fine-tuning their consumption, and optimize what they spend for these services.

One area where AWS could improve is in the compatibility with other products like Cloud AD has. AWS has better documentation. Also, the user experience is very good.

I've been familiar with this solution for the last year.

The solution is very stable.

The solution is scalable, and it is usable with web browsing, so it's very simple to use.

The technical support from AWS is perfect.

The solution is very simple to adopt for my customers, because it is very simple. It is very useful and it is not complex to use.

When you consider the pricing of AWS and compare the cost, you have to consider that with this tool, you can optimize your consumption. So, if you consider that minor cost of consumption, you can suggest the price of the cost management tool of the AWS or Cloud AD. During the time of the optimization, you can show the customer that is better to have it.

Normally, I also sell Cloud AD from VMware, and the same solution from Google Cloud, in addition to AWS. I prefer Cloud AD because it's a solution for a multi-cloud purpose, and it is transversal for different cloud solutions, and also for on-premise installation. Also, with Cloud AD, you can have a solution like Software as a Service with a management tool for every hybrid and multi-cloud installation. With Cloud AD, you can optimize and tune your consumption like AWS; but you can also optimize your on-premise installation very well, because it is natively integrated with VMware, and normally the customers have VMware installation on-premise.

My advice is to use a solution like this because, with it, you can optimize during your consumption. You can optimize your solution and better spend your money.

I would rate AWS Cost Management an eight out of ten.