Day 68 of my #100DaysOfCloud challenge! I was short on time today, so I went to the console to do a quick 5-minute FinOps check.
I opened AWS Cost Anomaly Detection, expecting to set it up from scratch. Instead, I found out it had already caught a massive anomaly: a 1650% spike in my daily spend a few days ago!
Luckily, because I'm using Serverless free-tier services mostly, the spike only cost me $0.33. But the lesson is huge.
Why static budgets aren't enough:
If you set a budget for $10, AWS will only warn you when you hit $10. But if an infinite loop in your Lambda function causes a 2000% spike in executions, you want to know immediately, not 5 days later when it finally hits the $10 mark.
Cost Anomaly Detection uses Machine Learning to learn your normal pattern and warns you about the behavior, not just the total sum.
Action item for today:
Go to your AWS Billing Console, check Cost Anomaly Detection, and most importantly: click on Alert subscriptions to ensure it actually emails you when things go wrong! 🛡️
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