I’ve been delaying writing a recap of the announcements made by our Cloud Financial Management (CFM) team at 2024 re:Invent. This procrastination stems partly from holiday preparations, much like many of you. However, I was also waiting for one more significant announcement. I’m now thrilled to unveil ten new features that have been added to the AWS CFM service portfolio. Though we may not achieve a perfect score, we believe these enhancements will help you manage your daily FinOps tasks more efficiently.
To provide a clear overview, I’ll organize these new features according to the four solution areas defined in the AWS Cloud Financial Management framework.
Plan & Evaluate
- Authenticated AWS Pricing Calculator: If you need to estimate the cost impact of resource changes, such as migrating to a new region or adjusting resources, you can now log into the AWS Pricing Calculator with your account credentials. This allows you to easily access your current usage data, make adjustments, and factor in any applicable discounts. You can simulate an entire bill computation by including cost impact analysis for workload changes and purchase options (e.g., Reserved Instances, Savings Plans). For more information, check out this blog post.
- Savings Plans Purchase Analyzer: You can now perform a rapid analysis of Savings Plans purchases by inputting your own hourly commitment amount. This feature allows you to customize the lookback period, enabling you to select the historical data you wish to analyze. Additionally, you can exclude any Savings Plans expiring in the next 90 days to prepare for renewals ahead of time. Details can be found in another blog post.
Track and Allocate
- Custom Billing View: The saying “you can’t improve what you can’t measure” rings especially true for cloud cost efficiency. As FinOps leaders, you develop central strategies, policies, and KPI targets, but these can only be effectively implemented if your teams have adequate visibility into their costs and usage. You can now create a custom view in AWS Cost Explorer that displays cost and usage data relevant to your stakeholders, such as application owners and business unit leaders. Learn about creating that custom billing view and our recommended best practices in this blog post. This was the last announcement I was waiting for.
- Data Exports for FOCUS 1.0 with AWS Columns (GA): AWS is proud to be a premier member of the FinOps Foundation, which is advancing key initiatives like FOCUS to help normalize cost and usage data across various sources. After announcing a preview version in June at FinOps X, we are pleased to announce the general availability release, which enhances data accuracy and compliance with the FOCUS 1.0 specifications. We encourage you to start using the export to gain insights into your cloud investments across multiple areas.
- GenAI Powered Cost Analysis in Amazon Q: Recognizing that not everyone in your organization is familiar with AWS Cost Explorer or the Cost and Usage report, you can now ask cost analysis questions in natural language through Amazon Q. Accessible throughout the AWS Console, it enables you to perform essential cost analyses, such as month-over-month changes and cost by Cost Categories or Cost Allocation Tags. Each response includes a deep link to visualize the analysis in Cost Explorer. For further insights, refer to this excellent resource.
- Amazon EKS Pod-Level Cost and Usage Data with Split Cost Allocation Data: Gaining access to detailed cost and usage data for shared resources is vital for effective cost allocation. Therefore, we began investing in Split Cost Allocation Data in spring 2023. You can now opt in to receive this data for Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS in your Cost and Usage report, with costs allocated at the ECS task and EKS pod levels.
Optimize and Save
- Idle Resource Detection and Cleanup Recommendations: Identifying and cleaning up idle resources can yield significant benefits for your FinOps initiatives. You can now receive idle resource detection and clean-up recommendations in AWS Compute Optimizer and Cost Optimization Hub for resources like idle Amazon EBS volumes and Amazon EC2 instances. For more information on how we define these idle resources, refer to this blog.
- Amazon Aurora Rightsizing Recommendations: For those utilizing Amazon Aurora with MySQL-compatible and PostgreSQL-compatible engines, you will now receive idle instance detection and rightsizing recommendations, allowing you to migrate to Graviton and upgrade to the latest hardware generation for improved workload performance.
Govern and Operate
- Enhanced Root Cause Analysis for Cost Anomaly Detection: Many users have shared that Cost Anomaly Detection provides valuable insights into potential causes of unexpected spending. This service monitors your net unblended cost and alerts you when actual spending exceeds expected daily amounts. Now, each detected anomaly includes an analysis with up to 10 potential root causes and their approximate dollar impacts.
- Invoice Configuration: This feature is particularly beneficial for organizations wanting individual business entities to manage their spending and payments. It simplifies the process of splitting AWS invoices, allowing you to configure invoice units while still benefiting from organization-wide advantages such as volume discounts.
In conclusion, these ten newly added features to the AWS Cloud Financial Management portfolio serve as our holiday gifts to you. We hope you find them valuable and look forward to hearing your feedback on these enhancements.
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