Cloud Cost Recommendations

Overview

Cloud Cost Recommendations provides recommendations on reducing your cloud spending by optimizing the usage of your cloud resources. Datadog generates a set of recommendations by combining your observability data with your underlying cloud provider billing data to identify orphaned, legacy, or over-provisioned cloud resources.

Recommendations are run on a daily basis and are automatically refreshed in your account as soon as the recommendations are released.

For all resources, cloud cost metrics are also pulled for that resource

For all AWS resources besides Kubernetes and EC2, AWS metrics are also pulled from AWS CloudWatch

Overview tab with potential monthly savings, potential annual savings, and total number of open cases on the Cloud Cost Recommendations page

You can see the detailed logic for each recommendation type, along with observability metrics or cost data shown on this page.

Recommendation categories

Below are the available cloud cost recommendation categories and their descriptions.

Recommendation Category	Description
Terminate	Resources with signals that the resource is unused or very low utilization signals. Consider terminating or deleting these resources to reduce your costs.
Migrate	Resources with moderately low utilization signals or other inefficiencies. Consider adjusting the instance type or other parameters.
Downsize	Resources that are under-utilized or over-provisioned. Consider adjusting the size or other parameters to reduce costs.
Purchase	Resources with on-demand charges and extended uptime. Purchasing a reservation or Savings Plan can reduce the amortized cost of the resource.

Setup

For each cloud account that you would like to receive recommendations for:

Configure Cloud Cost Management to send billing data to Datadog.

For Azure, this requires using the App Registration method to collect billing data.

Enable resource collection for recommendations.

For AWS, enable resource collection in the Resource Collection tab on the AWS integration tile.
For Azure, enable resource collection with the appropriate integration. If your organization is on the Datadog US3 site, the Azure Native Integration enables this automatically through metrics collection. For all other sites, enabling resource collection within the Azure integration tile is required.

Install the Datadog Agent (required for Downsize recommendations).

Note: Cloud Cost Recommendations supports billing in customers’ non-USD currencies.

Recommendation action-taking

You can act on recommendations to save money and optimize costs. Cloud Cost Recommendations support Jira, 1-click Workflow Automation, and Datadog Case Management. Unused EBS and GP2 EBS volume recommendations also support 1-click Workflow Automation. See the following details for each action-taking options:

Jira: Jira issue creation is available in both the recommendation side panel and the “Active Recommendations” list. You can create a Jira issue by clicking “Create Jira issue” in the side panel or by selecting multiple recommendations in the “Active Recommendations” list. Created Jira issues are automatically tagged to indicate their connection to a cost recommendation and include a link back to the referenced recommendation.

1-click Workflow Automation actions: Actions are available for a limited set of recommendations, allowing users to execute suggested actions, such as clicking “Delete EBS Volume”, directly within Cloud Cost Management.

Datadog Case Management: Users can go to the recommendation side panel and click “Create Case” to generate a case to manage and take action on recommendations.

Recommendation and resource descriptions

Recommendation Category	Cloud Provider	Resource Type	Recommendation Type	Recommendation Description	Recommendation Prerequisites
Downsize	AWS	Autoscaling Group	Downsize Autoscaling Group	An autoscaling group with less than 5% CPU and 10% memory usage.	Datadog Agent
Migrate	AWS	Autoscaling Group	Migrate Legacy Autoscaling Group instances to new types	An autoscaling group that includes legacy instance types.
Terminate	AWS	DynamoDB	Delete DynamoDB Global Secondary Index	A DynamoDB table’s Global Secondary Index (GSI) has 0 consumed reads.
Terminate	AWS	DynamoDB	Delete DynamoDB Table	A DynamoDB table has 0 consumed reads and 0 consumed non-replica writes.
Terminate	AWS	DynamoDB	Delete Extra On-Demand Backups	A DynamoDB table has charges for more than 2 on-demand backups.
Downsize	AWS	DynamoDB	Downsize DynamoDB Capacity	A provisioned DynamoDB table using less than 80% of its read and write capacity more than 80% of the time.
Migrate	AWS	DynamoDB	Migrate DynamoDB to Infrequent Access Table Class	Migrating to the Infrequent Access (IA) table class offers more potential savings from storage rates compared to the additional costs from capacity rates.
Migrate	AWS	DynamoDB Table	Migrate DynamoDB to On-Demand Capacity Mode	A provisioned DynamoDB table has an hourly read and write capacity consumption below 18% at least once in the last two weeks.
Migrate	AWS	DynamoDB Table	Migrate DynamoDB to Provisioned Capacity Mode	An on-demand DynamoDB table has an hourly read and write capacity consumption that is always greater than 18%.
Migrate	AWS	DynamoDB Table	Migrate DynamoDB to Standard Table Class	Migrating to the Standard table class offers potential savings from capacity rates compared to the additional costs from storage rates, or it uses the Standard table class’ free tier for storage.
Downsize	AWS	EBS Volume	Downsize EBS Volume Provisioned IOPS	An EBS volume using less than 80% of the provisioned IOPS for reads and writes.	Amazon EC2 integration
Downsize	AWS	EBS Volume	Downsize EBS Volume Provisioned Throughput	An EBS volume using less than 80% of the provisioned throughput for reads and writes.	Amazon EC2 integration
Downsize	AWS	EBS Volume	Downsize EBS volume storage capacity	An EBS volume with less than 20% of its storage capacity used.	Amazon EC2 integration
Migrate	AWS	EBS Volume	Migrate EBS Volume from GP2 to GP3	EBS volumes that are GP2 and can be upgraded to GP3 for cost reduction and performance improvement.
Migrate	AWS	EBS Volume	Migrate EBS Volume from IO1 to GP3	EBS volumes that are IO1 and can be upgraded to GP3 for cost reduction and performance improvement.
Terminate	AWS	EBS Volume	Terminate Unattached EBS Volume	Volume that is not attached to an EC2 instance.
Terminate	AWS	EBS Volume	Terminate Unused EBS Volume	Volume that has no read or write activity.
Terminate	AWS	Elastic IP	Delete Idle Elastic IP	Elastic IP addresses with idle charges in your AWS cost and usage report.
Downsize	AWS	EC2 Instance	Downsize EC2 Instance Running Memcached	EC2 instance running memcached with less than 25% user CPU and is not containerized.	Memcache Integration
Downsize	AWS	EC2 Instance	Downsize EC2 Instance Running MySQL	EC2 instance running MySQL with less than 25% user CPU and greater than 25% usable memory and is not containerized nor a replica.	MySQL Integration
Downsize	AWS	EC2 Instance	Downsize EC2 Instance Running Postgres	EC2 instance running Postgres with less than 25% user CPU and greater than 25% usable memory and is not containerized nor a replica.	Postgres Integration
Downsize	AWS	EC2 Instance	Downsize EC2 Instance Running Redis	EC2 instance running Redis with less than 25% user CPU and is not containerized, a leader, a follower, nor a shard.	Redis Integration
Terminate	AWS	EC2 Instance	Terminate EC2 instance running Memcached	EC2 instance running Memcached with 0 keyspace hits and is not containerized.	Memcache Integration
Terminate	AWS	EC2 Instance	Terminate EC2 instance running MySQL	EC2 instance running MySQL with less than 1 concurrent connection and is not containerized nor a replica.	MySQL Integration
Terminate	AWS	EC2 Instance	Terminate EC2 instance running Postgres	EC2 instance running Postgres with less than 1 concurrent connection and is not containerized nor a replica.	Postgres Integration
Terminate	AWS	EC2 Instance	Terminate EC2 instance running Redis	EC2 instance running Redis with 0 keyspace hits and is not containerized, a leader, a follower, nor a shard.	Redis Integration
Terminate	AWS	ECR Repository	Delete ECR Repository	ECR Repository with 0 image pulls.
Terminate	AWS	ECR Repository	Delete old ECR Images	ECR Image bytes older than 180 days.
Downsize	AWS	ECS Task Definition	Downsize ECS Task Size	An ECS task using less than 50% of its requested CPU or memory.	Container Monitoring
Purchase	AWS	ElastiCache Cluster	Purchase Reserved ElastiCache Node	An ElastiCache node older than 45 days is still charged with on-demand rates.
Terminate	AWS	ElastiCache Cluster	Terminate ElastiCache Cluster	ElastiCache Redis Cluster with 0 cache hits and 0 replication bytes.
Terminate	AWS	Classic Load Balancer	Terminate Classic Load Balancer	Classic Elastic Load Balancer with no active connections that is not attached to an EC2 instance.
Terminate	AWS	Application Load Balancer	Terminate Application Load Balancer	An application load balancer with no traffic being processed.
Terminate	AWS	Network Load Balancer	Terminate Network Load Balancer	A network load balancer with 0 processed bytes.
Terminate	AWS	MQ Broker	Terminate MQ Broker	An MQ broker with 0 connections.
Terminate	AWS	OpenSearch	Delete OpenSearch Domain	An OpenSearch domain with 0 connections.
Purchase	AWS	OpenSearch Domain	Purchase Reserved OpenSearch Instance	An OpenSearch instance older than 45 days is still charged with on-demand rates.
Downsize	AWS	RDS Instance	Downsize RDS Instance Provisioned IOPS	RDS instances using less than 80% of provisioned IOPS over the past two weeks.
Migrate	AWS	RDS Instance	Migrate the RDS Instance Engine	An RDS running an engine version that is no longer supported and incurring extended support charges
Purchase	AWS	RDS Instance	Purchase Reserved RDS Instance	An RDS instance older than 45 days is still charged with on-demand rates.
Terminate	AWS	RDS Instance	Terminate Unused RDS Instance	RDS instance with 0 database connections and 0 replica lag.
Purchase	AWS	Redshift	Purchase Reserved Redshift Cluster Node	Redshift cluster node older than 45 days is still charged with on-demand rates.
Terminate	AWS	Redshift	Terminate Redshift Cluster	Redshift cluster with 0 database connections.
Terminate	AWS	S3 Bucket	Delete S3 non-current version objects	A standard S3 bucket without a non-current version expiration lifecycle and that does not serve a website contains non-current version storage bytes older than 30 days.	Storage Lens
Terminate	AWS	S3 Bucket	Delete abandoned S3 multipart uploads	S3 buckets with incomplete multipart uploads older than 7 days that are consuming storage space.	Storage Lens
Migrate	AWS	S3 Bucket	Transition S3 IA and Glacier objects to Intelligent-Tiering	A bucket has large early deletion charges.
Migrate	AWS	S3 Bucket	Transition S3 Standard objects to Intelligent Tiering	A bucket’s costs are almost entirely in per-GB standard storage, but GET requests indicate few objects are accessed.
Downsize	AWS	NAT Gateway	Reduce NAT Gateway Cross-Zone Transfers	Resources that need a NAT gateway should use one that is in the same availability zone, or they can incur unnecessary cross-zone transfer charges.
Downsize	AWS	VPC NAT Gateway	Reduce NAT Within-VPC Transfers	Resources in the same VPC should avoid communicating with each other through a NAT gateway because that incurs unnecessary NAT gateway processing charges.	NPM
Terminate	AWS	NAT Gateway	Terminate NAT Gateway	A NAT Gateway that has no bytes sent through it.
Terminate	Azure	AKS Cluster	Terminate AKS Cluster	An AKS cluster with less than 5% CPU usage
Purchase	Azure	Azure App Service	Purchase Reservation for App Service	App Service older than 45 days is charged with on-demand rates.
Downsize	Azure	Container App	Downsize Container App	A Container App has higher than necessary minimum replicas
Terminate	Azure	Load Balancer	Delete Load Balancer	Load Balancer with 0 bytes transferred
Terminate	Azure	Managed Disk	Delete Unattached Managed Disk	Managed disk is unattached and can be deleted
Terminate	Azure	Managed Disk	Delete Unused Managed Disk	Managed disk with no read/write operations, which can be deleted
Downsize	Azure	Managed Disk	Downsize Managed Disk IOPS	Managed disk using less than 80% of the provisioned IOPS.
Downsize	Azure	Managed Disk	Downsize Managed Disk Throughput	Managed disk using less than 80% of the provisioned throughput.
Purchase	Azure	MySQL Database	Purchase Reservation for MySQL	Database for MySQL has no reservation coverage and is more than 45 days old
Terminate	Azure	MySQL Database	Terminate Database for MySQL	Database server with no connections, which can be terminated
Purchase	Azure	Database for PostgreSQL	Purchase Reservation for PostgreSQL	Database for PostgreSQL has no reservation coverage and is more than 45 days old
Terminate	Azure	SQL Server	Terminate SQL Server	SQL Server with no connections, which can be terminated
Purchase	Azure	SQL Server Database	Purchase Reservation for SQL Server Database	SQL server database has no reservation coverage and is more than 45 days old
Terminate	Azure	SQL Server Database	Terminate SQL Server Database	SQL Server Database with no successful connections and very minimal CPU, which can be terminated
Purchase	Azure	SQL Server Managed Instance	Purchase Reservation for SQL Server Managed Instance	Purchase reservation for SQL Server Managed Instance with no reservation coverage and is more than 45 days old
Terminate	Azure	VM Instance	Terminate VM Instance	VM instance with less than 5% user CPU and over 90% usable memory	Datadog Agent
Purchase	GCP	Cloud Run Job	Purchase Flexible CUD for Cloud Run Job	Cloud Run Jobs that benefit from flexible committed use discounts.
Terminate	GCP	Compute Address	Delete Unused Compute IP Address	Unused compute IP addresses can be deleted.
Terminate	GCP	Compute Disk	Delete Unattached Compute Disk	Compute disks that are unattached and can be deleted.
Terminate	GCP	Compute Disk	Delete Unused Compute Disk	Compute disks that are unused and can be deleted.
Terminate	GCP	Compute Global Address	Delete Unused Compute Global IP Address	Unused compute global IP addresses can be deleted.
Downsize	GCP	CloudSQL Instance	Downsize CloudSQL Database	CloudSQL instances that are over-provisioned and can be downsized.
Purchase	GCP	CloudSQL Instance	Purchase CUD for Cloud SQL	CloudSQL instances that benefit from committed use discounts.
Terminate	GCP	CloudSQL Instance	Terminate CloudSQL Instance	CloudSQL instances with minimal usage that can be terminated.
Terminate	GCP	Storage Bucket	Delete Non-Current Cloud Storage Objects	Cloud Storage buckets that benefit from lifecycle rules to automatically delete non-current object versions.
Migrate	GCP	Storage Bucket	Transition Cloud Storage Bucket to Autoclass	Objects in the storage bucket can be automatically migrated to archival tiers for better rates.
Downsize	AWS	Kubernetes Deployment	Downsize Deployment	Containers are using only a fraction of their requested CPU or memory.	Datadog Agent
Downsize	Azure	Kubernetes Deployment	Downsize Deployment	Containers are using only a fraction of their requested CPU or memory.	Datadog Agent
Downsize	GCP	Kubernetes Deployment	Downsize Deployment	Containers are using only a fraction of their requested CPU or memory.	Datadog Agent