Best practice 13.3 – Evaluate and adopt new cost-effective solutions

As AWS releases new services and features, it’s a best practice to review your existing architectural decisions to ensure that they remain cost effective. If a new or updated service can support the same workload but in a much cheaper way, consider implementing the change to reduce cost.

Suggestion 13.3.1 – Set Service Quotas to control resource usage

Some AWS services allow setting Service Quotas per account. Service Quotas should be established to prevent runaway infrastructure deployment by accident. Ensure that Service Quotas are set high enough to cover the expected peak usage.

Suggestion 13.3.2 – Pause and resume resources if the workload is not always required

Use automation to pause and resume resources when the resource is unneeded. For example, stop development and test Amazon RDS instances that are not used after working hours.

Suggestion 13.3.3 – Switch to a new service or take advantage of new features that can reduce cost

AWS consistently adds new capabilities to enable your organization to leverage the latest technologies to experiment and innovate more quickly. Your organization should review new service releases frequently to understand the price and performance, and determine if such features can improve cost reduction.