Module 8: Pricing and Support

Learning objectives
    - Describe AWS pricing and support models.
    - Describe the AWS Free Tier.
    - Describe key benefits of AWS Organizations and consolidated billing.
    - Explain the benefits of AWS Budgets.
    - Explain the benefits of AWS Cost Explorer.
    - Explain the primary benefits of the AWS Pricing Calculator.
    - Distinguish between the various AWS Support Plans.
    - Describe the benefits of AWS Marketplace.

Definition: The AWS Free Tier allows users to start using certain AWS services without incurring costs for a specified period.
Types of Offers:
    - Always Free: These offers do not expire and are available to all AWS customers.
        - Example: AWS Lambda allows 1 million free requests and 3.2 million seconds of compute time per month.
        - Example: Amazon DynamoDB provides 25 GB of free storage per month.
    - 12 Months Free: Free for 12 months post-initial sign-up to AWS.
        - Includes specific amounts of Amazon S3 Standard Storage, EC2 compute time, and CloudFront data transfer limits.
    - Trials: Short-term offers starting from the activation date of a service.
        - Example: Amazon Inspector has a 90-day free trial.
        - Example: Amazon Lightsail offers 750 free hours over a 30-day period.
Notable Free Tier Services: AWS Lambda, S3, SageMaker, Comprehend Medical, DynamoDB, SNS, Cognito, etc.

Pay-as-You-Go Model: Charges are based on actual resource usage without long-term contracts.
Reservation Discounts: Users pay less by reserving capacity, potentially saving up to 72% with Amazon EC2 Instance Savings Plans.
- Explanation: Ideal for workloads needing continuous operation, optimizing costs versus On-Demand pricing.
Volume-Based Discounts: Some services, like Amazon S3, have tiered pricing where costs decrease with increased usage.

Function: The AWS Pricing Calculator helps users estimate costs based on their use cases by allowing organization of estimates into custom-defined groups.
- Example Scenario: Entering details like OS type, memory, and I/O requirements for accurate EC2 instance cost comparisons across regions.

AWS Lambda Charges:
    - Structure: Based on the number of requests and runtime duration.
    - Free Usage: First 1 million requests and 3.2 million seconds of execution free.
    - Compute Savings Plan can be utilized for lower costs based on commitment levels.
Amazon EC2 Charges:
    - Cost Model: Users pay based on compute time while instances are running.
    - Cost-Saving Options: Using Spot Instances can provide cost savings up to 90% for interruptible workloads.
    - Usage Transparency: Billing shows itemized costs including instance types, EBS storage, and Elastic Load Balancing time.
Amazon S3 Charges: Components include:
    - Storage: Charges based on the size and storage class of objects.
    - Requests: Costs for requests made to access objects in S3 buckets.
    - Data Transfer: Fees for data transferred in/out of S3, with certain exemptions (e.g., transfers within the same region).

Overview: Used for monitoring usage, paying bills, and cost analysis.
Features:
    - Compare current month’s spending with previous months.
    - View spend by service and track Free Tier usage.
    - Access Cost Explorer and manage Savings Plans.
    - View published AWS Cost and Usage Reports.

Overview: Part of AWS Organizations, allowing you to manage multiple AWS accounts conveniently.
Benefits:
- Single bill for all accounts, facilitating cost tracking.
- Ability to share discount pricing, Savings Plans, and Reserved Instances across accounts.
Limitations and Contact: Default maximum of 4 accounts; contact AWS Support for increases.
Cost Efficiency: Helps optimize billing through shared usage, potentially benefiting accounts that do not individually meet discount thresholds.

Functionality: Allows users to set budgets to control service usage and costs, refreshing three times daily for accuracy.
- Alerts can be configured to notify when usage exceeds budgeted amounts.
Example Scenario: Setting a $200 budget for Amazon EC2 usage, with alerts for reaching $100 of usage.

Definition: A visualization tool for understanding AWS costs and usage patterns over time.
Key Features:
- Default report for top five cost-incurring AWS services with filtering options.
- Ability to analyze spending at hourly levels, tracking historical data up to 12 months.
Example Usage: Monthly costs for Amazon EC2 instances mapped over six months, differentiated by instance type.
- Tags can be used to filter costs associated with specific projects, enabling detailed tracking.

Support Plans Overview: Four plans offered: Basic, Developer, Business, and Enterprise, catering to different needs based on support requirements.
Basic Support: Free, providing documentation, community support, billing questions, and limited Trusted Advisor checks.
Developer Support: Best practice guidance, client-side diagnostics, and 24-hour email support.
- Example Use: Assisting customers in combining AWS features for application development.
Business Support: Includes use-case guidance, all Trusted Advisor checks, direct phone access, and infrastructure event management options.
Enterprise Support: Provides application architecture guidance, 15-minute SLA for critical workloads, and a Technical Account Manager (TAM).
- The TAM features ongoing communication and architectural guidance based on business needs.

Definition: An extensive digital catalog of third-party software available for deployment on AWS.
Benefits:
- Rapid procurement and deployment of software solutions with on-demand pricing models.
- Availability of reviews and detailed product information.
Categories:
- Includes Infrastructure Products, Business Applications, Data Products, DevOps, among others, with the ability to filter by subcategories.

Covered topics into AWS pricing and support including AWS pay-as-you-go model, free tier, consolidation and budgeting tools, and support programs to assist with customer needs.

Actions with Consolidated Billing: Combine usage across accounts for volume pricing discounts.
Pricing Tool for Cost Management: AWS Cost Explorer.
Tool for Usage Notifications: AWS Budgets.
Support for TAM: Enterprise Support plan.
Resource for Third-Party Software: AWS Marketplace.

Compiled by Kenneth Leung – December 2020