Decommission resources automatically

Implementing an automatic decommissioning process is crucial for reducing costs and minimizing waste. By designing workloads that can gracefully handle resource termination, organizations can free up unused or underutilized resources, optimized their spend, and ultimately keep the cloud environment cost-efficient.

Best Practices

Automate Resource Decommissioning

• Utilize AWS CloudFormation or AWS CDK to define your infrastructure as code, enabling you to manage and version your resources efficiently.
• Implement tagging strategies for resource classification (e.g., ‘Environment: Test’, ‘Critical: No’) to identify resources that can be decommissioned.
• Leverage AWS Lambda and AWS CloudWatch Events to monitor resource usage and automatically trigger decommissioning actions based on predefined criteria (such as inactivity for a specified period).
• Establish clear lifecycle policies for resources, defining when they should be decommissioned automatically after certain conditions are met.
• Regularly review and audit your resource inventory using AWS Config or Resource Groups to identify and manage unused or underutilized resources effectively.

Questions to ask your team

• Do you have automated processes in place to identify unused or underutilized resources?
• How often do you review your resource usage to identify candidates for decommissioning?
• Are you using tagging to track and manage resource utilization effectively?
• What mechanisms do you have to gracefully handle the termination of resources?
• How do you ensure that stakeholders are informed before resources are decommissioned?

Who should be doing this?

Cloud Architect

• Design the workload to support automatic decommissioning of resources.
• Establish guidelines for marking resources as non-critical or low utilization.
• Ensure that the architecture can gracefully handle resource termination without affecting critical operations.

DevOps Engineer

• Implement automation scripts for resource decommissioning based on utilization monitoring.
• Set up alerts and monitoring tools to identify resources that can be terminated.
• Coordinate with the Cloud Architect to modify deployment processes for smooth resource management.

Project Manager

• Oversee the project teams to ensure adherence to resource management policies.
• Coordinate communication between stakeholders regarding decommissioned resources.
• Review and approve plans for resource termination and decommissioning.

Financial Analyst

• Analyze resource utilization and identify cost-saving opportunities.
• Provide reports on savings achieved through decommissioned resources.
• Work with the Cloud Architect to adjust budget forecasting based on resource strategies.

IT Support Staff

• Monitor systems for alerts on resource health and utilization.
• Assist in the manual review and confirmation of resources flagged for decommissioning when necessary.
• Provide support during the shutdown process to ensure compliance with procedures.

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Resource Decommissioning Playbook: A comprehensive guide that outlines the steps for identifying, evaluating, and safely decommissioning non-critical AWS resources, including procedures for notification, scheduling, and execution.
• Cost Optimization Checklist: A checklist that includes key metrics and indicators to assess resource utilization, enabling teams to regularly review and identify resources ready for decommissioning.
• Automated Resource Decommissioning Policy: A policy document that establishes guidelines for automatically decommissioning idle or low-utilization resources, defining thresholds for automation triggers and approval processes.
• Dashboards for Resource Utilization Monitoring: Real-time dashboards developed using AWS CloudWatch or third-party tools to visualize resource utilization metrics, enabling teams to quickly identify resources for decommissioning.
• Resource Lifecycle Management Strategy: A strategy document that details the processes and tools used to manage resources from inception to end-of-life, ensuring continuous optimization and cost efficiency across teams.

Cloud Services

AWS

• AWS Lambda: AWS Lambda allows you to automatically trigger functions to decommission resources when certain conditions are met, ensuring non-critical and underutilized resources are terminated.
• Amazon CloudWatch: CloudWatch lets you monitor your resources and usage patterns, enabling you to identify resources that can be decommissioned to save costs.
• AWS Auto Scaling: Auto Scaling enables automatic resource management by scaling your resources up or down based on usage, thus optimizing costs by decommissioning underutilized resources.

Azure

• Azure Resource Manager: Azure Resource Manager allows you to manage resources in an efficient way, enabling policies to decommission unused resources automatically.
• Azure Monitor: Azure Monitor provides insights into resource utilization and can trigger alerts or automation scripts to decommission unused resources.
• Azure Automation: Azure Automation helps automate the decommissioning process by scheduling tasks to shut down or delete resources based on utilization metrics.

Google Cloud Platform

• Google Cloud Functions: Cloud Functions can be triggered to decommission resources by running scripts when certain criteria are met, helping manage resource lifecycle effectively.
• Google Cloud Monitoring: Cloud Monitoring provides insights into resource usage, enabling you to identify low-utilization resources for timely decommissioning.
• Google Cloud Deployment Manager: Deployment Manager facilitates the management of resource lifecycles, including automated decommissioning of resources that are no longer needed.

Question: How do you decommission resources?
Pillar: Cost Optimization (Code: COST)