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FinOps & Cost Explorer

Track AWS infrastructure costs with detailed analytics, forecasting, optimization recommendations, and anomaly detection to control cloud spending.

How to Access Cost Dashboard​

  1. Click FinOps in the main navigation
  2. View key metrics at the top of the page:
    • Current Month Spend: Real-time cost accumulation with trend vs. previous month
    • Average Monthly Cost: Baseline for comparison over selected time range
    • Projected Next Month: ML-based forecast of upcoming costs
    • Potential Savings: AWS optimization recommendations total
  3. Use the date range picker to filter costs (Last 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, 1 year)
  1. Go to Overview tab
  2. Review the monthly cost trend chart showing:
    • Total cost per month (bar chart)
    • Month-over-month percentage change
    • Top 5 AWS services contributing to costs
  3. Hover over any month to see detailed breakdown
  4. Look for unexpected spikes or trends

Review Service Breakdown​

  1. Click Service Breakdown tab
  2. View pie chart showing cost distribution across AWS services
  3. Review detailed table with:
    • Service name (EC2, RDS, S3, EKS, etc.)
    • Current month cost
    • Previous month cost
    • Percentage change
    • Percentage of total spend
  4. Click on any service to drill down into resource-level costs

Check Cost Forecast​

  1. Navigate to Forecast tab
  2. View 3-month cost projection based on:
    • Historical spending patterns
    • Seasonal trends
    • Current resource utilization
  3. Review confidence intervals (upper and lower bounds)
  4. Use forecast to plan budgets and identify potential overruns

How to Identify Cost Savings​

Review Optimization Recommendations​

  1. Click Recommendations tab
  2. Review categorized recommendations:
    • Reserved Instances: Convert On-Demand EC2/RDS to Reserved Instances for 30-60% savings
    • Savings Plans: Commit to compute usage for flexible discounts
    • Right-Sizing: Downsize underutilized instances (CPU < 20% avg)
    • Unused Resources: Delete stopped instances, unattached volumes, old snapshots
  3. Each recommendation shows:
    • Estimated monthly savings
    • Resource details (instance ID, type, region)
    • Current vs. recommended configuration
    • Implementation effort (Easy, Medium, Hard)
  4. Click Apply Recommendation to be guided through implementation

Set Up Automated Scheduling​

Automatically stop non-production resources during off-hours to save 60-70% on compute costs:

  1. Go to Settings → Cost Optimization
  2. Enable Automated Scheduling
  3. Configure schedule for Development workspaces:
    • Weekdays: Stop at 7 PM, start at 8 AM
    • Weekends: Keep stopped all weekend
    • Holidays: Optional holiday calendar integration
  4. Exclude critical resources (add tag cost-optimization: exclude)
  5. Click Save Schedule
  6. Monitor savings in FinOps dashboard within 1 week

How to Monitor Cost Anomalies​

View Detected Anomalies​

  1. Click Anomalies tab
  2. Review detected cost anomalies:
    • AWS-Detected: Anomalies from AWS Cost Anomaly Detection service
    • Statistical: Costs exceeding 2σ (2 standard deviations) from mean
  3. For each anomaly, see:
    • Date and duration
    • Service causing anomaly
    • Expected vs. actual cost
    • Dollar amount of anomaly
    • Root cause analysis (if available)
  4. Click Investigate to drill into resource-level details

Set Up Anomaly Alerts​

  1. Go to Settings → Cost Alerts
  2. Click Create Alert
  3. Configure alert:
    • Threshold: Alert when daily cost exceeds $X or increases by Y%
    • Services: All services or specific (e.g., EC2, RDS)
    • Notification: Email, Slack, or webhook
    • Recipients: Team members to notify
  4. Click Create Alert
  5. Receive real-time notifications when anomalies occur

Best Practices for Cost Optimization​

Immediate Actions​

  • Tag all resources with environment (dev/staging/prod)
  • Enable automated scheduling for development resources
  • Delete unattached EBS volumes and old snapshots
  • Stop unused workspaces and test environments

Long-Term Strategies​

  • Purchase Reserved Instances for stable production workloads
  • Use Spot Instances for batch jobs and fault-tolerant workloads
  • Implement auto-scaling to match demand
  • Archive old data to S3 Glacier for 90% storage savings
Cost Savings Tip

Review FinOps dashboard weekly. Even small optimizations (stopping unused resources, right-sizing instances) can save thousands of dollars monthly.