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Spend Insights

Spend Insights provides detailed, granular analysis of your AWS account usage across specific service categories. Unlike the broader Spend Overview, the Insights feature dives deep into particular services with specialized metrics and usage patterns to help you understand your AWS usage at a more technical level.

Accessing Spend Insights

To access Spend Insights:

  1. Navigate to your AWS Accounts page
  2. Select an AWS account from your list of connected accounts
  3. Click on "Spend Insights" in the account's navigation menu
  4. The insights page will load with available specialized analytics tabs

Available Insight Categories

SpendShrink currently offers the following specialized insight categories:

Daily Spend Analytics

The Daily Spend tab provides detailed day-by-day analysis of your AWS spending patterns:

Daily Spend Insights

Key Metrics: - Yesterday's Total Spend: Your complete spending for the previous day - Yesterday's Average Hourly Spend: Average hourly cost during the previous day - Monthly Average Daily Spend: The mean daily spend for the current month - Monthly Average Hourly Spend: The mean hourly spend for the current month

Visualizations: - Daily Spend Trend: A daily chart showing spending over the selected time period - Day-over-Day Comparison: Compare current day with previous day spending - Top Services by Day: Which services consumed the most budget each day - Service Spending Patterns: Visualize how service spending fluctuates by day

Analysis Features: - Daily Spend Anomaly Detection: Automatic identification of unusually high or low spending days - Usage Pattern Recognition: Identification of weekday vs. weekend patterns - Service Correlation: See how spending on different services correlates day-to-day

S3 Storage Analytics

The S3 Storage tab provides comprehensive analysis of your S3 usage and costs:

S3 Storage Insights

Key Metrics: - Total Storage Size: The combined size of all your S3 buckets in GB - Total Object Count: How many objects are stored across all buckets - Storage Class Distribution: Breakdown of storage across different S3 classes - S3 Cost Breakdown: How your S3 spending is distributed across different cost components

Visualizations: - Bucket Size Comparison: Chart comparing the size of each S3 bucket - Storage Growth Trend: How your S3 storage has grown over time - Storage Class Distribution: Visualization of storage classes used - Cost Component Analysis: Breakdown of request costs, storage costs, and data transfer costs

Analysis Features: - Lifecycle Recommendations: Suggestions for objects that could benefit from lifecycle policies - Cost Optimization Opportunities: Identification of storage that could be moved to cheaper tiers - Bucket Growth Patterns: Highlight buckets with unusual or rapid growth

EC2 Auto Scaling Analytics

The EC2 Auto Scaling tab provides insights into your Auto Scaling Group (ASG) usage and performance:

Key Metrics: - Instance Hours by Type: Hours of usage broken down by instance type - Average Group Size: Average number of instances running per ASG - Scaling Activity Frequency: How often ASGs have scaled in or out - Cost Per ASG: Breakdown of costs by Auto Scaling Group

Visualizations: - ASG Size Over Time: Chart showing how many instances were running in each ASG - Instance Type Distribution: Breakdown of instance types used across ASGs - Scaling Event Timeline: Timeline of scaling events (in/out) for each ASG - Utilization vs. Capacity: Comparison of actual resource utilization against capacity

Analysis Features: - Rightsizing Recommendations: Suggestions for more appropriate instance types - Scaling Efficiency Analysis: Evaluation of how well scaling policies are working - Cost Optimization Opportunities: Identification of potential savings through reserved instances or Spot instances

Data Sources and Freshness

SpendShrink's Spend Insights are powered by multiple data sources:

Daily Spend Analytics

  • Data Source: AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR)
  • Update Frequency: Daily
  • Data Latency: Typically 24-48 hours behind current time due to AWS processing
  • Historical Data: Available for up to 12 months

S3 Storage Analytics

  • Data Source: AWS S3 Storage Lens and S3 API
  • Update Frequency: Daily
  • Data Latency: Typically 24-48 hours behind current time
  • Historical Data: Available for up to 14 days with detailed metrics

EC2 Auto Scaling Analytics

  • Data Source: AWS CloudWatch metrics and EC2 API
  • Update Frequency: Daily
  • Data Latency: Typically 24 hours behind current time
  • Historical Data: Available for up to 2 weeks

Setting Up Data Sources

For optimal Spend Insights functionality, you need to ensure SpendShrink has access to the necessary data sources:

S3 Storage Lens Setup

SpendShrink automatically configures S3 Storage Lens when you connect your AWS account. If you encounter a "Bucket Not Found" or "Access Denied" error:

  1. Ensure your AWS credentials have sufficient permission to access S3 Storage Lens
  2. Check that S3 Storage Lens is enabled in your AWS account
  3. Verify that the S3 bucket "spendshrink-exports-[account-number]" exists and is accessible

Cost and Usage Report Setup

SpendShrink automatically configures the Cost and Usage Report when you connect your AWS account. If you encounter a "CUR Bucket Error":

  1. Ensure your AWS credentials have sufficient permission to access and create CUR reports
  2. Verify that the S3 bucket "spendshrink-exports-[account-number]" exists and is accessible
  3. Check for any AWS organization-level restrictions on CUR report generation

Using Spend Insights Effectively

Identifying Storage Optimization Opportunities

For S3 Storage insights:

  1. Look for buckets with large amounts of Standard tier storage that have low access patterns
  2. Identify buckets with rapid growth rates that might indicate logging or backup issues
  3. Review lifecycle policies for buckets with many small objects to reduce request costs

Analyzing Daily Cost Patterns

For Daily Spend insights:

  1. Look for consistent weekly patterns that might indicate opportunities for scheduled scaling
  2. Identify services with sudden cost increases that might indicate configuration issues
  3. Compare weekday and weekend spending to identify potential overprovisioning during off-hours

Optimizing Auto Scaling

For EC2 Auto Scaling insights:

  1. Review scaling patterns to ensure your ASGs are responding appropriately to demand
  2. Check instance type distribution to ensure you're using the most cost-effective instances
  3. Look for ASGs that rarely scale to determine if fixed capacity might be more cost-effective
  • Spend Overview: Use in conjunction with Spend Insights for broader cost analysis
  • Savings Opportunities: Implement specific recommendations based on insights findings
  • Spend Alerts: Set up alerts for specific metrics discovered in your insights analysis