AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials

Chapter 8 : Pricing and Support

Video 1 : Introduction:
Just like running a coffee shop comes with various costs—rent, employee wages, utilities, etc.—running
cloud services on AWS involves managing and understanding cloud-related costs. You might ask:

• How much will it cost to run applications next month?

• What if we move to another AWS Region—will it be cheaper or more expensive?

To answer these questions, you need to:

• Know what services you're using.

• Know how much of each service you're using.

• Use AWS tools to estimate and monitor these costs.

AWS provides free tools to help you predict, track, and control costs, which we’ll learn in this module.

Video 2 : AWS Free Tier

AWS offers a Free Tier that allows you to explore many services without being charged. This is great for
beginners or anyone experimenting with AWS.

Types of Free Tier Offers:

1. Always Free: Available for all AWS customers forever.

o Example: AWS Lambda gives 1 million free requests per month.

2. 12 Months Free: Available for the first 12 months after you sign up.

o Example: Amazon S3 offers 5 GB of free storage for 12 months.

3. Trials: Limited-time offers for some services.

o Example: Amazon Lightsail gives 750 hours for 1 month to host a web app or blog.

Other services in Free Tier: DynamoDB, SageMaker, SNS, Comprehend Medical, Cognito, and more.
Video 3 : AWS Pricing Concepts
AWS offers flexible pricing options that let you control costs depending on how and when you use services.

Key Pricing Principles:

1. Pay for What You Use:

o No upfront costs. You only pay for services you actually use.

2. Pay Less When You Reserve:

o Commit to using certain services (like EC2) for 1 or 3 years to get lower rates.

3. Pay Less with Volume-Based Discounts:

o The more you use (e.g., data storage), the less you pay per unit.

AWS Pricing Calculator:

This free tool lets you estimate how much your AWS usage will cost.

• Choose services (e.g., EC2, S3).

• Input details like storage, compute power, and region.

• Get a cost estimate.

• Share and save it.

Try the calculator: AWS Pricing Calculator

Pricing Examples:

• Lambda: Pay per function request and execution time.

o Always free for 1M requests/month.

o Save more with Compute Savings Plan.

• EC2: Pay while instances are running.

o Save up to 90% with Spot Instances (for jobs that can handle interruptions).

o Use Reserved Instances or Savings Plans for long-term savings.

• S3 (Simple Storage Service): Pay for:

o Storage (based on size and storage class).

o Requests (like uploading and downloading files).

o Data transfer (free within the same region).

 o Management features (like analytics, inventory, replication).

Video 4 : Billing Dashboard

The Billing Dashboard shows everything you need to know about your AWS spending.

What You Can See:

• Your current month’s spend and last month’s bill.

• Forecast of your usage based on current trends.

• Your top used Free Tier services.

• Breakdown of charges by AWS service and region.

Tools Available:

• Cost Explorer (for detailed analysis)

• Budgets (to create spending limits)

• Bills (to view detailed costs by service and region)

You can easily track what you're spending and where.

Video 5 : Consolidated Billing

Think of owning multiple AWS accounts like owning multiple coffee shops. Each has its own costs, but they
are all part of one business.

Consolidated Billing:

• Part of AWS Organizations.

• Combines all account bills into one master account bill.

• Each account’s costs can still be viewed separately.

Benefits:

• Easier to manage.

• Access volume discounts across all accounts.

• Share Reserved Instances and Savings Plans among accounts.

• Completely free to use.

Video 6 : AWS Budgets
Want to make sure you don’t overspend on AWS? Use AWS Budgets.

How It Works:

• Set custom budgets for:

o Costs (e.g., don’t exceed $1000/month).

o Usage (e.g., 500 compute hours).

o Free Tier limits.

• Set alerts when you’re nearing or exceeding limits.

Example:

• Budget = $1000

• Set alert for 80% → You’ll get an email when costs hit $800.

Budgets update 3 times a day to give you accurate, near real-time data.

Video 7 : AWS Cost Explorer

Want to understand exactly how you’re spending money on AWS? Use AWS Cost Explorer.

Features:

• Visualize spending over time (up to 12 months).

• See spending by:

o Service (e.g., EC2, S3)

o Region (e.g., US East, EU Central)

o Tags (e.g., project=app1, team=devops)

• Create custom reports.

Example:

• Create a report showing daily EC2 usage for January.

• Group by Region or tag.

• Save the report and refer to it later.

Cost Explorer helps identify cost spikes and trends to optimize spending.
Video 8 : AWS Support Plans
AWS offers 5 support plans so every business can get the right level of help:

1. Basic (Free):

• Access to documentation, whitepapers, and forums.

• Billing support and service limit increases.

• Some Trusted Advisor checks.

• AWS Personal Health Dashboard (alerts about service issues).

2. Developer:

• Everything in Basic +

• Email tech support (24-hour response)

• Ideal for early-stage projects

3. Business:

• Everything in Developer +

• Phone, chat, email support

• Full access to Trusted Advisor

• Response time:

o 1 hour for production down

o 4 hours for production impaired

• Access to Infrastructure Event Management (IEM) for extra fee

4. Enterprise On-Ramp:

• Everything in Business +

• Response time: 30 minutes for business-critical issues

• Access to Technical Account Manager (TAM) (rate-limited)

5. Enterprise:

• Everything in On-Ramp +

• TAM with unlimited access

• 15-minute response for urgent cases

• Access to deep reviews, Well-Architected Framework, optimization help

TAM (Technical Account Manager):

 • Your AWS guide who helps optimize systems, improve performance, and prepare for big events.

Video 9 : AWS Marketplace

The AWS Marketplace is like an online store where you can buy third-party software to use with your AWS
setup.

Benefits:

• One-click deployment of popular apps

• Try before you buy (free trials)

• Pay-as-you-go or bring your own license

• Custom contracts and private listings for enterprises

It helps reduce setup time, ensures security, and integrates with billing and procurement systems.

Video 10 : Summary
What You Learned:

• AWS Free Tier: Try services for free (always, 12-month, trial).

• AWS Pricing: Pay-as-you-go, reserve, volume discounts.

• Billing Dashboard: Monitor and analyze AWS costs.

• Consolidated Billing: Combine bills from multiple AWS accounts.

• AWS Budgets: Set custom cost/usage limits with alerts.

• AWS Cost Explorer: Visualize and investigate spending.

• Support Plans: From free to premium support for mission-critical apps.

• Marketplace: Find and deploy 3rd-party apps easily.

AWS provides powerful tools to help you understand, control, and optimize your cloud costs, while also
providing support suited to your business size and stage.