Why is it important to tag AWS Resources?

As we know Amazon Web Services offer pay as you go method and other services at reasonable cost to encourage cost-efficient cloud computing experience. There are many organizations that have testified about the benefits of AWS Cloud service with its cost-saving pricing model. But even though AWS offers ways to cut down your cost on data storage and applications, you can also save money by other means. 

Today we will be talking about how you can take full advantage of Amazon Web Services  tagging service to cut down on cost by understanding the essentials of tagging AWS resources. 

The significance of using Tagging AWS resources:-

AWS Cloud offers flexibility through its services where you can scale the cost and performance up and down according to the organization requirement which is a cost-saving factor.

A tag includes an optional value and customer-defined key which is a metadata that the user can implement to multiple or individual resource for means of tracking and management. Now for an example, you can schedule the non-essential Elastic cloud Compute instance to pause during the off hours or when it is not in use, this can save cost up to 70 percent which is a pretty good number. With the ability to add a tag to the non-essential instance would make it easy to search and filter the critical instances that have to remain active from those instances that can be safely scheduled for a shutdown. So a Tag enables users to group, designate and separate resources according to their requirement or preference. 

In the Elastic Cloud compute Schedule process tag plays an important role. Automation is one of the many reasons that tagging can be implemented. AWS Tags can be implemented for security concern, resource classification, and cost tracking but in fact, there is no limit to how the user can implement the AWS tags. Overlapping also won’t be an issue because a single AWS resource can have 50 tags.  

Guide on Tagging AWS Resources:-

You can customize the AWS tags however you want according to your requirements thus this gives optimum flexibility in organizing the AWS environment. Now having such freedom can be beneficial and also a risk factor because it is good to have a lot of flexibility and options but if the there is a lack of pre-generated tags or categories then the user have to start from scratch. This can be hugely time-consuming. 

AWS Tags can only be beneficial if they are used strategically which is relevant to the system. If the tags are used properly then you can save up a lot on cost and also it will bring more flexibility and scalability. But if they are not managed properly then it will just bring confusion and create a mess.  

You can follow the points mentioned below to create a general tagging strategy:-

• Implement standardized and case-sensitive format for tags and use it on all resource types.
• Use tag dimensions that will help in managing the resource access control, automation, organization and cost tracking.
• Automated tools can be highly beneficial to manage the resource tags. Resource groups tagging API controls the tag automatically which makes it convenient to automatically filter search and manage tags and resources. It also further simplifies the backups of tag data on all the supported service with a single API call per AWS regions.
• It is recommended to use less tags instead of blasting with usage of too many tags.
• Modifying tags is easy according to the changing requirements but there are also consequences of implementing such changes so it is better to be ready to face the consequences especially in the area of access control, upstream billing reports, and automation. 

AWS Management console:

Tags can be used to see only the relevant data on the AWS management console instead of viewing the entire AWS services.

AWS Cost Explorer:

AWS tags can be applied to the AWS Cost explorer to see the full detailed view of only those specific resources the tags is implemented to.

Automation:

Tags can be used in EC2 to specify tags to only those instances that have to remain active and others can be safely scheduled for shutdown. Tags can also be implemented for Relational Database instances. Tags can be utilized for automating the specified data to be back up and other out of data information can be deleted such as old snapshots.

Control access:

You can designate specific roles to the AWS users using the AWS tags. This will help in designating users the access to only specified environments. 

About Cloud.in:

Cloud.in is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner that delivers AWS managed services that cater every business need and aims in simplifying the AWS Cloud Journey. Our Team is the driving force behind Cloud.in with the experience, knowledge, and the skills that they behold in making cloud computing and AWS Cloud a pleasant experience.