4.2.4. AWS Organizations (Consolidated Billing)

💡 First Principle: AWS Organizations enables centralized management and consolidated billing for multiple AWS accounts, simplifying cost tracking, leveraging volume discounts, and streamlining account administration.

AWS Organizations is a service that helps you centrally manage and govern your AWS environment as you grow and scale your AWS resources. A key feature for cost management is consolidated billing.

Key Features of AWS Organizations for Cost Management:

• Consolidated Billing:
  • Concept: All AWS accounts in your organization receive a single bill, making it easier to track and manage costs across multiple accounts.
  • Benefit: Simplifies billing management for businesses with many AWS accounts.
• Volume Discounts:
  • Concept: By combining the usage across all accounts in an organization, you can often achieve higher volume tiers for AWS services, resulting in better overall pricing (lower per-unit costs).
  • Benefit: Maximizes cost savings across your entire AWS footprint.
• Centralized Account Management:
  • Concept: Create new accounts programmatically, group accounts into Organizational Units (OUs), and apply policies centrally.
  • Benefit: Streamlines administration and governance.
• No Additional Cost: AWS Organizations is offered at no additional charge.

Scenario: A growing company uses separate AWS accounts for its development, testing, and production environments, leading to multiple individual AWS bills. They want to simplify billing management and leverage potential volume discounts across all their accounts.

Reflection Question: How does AWS Organizations, through its consolidated billing feature, fundamentally simplify cost tracking and enable businesses to leverage volume discounts across multiple AWS accounts, streamlining financial management?