Recently I did a short video on how to bring your AWS billing down by more than 80%, which went quite viral on the internet achieving thousands of impressions within a day. It made me realize that there are many founders/CXOs who face this issue of the high bill on AWS or any similar cloud platform. This post is a further extension on the points I mentioned in the video and provides additional ways on how you can save money on AWS.

1. Selecting the appropriate size for the AWS server –

It is crucial for every organization to choose the correct size of the server. At the initial stage of your startup, it is advised to start with a small server. Apart from that setting up auto-scaling really helps. Auto-scaling option continuously scales the servers dynamically based on the traffic. This means that your server will scale up and down automatically based on the traffic on your website, so you don’t need to pay for a big dedicated server.

2. Using S3 + CloudFront instead of EC2 –

Many people use EC2 servers for hosting their website. If you use static or dynamic website go for the S3 + CloudFront option instead of EC2 as it is more scalable and more secure as well as it costs less. Instead of paying for the dedicated EC2 server you can go for the cheaper S3 + CloudFront option.

3. Terminate development and QA environment when not required –

A simple trick to reduce the cost is to turn-off the development and QA environment on weekends and holidays when no one is using them. You can easily setup Lambda function which triggers the turning on and off of the servers. Just by applying this you can save up to 50% of the cost whenever you are not using it.

We also apply this facility to many of our clients. When our working hours are done, and on weekends when no one is using the service, the servers shut down automatically.

4. Use AWS Reserved Instances –

Another great thing about AWS is that it offers the ability to reserve instances. Suppose you scored a great project whose duration is going to be around one year and you know what all instances you will need from the AWS. In this case, you can reserve the required instances with AWS. All you need to do is tell Amazon that you will require these instances for one year and Amazon brings down the cost for those instances.

5. Using the complete AWS features optimally –

Have you heard of SSL certificate? An SSL Certificate is essentially a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server using SSL technology.

Many of our clients buy SSL certificate from GoDaddy or any other providers, they have to pay a considerable amount for it, but AWS on the other side provides SSL certificate for free if you set it up correctly. So with AWS, you don’t have to worry about buying an SSL certificate, moreover at the time of renewal and again setting it up AWS takes care of it all.

Conclusion

I am sure that by applying these best practices you can also save a few extra bucks just like we did. Also, feel free to connect with me if you want to discuss or want me to look into your AWS instance, I’d be more than happy to help. I can be reached on [email protected]