AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional — Question 432

A company wants to change its internal cloud billing strategy for each of its business units. Currently, the cloud governance team shares reports for overall cloud spending with the head of each business unit. The company uses AWS Organizations to manage the separate AWS accounts for each business unit. The existing tagging standard in Organizations includes the application, environment, and owner. The cloud governance team wants a centralized solution so each business unit receives monthly reports on its cloud spending. The solution should also send notifications for any cloud spending that exceeds a set threshold.
Which solution is the MOST cost-effective way to meet these requirements?

Answer options

• A. Configure AWS Budgets in each account and configure budget alerts that are grouped by application, environment, and owner. Add each business unit to an Amazon SNS topic for each alert. Use Cost Explorer in each account to create monthly reports for each business unit.
• B. Configure AWS Budgets in the organization's master account and configure budget alerts that are grouped by application, environment, and owner. Add each business unit to an Amazon SNS topic for each alert. Use Cost Explorer in the organization's master account to create monthly reports for each business unit.
• C. Configure AWS Budgets in each account and configure budget alerts that are grouped by application, environment, and owner. Add each business unit to an Amazon SNS topic for each alert. Use the AWS Billing and Cost Management dashboard in each account to create monthly reports for each business unit.
• D. Enable AWS Cost and Usage Reports in the organization's master account and configure reports grouped by application, environment, and owner. Create an AWS Lambda function that processes AWS Cost and Usage Reports, sends budget alerts, and sends monthly reports to each business unit's email list.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Option B is the most cost-effective and operationally efficient solution because configuring AWS Budgets and Cost Explorer in the AWS Organizations master account provides a native, centralized way to monitor and report on costs across all member accounts. Options A and C are incorrect because configuring budgets and reports in each individual account is decentralized and operationally complex. Option D is incorrect because writing a custom AWS Lambda function to parse AWS Cost and Usage Reports adds unnecessary development and maintenance overhead compared to using native AWS Budgets and Cost Explorer features.