Learning AWS - Second Edition

Turn-off unused instances

Typically, there is an inordinate amount of focus on production spends but a lot of that spend (in some cases, more than production) is on dev and test. It is surprising how many times you find unused instances adding to your bills. This usually happens when someone provisions an instance to conduct an experiment or check out a new feature and then fails to delete the instance, when done. It also happens a lot during testing when the test environment is, carelessly, left running through the weekend, or after the testing activity has been completed. It is important to check your bills and usage data to minimize such costs. Tag your instances with environment name, owner’s name, and so on to identify the instances ...