Hey everyone,
I manage a tech team that relies heavily on AWS, and we're currently spending around $5,000 a month for services like RDS, EC2, ECS, and MKS across our development, staging, and production environments. The bulk of this cost comes from RDS, followed by ECS, and then EC2.
I'm considering purchasing an annual compute plan, which I believe could reduce my costs by about 20-30%, though that's not applicable to RDS. I was also approached by an AWS reseller who claims they could save me an additional 5% or even more if we were to migrate to another cloud, although I'm hesitant due to the engineering effort involved.
From my understanding, this reseller would manage the billing but I'd retain full control over my account. I'd like to know:
1. Is this a typical arrangement with resellers?
2. Is the potential savings they're offering reasonable, or should I be looking for more?
Initially, I intended to just go for the compute plan and reserved instances for RDS, but now I wonder if I might be overlooking better options. I've seen startups advertising AWS cost reduction strategies and I'm starting to feel like I'm wasting a lot of money on AWS without sufficient resources.
Thanks for any insights!
5 Answers
Another thought is to audit your resource usage. I’ve seen clients with underused resources paying way too much. You might want to optimize your configurations too—simple changes can lead to significant savings. For RDS, consider switching to GP3 disks instead of the default options that might be unnecessarily expensive.
Be cautious with resellers! There have been recent changes, and some resellers had to adapt their offerings because AWS blocked certain options for them. If they're managing your billing, you could lose some flexibility and might not get the best deal. Opting for independent savings plans or reserved instances could save you hassle in the long run.
So, the savings plans provide better control? I definitely don't want to be locked out of my own billing!
Lastly, it’s worth reaching out to AWS directly about cost optimization options. They have teams dedicated to helping businesses save money, and a lot of it is free! Just make sure to utilize all the resources available before committing to a reseller.
Good call! I didn't even know they offered that—thanks for the tip!
I'd recommend going for the savings plans and reserved instances directly instead of involving a reseller. While they might offer some extra bucks through private pricing (EDP), they typically lock you out of billing decisions. By sticking with SP and RIs, you keep full control and flexibility over your services.
Definitely buy SPs and RIs yourself. You might need to tweak things later on, and that can be a hassle with a reseller.
Have you thought about alternatives like CloudNativePG for your databases? If you're familiar with Kubernetes, deploying it can significantly cut costs compared to managed RDS while still giving you good backup solutions.
Sounds interesting! I'll have to look into that; cost-savings are definitely a priority for us.
That's a great point! I had the same issues—was paying for way more resources than needed.