Question

Difficulty: Very hardAWS Cost Monitoring, Budgeting, and Optimization Tool Analysis

A digital service provider manages multiple AWS accounts for independent client organizations using AWS Organizations. The provider needs to implement a billing and cost management system that achieves the following requirements:

* Client A must receive a custom proforma invoice showing a 10% discount on all Amazon EC2 usage.
* Client B must receive a custom proforma invoice showing standard AWS list prices.
* Both clients must be able to set up threshold-based budget alerts based on their specific custom proforma costs.
* Neither client should have visibility into the provider's actual negotiated AWS pricing or the other client's billing data.

Which combination of steps should a solutions architect take to meet these requirements with the least operational overhead?

  1. A
    Create two billing groups in AWS Billing Conductor. For Client A, purchase a Compute Savings Plan from the management account and disable sharing across the organization except for Client A's accounts. Set up standard cost budgets in the management account scoped by account tags to notify each client when thresholds are exceeded.
  2. B
    Create two billing groups in AWS Billing Conductor. Design a custom pricing rule with a 10% discount for Amazon EC2 and assign it to Client A's pricing plan. Assign the default pricing plan to Client B. Configure a daily AWS Cost Explorer report in the management account filtered by proforma costs and email it to the clients to track their budget status.
  3. Create two billing groups in AWS Billing Conductor, designating a primary account for Client A and Client B respectively. Establish a custom pricing rule with a 10% discount for Amazon EC2, add it to a pricing plan, and associate it with Client A's billing group. Associate a pricing plan with standard AWS list prices to Client B's billing group. Instruct each client's primary account to configure budgets in AWS Budgets, setting the cost type to Proforma.Answer
  4. D
    Create two billing groups in AWS Billing Conductor. Establish a custom pricing rule with a 10% discount for Amazon EC2, add it to a pricing plan, and associate it with Client A's billing group. Associate a standard pricing plan with Client B's billing group. Create AWS Cost Anomaly Detection monitors in the management account configured to evaluate proforma cost anomalies and send alerts to the clients' SNS topics.

Answer

Create two billing groups in AWS Billing Conductor, designating primary accounts for each client. Set up a custom pricing plan with a 10% EC2 discount for Client A, and a standard list pricing plan for Client B. Configure AWS Budgets with the Proforma cost type in the primary accounts of the billing groups to handle threshold-based alerts.
The correct solution involves creating billing groups in AWS Billing Conductor and setting up proforma budgets. AWS Billing Conductor allows an organization to partition its consolidated billing data into logical billing groups and apply custom pricing rules (such as a 10% discount on EC2). Designated primary accounts in each billing group can access proforma cost data. By configuring AWS Budgets in these primary accounts with the cost type set to 'Proforma', clients can proactively monitor their custom-priced costs and receive alerts when thresholds are reached, ensuring complete isolation of actual negotiated rates and other clients' details.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Define custom pricing rules and plans in AWS Billing Conductor.
A custom pricing rule is created applying a 10% discount to Amazon EC2 services, and it is added to a pricing plan associated with Client A's billing group. A pricing plan reflecting standard AWS list prices is associated with Client B's billing group.
This establishes the distinct proforma billing rates required for the different clients without altering actual payer rates.
2
Assign accounts to billing groups and designate primary accounts.
Client A's accounts are grouped into one billing group with one designated primary account. Client B's accounts are grouped into another billing group with a different primary account.
Designating primary accounts grants each client self-service access to their specific proforma billing datasets, keeping their views isolated from each other and from the management account's actual cost data.
3
Configure AWS Budgets in the primary accounts of each billing group using the Proforma cost type.
Proactive budgets are created in the primary accounts that monitor proforma costs and trigger alerts when predefined thresholds are met.
AWS Budgets integrates with AWS Billing Conductor proforma data, allowing target-level alerting based on the custom-rated costs rather than actual negotiated costs.

Key Concept

Using AWS Billing Conductor to create isolated proforma pricing plans and integrating them with AWS Budgets using the Proforma cost type for proactive alerting.
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