Managing Costs Across AWS Accounts

Cost and Usage Reports

Overview

• Generated from management account's billing center

• CSV file format

• Filtering capabilities:

  • By account

  • By service

  • By custom tags

• Available with consolidated billing in organizations

Report Features

• Adjustable time granularity:

  • Hourly

  • Daily

  • Monthly

• Integration with analytics tools:

  • Amazon Athena

  • Amazon Redshift

  • Amazon QuickSight

Centralized Budget Alerts

Management Account Capabilities

• Access to AWS Budgets

• Creation of account-specific budgets

• Independent budget adjustment per account

Alert Architecture

1. Budget Alert Generation

   • Triggers SNS topic

   • Supports multiple subscribers

   • Enables event triggering

2. Cross-Account Implementation

   • SNS topic triggers Lambda function

   • Lambda sends event to EventBridge

   • Account-specific event buses receive events

   • Account-level Lambda functions process events

3. Response Actions

   • Automated resource shutdown

   • Administrator notifications

   • Custom mitigation actions

Tagging Strategy

Tag Fundamentals

• Custom attributes for AWS resources

• Nearly universal resource compatibility

• Essential for multi-account management

Common Tagging Categories

• Environment

• Project

• Owner

• Version

• Team

• Customer

Multi-Account Applications

• Cost and usage report filtering

• Budget filtering and alerts

• Resource grouping

• Automation targeting

Best Practices

Cost Monitoring

1. Report Generation

   • Regular cost analysis

   • Service-level monitoring

   • Account-specific tracking

2. Budget Implementation

   • Account-specific thresholds

   • Tag-based monitoring

   • Automated alert systems

3. Tag Management

   • Consistent naming conventions

   • Cross-account standardization

   • Regular tag audits

Automation and Control

1. Alert Response

   • Email notifications

   • Automated mitigation

   • Resource control actions

2. Resource Organization

   • Systematic tagging approach

   • Comprehensive AWS footprint visibility

   • Cross-account resource management

Implementation Considerations

• Strategic tag planning essential

• Holistic environment view required

• Automated cost control mechanisms

• Cross-account communication protocols

• Regular monitoring and adjustment