What's Included

This chapter covers the core features and capabilities of Cloud Cost Optimization Toolkit.

What's Included

Architecture Summary

+------------------+     +-----------------+     +------------------+
|  Cost Explorer   |---->|  Analysis       |---->|  Action Layer    |
|  & Billing APIs  |     |  Scripts        |     |                  |
+------------------+     +-----------------+     +------------------+
        |                       |                        |
        v                       v                        v
  Raw spend data         Rightsizing recs          Budget alerts
  Usage reports          Unused resources          Auto-remediation
  RI/SP coverage         Capacity planning         Slack/email notify

The toolkit operates in three layers:

1. Data Collection -- Pulls billing, usage, and reservation data via AWS/Azure APIs

2. Analysis -- Python scripts process the data to find savings opportunities

3. Action -- Terraform/CFn deploys alerts, policies, and automated remediation

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI configured with credentials (aws configure)
• Terraform >= 1.5.0 (for IaC templates)
• Python >= 3.10 (for analysis scripts -- stdlib only, no pip packages)
• IAM permissions: ce:*, budgets:*, ec2:Describe*, rds:Describe*, s3:Get*, cloudwatch:PutMetricAlarm

Quick Start

Follow this guide to get Cloud Cost Optimization Toolkit up and running in your environment.

Quick Start

1. Deploy Budget Alerts (Terraform)

cd terraform/
# Review and customize variables
cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars
vim terraform.tfvars

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

2. Deploy Budget Alerts (CloudFormation)

aws cloudformation deploy \
  --template-file cloudformation/budget-alerts-stack.yaml \
  --stack-name cost-optimization-budgets \
  --parameter-overrides \
    MonthlyBudgetAmount=5000 \
    AlertEmail=finops@example.com \
  --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM

3. Run Rightsizing Analysis

# Generate a rightsizing report from mock data
python3 scripts/rightsizing_report.py

# Find unused resources
python3 scripts/unused_resources_finder.py

# Plan reserved capacity purchases
python3 scripts/reserved_capacity_planner.py --utilization-threshold 70

4. Generate Cost Dashboard Data

python3 scripts/cost_dashboard_generator.py --output-format html

Configuration Reference

Terraform Variables (terraform/variables.tf)

Script Configuration (examples/rightsizing_rules.yaml)

See examples/rightsizing_rules.yaml for the full configuration reference. Key settings:

• CPU threshold: Flag instances with avg CPU < 20% over 14 days
• Memory threshold: Flag instances with avg memory < 30% over 14 days
• Network threshold: Flag instances with avg network < 5 Mbps
• Minimum observation period: 14 days of CloudWatch data required
• Exclusion patterns: Skip instances by tag, name pattern, or instance family

Cost Optimization Strategies Covered

This toolkit addresses the top cost optimization levers:

1. Right-sizing -- Downsize over-provisioned EC2/RDS instances (typical savings: 20-40%)

2. Reserved capacity -- Identify RI/Savings Plan purchase opportunities (typical savings: 30-60%)

3. Unused resources -- Find and eliminate idle EBS volumes, unattached EIPs, empty load balancers

4. Storage lifecycle -- Automate S3 tiering from Standard to IA to Glacier

5. Budget guardrails -- Prevent surprise bills with multi-threshold alerts

6. Anomaly detection -- Catch unexpected spend spikes within hours, not at month-end

7. Scheduling -- Start/stop dev/test resources on a schedule (covered in runbook)