Master Your AWS Expenses with Cost and Usage Reports (CUR)

As organizations adopt AWS services, in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape it’s essential to have a clear understanding of the costs associated with running these services. Whether you’re looking to allocate costs, improve budgeting and forecasting, or simply gain increased transparency into your AWS expenses, AWS CUR is a must-have tool for any organization using AWS services.

What are AWS Cost and Usage Reports (CUR)?

AWS Cost and Usage Reports (CUR) is a tool offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides a comprehensive view of an organization’s AWS cost and usage data. AWS CUR provides a wealth of information, including detailed cost and usage data, resource utilization, and more. Organizations can use this data to gain valuable insights into their AWS expenses, enabling them to make informed decisions and optimize their cloud costs.

AWS CUR is essentially a cost-effective solution to manage and analyze your organization’s cloud costs by enabling users to get a satellite view of their resources and the expenditure they are incurring.

How do Cost and Usage Reports Work?

AWS CUR works by collecting data from various AWS services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). This data is then consolidated into a single report that can be used to identify cost optimization opportunities, track spending trends, and allocate cost tags across different departments.

Creating and Viewing AWS Cost and Usage Reports

Creating an AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR)

Creating an AWS CUR is a straightforward process, and with the help of the AWS Management Console, it can be done in just a few simple steps. Here’s how:

• Sign in to the AWS Management Console.
• Navigate to the Cost Management & Billing dashboard.

• Select “Cost and Usage Reports” from the navigation panel on the left.
• Click on the “Create report” button.

• Provide a name for the report, select the desired time frame, and specify the S3 bucket where the report data will be stored.
• Choose the report format, either CSV or Parquet, and set any optional advanced settings as desired.
• Click “Create” to start the report creation process.
• Once the report creation process is complete, the report data will be stored in the specified S3 bucket, and it can be viewed at any time.

Viewing an AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR)

Once a report has been created, viewing the report data is straightforward and can be done using the AWS Management Console. Here’s how:

• Sign in to the AWS Management Console.
• Navigate to the Cost Management & Billing dashboard.

• Select “Cost and Usage Reports” from the navigation panel on the left.
• Click on the desired report.
• Review the report data, which is presented in an easy-to-read tabular format.

AWS CUR provides a wealth of information, including detailed cost and usage data, resource utilization, and more. Organizations can use this data to gain valuable insights into their AWS expenses, enabling them to make informed decisions and optimize their cloud costs.

AWS Cost and Usage Reports Best Practices

1. Regularly Review CUR Data: Organizations should review their AWS CUR data regularly to stay informed of their AWS expenses and identify opportunities for cost optimization. By regularly reviewing CUR data, organizations can spot trends in their cloud expenses and take proactive steps to reduce costs. For example, if you notice that a particular EC2 instance type is costing more than expected, you can explore alternative EC2 instance types that may be more cost-effective for your workloads.
2. Set up Cost Allocation Tags: Cost allocation tags can be used to categorize AWS resources and track expenses across multiple departments, projects, or business units. This can help organizations understand the cost breakdown of their AWS resources and make more informed decisions about their cloud expenses. For example, if you have multiple teams using AWS, you can use cost allocation tags to track expenses for each team, enabling you to see which teams are incurring the most costs and make adjustments as necessary.
3. Use the Right EC2 Instance Types: Choosing the right EC2 instance type for your workloads can have a significant impact on your AWS costs. Organizations should regularly assess their workloads to ensure they are using the most cost-effective EC2 instance types. For instance, if you have a workload that requires high CPU performance, you may want to consider using an EC2 instance type that is optimized for compute-intensive applications.
4. Enable AWS Trusted Advisor: AWS Trusted Advisor provides recommendations for optimizing AWS expenses, including suggestions for reducing costs, improving performance, and increasing security. Enabling AWS Trusted Advisor and regularly reviewing its recommendations can help organizations identify areas for cost optimization and ensure that they are using their AWS resources in the most cost-effective manner.
5. Utilize AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances: AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances can help organizations reduce their AWS expenses by committing to use a specific amount of compute capacity over a specific period of time. Organizations should regularly assess their workloads to determine if they can benefit from utilizing AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances.

Conclusion

AWS Cost and Usage Reports (CUR) provide a comprehensive view of an organization’s cloud expenses, enabling organizations to make informed decisions and optimize their cloud costs. Whether you’re looking to allocate costs, improve budgeting and forecasting, or simply gain increased transparency into your expenses, CUR is a must-have tool for any organization using AWS services.

By following the best practices and tips outlined in this article, organizations can ensure that they are leveraging Cost and Usage Reports effectively to reduce their AWS expenses and get the most value from their investments.