AWS account service understanding for optimization

[ExperimentsInHonesty]

Overview

Hack for LA's AWS account costs are too high and we need to bring them down to a reasonable level by understanding what is the best way to structure account and services. We intend to do that by:

• continuing our discussions in the ops meetings on tuesday nights
• continuing our discussions on the Hack for LA slack channel #ops
• seeking out mentors in the Code for America network and beyond
• engaging with AWS account manager to get advice from AWS professionals.

Action Items

• Document the discussion held other places in this discussion section.

Resources

Hack for LA slack invite
#ops slack channel

[ExperimentsInHonesty]

Overview

We made a call to AWS today to see if we could start getting some advice from them on account setup and potentially a one time waive of some costs (via a credit)

Date

2021-01-11 10am PST

Who was there

Matt Webster @mattyweb
Bonnie Wolfe @ExperimentsInHonesty

What happened

Initiated call 2021/1/11 10am PST

1. Opened ticket (choosing phone)
2. Henry (the rep) called within 1 min
3. Matt asked if we had an account rep and could we get connected with that person.
4. Henry suggested the following:
   • For us to open a tech support ticket for cloudtrail (even though we are not using the service, since they are the experts that can help us understand how changes made on the console might be affecting charges).
   • For us to open a ticket at sales https://aws.amazon.com/websites/contact-us/ in case it takes too long for us to get connected to our account rep.
   • That he would figure out who our rep was, or ask that they be assigned and get back to us.

After call

Matt and Bonnie discussed next steps and agreed upon waiting for account rep.

received call 2021/1/11 11:15am PST

1. Henry called to let us know
   • he had found our account rep, TJ
   • would put all the relevant information into the issue.
   • TJ said he would get back to us (no ETA).
   • will keep the issue open until we successfully connect with our account rep
   • that we don't need to contact sales
   • optional if we want to still open a tech support ticket

Next Steps

1. Wait for account rep to get in contact

Extra Detail

Bonnie initiated the call by opening a support ticket (case ID: 7852085671)

We have setup an account for our org and put several projects on it. It is costing significantly more than we anticipated. We need a review of our account (and its sub accounts) to help us better configure it.

Additionally we need some help understanding the billing reports. It looks like some costs were fairly stable, and now they are not, without any significant configuration changes and an actual drop in visitors.

Also, do we have an account manager?

[ExperimentsInHonesty]

Emails back and forth between Bonnie and TJ Gallagher, Account Executive, Nonprofits trying to setup a meeting. See [email protected] email for details.