Optimize your cloud bill while maintaining performance

Running services on AWS gives you powerful flexibility, but without proper cost control, your monthly bill can quickly spiral. In this post, I’ll share some practical cost-saving tips based on real-world usage with Amazon S3 and ECS (Elastic Container Service) — the combination I often use for hosting websites and containerized applications.

S3 Storage – Efficient & Economical

1. Use S3 for Static Websites

Host static websites (HTML, CSS, JS) directly on S3 instead of EC2 or ECS.
Zero compute charges — just pay for storage and bandwidth.
Ideal for landing pages, blogs, documentation.

Example: I hosted a static version of a WordPress site’s media uploads and assets on S3 + CloudFront, drastically reducing load on ECS.

2. Enable S3 Intelligent-Tiering

Automatically moves objects to cheaper storage tiers based on access frequency.
No lifecycle rules needed.
Useful for logs, backups, infrequently accessed assets.

3. Lifecycle Policies

Move logs or old assets to S3 Glacier or Deep Archive.
Set automatic expiration for obsolete files.

ECS – Get the Power of Containers Without Overpaying 🐳

4. Use Fargate Spot for Non-Critical Workloads

Fargate Spot is up to 70% cheaper than regular Fargate.
Great for dev, UAT, or batch jobs that can tolerate interruptions.

5. Choose Right CPU & Memory

Don’t oversize your containers. Audit resource usage and tune definitions.
Underutilized containers = wasted money.

6. Consolidate Services Where Possible

Host multiple lightweight services in a single ECS task (sidecar pattern).
This can reduce your Fargate/ECS instance count.

7. Turn Off Dev/QA Services During Off Hours

Use scheduled scaling or automation (e.g., Lambda + EventBridge) to stop non-prod services after hours.
Example: Shutdown ECS services daily at 8 PM and start at 8 AM.

Bonus: Use CloudFront in Front of S3 and ECS

CloudFront CDN reduces load and speeds up delivery.
Caches static content from S3 or public assets from ECS.
Saves data transfer cost from origin.

Monitor & Optimize Continuously 📊

Use AWS Cost Explorer to track service-specific usage.
Set budgets & alerts to avoid surprises.
Enable Compute Optimizer to get sizing recommendations for ECS/EC2.

Final Thoughts

Cost savings on AWS doesn’t always mean sacrificing performance. With the right architecture choices and automation, you can build scalable, resilient applications — without burning your budget.

In future posts, I’ll share more DevOps patterns, blue-green deployments with ECS, and automation workflows via Azure DevOps and AWS CLI.

💬Let’s Connect

Have you tried any of these techniques? Got your own tips?
Drop a comment or connect with me on LinkedIn - Let’s grow together in the DevOps journey.

Cost-Saving Tips for AWS S3 + ECS Hosting 🪙