Reinvent Your Cloud Potential with these Top AWS Tips and Tricks
Steven on February 8, 2019 With over 100 on-demand cloud computing services under its belt, Amazon Web Services is a force that propels the Internet forward. In fact, it occupies a sizeable 34% of the whole cloud (IaaS and PaaS) space easily over competitors like IBM, Google, and Microsoft.
The wide service offerings of AWS include some heavy-weight cloud-computing services like elastically provisioned servers (EC2), object storage (S3), payment processing (DevPay), monitoring (CloudWatch), content delivery networks (CDN), among many others.
The USP of AWS lies in its on-demand availability, quick scalability and also affordability. In fact, a service like AWS is considered to be the backbone that strengthens the IT operations of modern-day organizations.
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AWS helps all kinds of enterprises meet their computing needs, from startups to giant corporations. But, given the complicated spectrum of services and also the pace at which they are constantly updated, a lion’s share of AWS’s true potential is under-utilized.
Here are some ways how you can tap into that untapped potential that will not only improve your organizational performance but might also save you some costs.
Leverage the Free Elastic IP Feature
Unknown to many, and even if known, not used properly is the Free Elastic IP feature in AWS. By default, AWS provides one free Elastic IP for every running instance. This free Elastic IP in AWS assigns a static IPv4 address which helps in dynamic cloud computing services. This elastic IP address helps in covering up any software downtime or instance failure by remapping the affected instance to another instance.
Save Costs with Amazon Load Balancers
AWS Application Load Balances can help cut down your ELB costs by at least 90%. AWS has priced its ALBs at $0.0225 per Application Load Balancer-hour (or partial hour). AWS ALB also supports host-based routing and path based routing. Most importantly, a single ALB can replace upto 75 ELBs. The only catch is that AWS ALBs do not support TCP protocol, however, support is available for HTTP and HTTPS.
Configure Multiple Cloudwatch Alarms
Normally, Cloudwatch alarms are raised when instances breach a set threshold. The alarm is notified to a team which is responsible for troubleshooting and fixing the issue. However, if the same alarm is to repeat, it is not possible to alert a different team, possibly a higher authority who could fix the issue.
Configuring multiple Cloudwatch alarms will help notify such breach instances and take timely action. The good news is that AWS Cloudwatch has such an option to configure multiple alarms for various breach instances to alert different teams.
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Use Compression at the Edge Feature in Cloudfront
AWS allows you to compress certain file types and also serve the compressed files directly to users. The compressed files sometimes are just one-fourth of the original size. Since the cost of Cloudfront data transfer is based on the total volume of data delivered to users, Compression at the Edge feature would save tons of money. Also, compressed JavaScript and CSS files will help accelerate your page loading speed thus delivering superior user experience.
Save Small-Sized Chunks in Glaciers
Amazon Glacier storage offers a safe and scalable way to archive data for the long-term. But, retrieving data from glaciers is a time-consuming affair. Also, it can prove to be expensive too depending on the volume of data that is being retrieved.
You can save time and effort in such a data retrieval process by uploading data in small-sized chunks. Organizing files into small-sized chunks will make it easy to spot the right dataset that needs to be retrieved easily and quickly. The small-sized retrieval also ensures that your data retrieval costs are contained to a bare minimum.
Use Versioned Object Names in Cloudfront
It takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete a single invalidation request in Cloudfront. If the size of the CloudFront cache purge request is big, then the time taken would also be proportionally longer. Now imagine getting 1000 requests or so every month. It can hamper a web administrator’s productivity significantly. But, not purging CloudFront cache can lead to invalidations too. Using versioned object names is a better and faster way of handling invalidation requests.
In-Built Usage Monitor
As a scalable cloud-computing service, AWS is billed based on your actual usage. So, it is wise to keep a constant check on your usage, just to keep track of any spikes that you may not be aware of. Also, you can also set soft limits for specific regions to keep your AWS billing within limits. Rest assured, cost-savings could be well-planned and achieved with AWS.
Final Thoughts
AWS has achieved a cult status in the cloud computing space. Its competitors are nowhere close to matching the giant’s offerings. The fact that it was spun off from Amazon’s very own enterprise IT operations makes it flexible and scalable for all kinds of businesses.
These tips will help you make the most of AWS without having to break the bank. They will help you keep your cloud computing costs within limits and also take your cloud infrastructure efficiency to new heights.
Author Bio:
Pratiksha Prasad
Digital Marketer with over 7 years of experience. Passionate about the latest trends in Digital Marketing, Technology, Cloud Computing, and App Development.