Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
Create a new IAM role. Attach the AWSPurchaseOrdersServiceRolePolicy AWS managed policy to the role. Check AWS Cost Explorer on a regular basis to monitor current costs and forecasted costs.
Create an AWS Cost and Usage Report. Create an AWS Step Functions state machine that runs when a new usage file is generated. Configure the state machine to pass the data to Amazon Forecast and to invoke an AWS Lambda function. Configure the Lambda function to parse the data and to send a notification to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic if costs exceed the thresholds.
Create an AWS Cost and Usage Report. Separate the current costs and forecasted costs by service. Schedule the report to be sent to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic each month.
Create a recurring cost budget in AWS Budgets. Create an alert for the actual cost. Create a second alert for the forecasted costs. Configure an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic to receive the alerts.
Explanations:
This option relies on manually checking AWS Cost Explorer regularly, which increases operational overhead and does not provide automated notifications when thresholds are exceeded.
Although this option sets up an automated workflow to process cost data, it involves multiple components (AWS Cost and Usage Report, Step Functions, Lambda) which increases complexity and operational overhead compared to simpler solutions.
This option involves generating a report and sending it monthly via SNS, but it lacks real-time notifications for cost thresholds and requires manual intervention to review reports, thus not meeting the requirements effectively.
This option uses AWS Budgets to create automated alerts for both actual and forecasted costs, sending notifications through SNS when thresholds are exceeded, thus minimizing operational overhead and providing timely alerts.
I rate that the answer is:
Create a recurring cost budget in AWS Budgets. Create an alert for the actual cost. Create a second alert for the forecasted costs. Configure an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic to receive the alerts.