A finance manager wants to break down last year's EC2 and S3 spending by linked account and by cost allocation tag, view the trend in charts, and see a forecast for next quarter. Which tool should be used?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
Cost Explorer lets you analyze historical cost and usage with filters and groupings, including linked accounts and cost allocation tags. It charts spending trends and provides forecasts for upcoming periods. Budgets sends alerts when spend crosses thresholds, Pricing Calculator estimates costs before anything is deployed, and Billing Conductor applies custom rates for showback.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Budgets lets you set spending thresholds and receive alerts when actual or forecasted spend crosses them, but it does not provide interactive grouping and charting of past spend.
- B. Billing Conductor defines custom pricing groups and rates for showback or chargeback, so it reshapes billing views rather than providing general-purpose analysis of historical spend.
- C. Pricing Calculator produces estimates for planned architectures before anything is deployed, so it cannot report what was actually spent during last year.