AWS Cost Management Tools (are not made equal)
Financial optimization tools for AWS are basically a cottage industry these days. These tools all work similarly, but some of them will cost you a lot more than others...
FinOps Tools for Optimizing AWS Reserved Instances and Savings Plans
While AWS provides a robust set of financial optimization tools in-platform, some clients and other organizations find there's more value from using third-party solutions that focus on optimizing AWS Reserved Instances (RIs) and Compute Savings Plans. These tools can dynamically manage commitments to match your changing capacity needs, often resulting in significant cost savings. Let's take a quick look at some notable third-party tools like Apptio, nOps, and Zesty and see if they make sense:
Apptio Cloudability
Apptio Cloudability is a comprehensive cloud cost management platform that provides in-depth financial analytics and recommendations. Cloudability offers:
Automated Recommendations: Uses machine learning to analyze usage patterns and recommend the optimal mix of RIs and Savings Plans.
RI and SP Portfolio Management: Helps you manage your portfolio of RIs and Savings Plans, ensuring you are neither overcommitted nor underutilized.
Reporting and Alerts: Provides detailed reports and alerts to help you monitor your commitments and make data-driven decisions.
This tool is targeted at very large companies. Pricing starts at around $3500/month for the platform. They offer a limited version that is billed on savings model as well.
nOps
nOps is another powerful cloud management tool that focuses on cost optimization, compliance, and security. When it comes to RI and Savings Plan optimization, nOps excels in:
Real-Time Analytics: Offers real-time insights into your AWS usage and costs, helping you identify opportunities for savings.
Automated Buy and Sell: Automatically buys and sells RIs to match your current and projected usage, minimizing waste.
Savings Plan Management: Provides detailed recommendations on purchasing Savings Plans based on your usage patterns and financial goals.
This tool is targeted at small to mid-sized companies. They bill you based on a 'percentage of savings' model with no set monthly fee.
Zesty
Zesty is an innovative platform that takes a proactive approach to managing AWS costs. It offers unique features for optimizing RIs and Savings Plans, including:
Dynamic Scaling: Automatically adjusts your RI and Savings Plan commitments based on real-time usage, ensuring you always have the right capacity.
Cost Savings Insights: Provides actionable insights and recommendations to help you reduce costs without compromising performance.
Risk-Free Management Pledge: Manages your commitments with minimal risk, ensuring you don't end up with unused or underutilized resources.
This tool is targeted at small to mid-sized companies. They bill you based on a 'percentage of savings' model with no set monthly fee.
So these are three of the largest AWS cost management tools out there, but there's plenty of others (like Antimetal, Densify, etc - there's literally dozens of them out there). The important thing to know is that these tools all work the same way and they are selling you a commodity service for different prices with a different interface on it. You should make sure to focus on the one that costs the least amount and saves you the most.
Cost is always negotiable for something like this, but there's a lot of obfuscation about what you should be paying when you try to understand how it all works. And that's where Panorbital can help - we are not direct partners with any of these firms so we can tell you what we think. And we think all of this is a waste of money if you know what you're doing. You can do the same thing and realize the same savings these tools do on your own using AWS native tools at a $0 markup. Or you can pay a 15% markup for the same thing.
One important thing to realize is that tools like Zesty charge you a percentage of hypothetical savings realized, whether or not those savings were actually realized by Zesty or by you. So if you've bought any Reserved Instances or Savings Plans on your own, implementing Zesty will cost you 15% more than you're already paying on those resources. They charge you the delta of the price you pay and the second list rate even if they're not doing anything. So a tool like this only makes sense for a company that doesn't have an existing cost management program in place.
A better alternative for many smaller to mid sized orgs is something like Vantage Autopilot. They charge 5% of realized savings from things they automated, and 0% of savings from things your team did.
The cost difference between these tools is really significant. If you choose to use one, understand how it works before signing on.
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