Managing RDS (Relational Database Service) backups can be a hidden source of significant cloud costs. Without proper oversight, these costs can spiral due to complexities in billing, inefficient configurations, and leftover snapshots. On top of that, duplicate backups are a common but often overlooked scenario that can double your costs. Let’s dive into the challenges and explore how FinOps automation can help you tackle them effectively.

The Challenge: Hidden RDS Backup Costs

1. Expensive Snapshots:
While RDS provides a free backup allowance equivalent to the size of your storage (e.g., 100GB storage gives you 100GB of free backup), anything beyond this incurs costs. Calculating these costs accurately is difficult because the Cost and Usage Report (CUR) shows only the RDS cluster ID, not individual snapshots. Aggregating snapshot sizes to determine total backup costs is a manual, time-consuming process-manageable for a few RDS clusters but nearly impossible for environments with hundreds of clusters.

2. Duplicate Backups (RDS Native vs. AWS Backup):
A common scenario occurs when:

  1. Application owners enable RDS native backups to protect their databases.
  2. Org admins simultaneously enable backups via AWS Backup to enforce organizational backup policies.

This duplication results in multiple backups for the same RDS instance, leading to unnecessary costs. While both systems serve a purpose, failing to align their configurations can create a significant and ongoing expense.

3. Old and Forgotten Snapshots:
AWS encourages creating a final snapshot before deleting an RDS instance or offers manual snapshots. Over time, you may accumulate snapshots tied to RDS instances that no longer exist. These unused, outdated snapshots become a costly burden if not cleaned up.

4. Automatic Backup Frequency and Retention:
Configurations for backup frequency (e.g., hourly) and retention periods (e.g., seven days) can significantly influence costs. While high-frequency backups may be necessary in certain scenarios, failing to review and optimize these settings often leads to unnecessary expenses.

The Solution: FinOps Automation with Wiv.ai

Wiv.ai enables organizations to automate the identification and resolution of costly RDS backup practices through tailored workflows. Here’s how it works:

1. Snapshot Cost Analysis:
Wiv.ai workflows aggregate all snapshots by RDS cluster, calculate their total storage usage, and correlate these costs with the CUR data. This provides a clear understanding of the backup costs for each RDS cluster and individual snapshots.

2. Detection and Prevention of Duplicate Backups:
Wiv.ai helps identify instances where both RDS native backups and AWS Backup are enabled for the same RDS cluster. Automated workflows:

  1. Detect duplicate backups and notify relevant stakeholders.
  2. Provide recommendations to consolidate and optimize backup policies.

By aligning backup strategies across teams, you can eliminate duplication and cut costs without compromising data protection.

3. Cleanup of Old and Irrelevant Snapshots:
Automated workflows identify:

  1. Snapshots tied to deleted RDS instances.
  2. Snapshots older than your retention policy.

With human approval workflows, you can safely delete these snapshots, ensuring you pay only for backups you truly need.

4. Backup Frequency and Retention Optimization:
Wiv.ai helps you audit and adjust backup configurations:

  1. Set optimal backup frequencies based on your business needs.
  2. Implement retention policies that balance cost and recovery requirements.

By automating this process, you reduce costs without compromising on data protection.

5. Manual Snapshots Management:
Manual snapshots can be cleaned up in bulk, freeing up valuable storage space and cutting unnecessary costs. Wiv.ai makes it easy to identify and remove outdated or irrelevant snapshots with approval workflows.

Why Automate with Wiv.ai?

Managing RDS snapshots manually might be feasible for a handful of clusters, but for environments with hundreds of RDS instances, manual efforts become unsustainable. By automating these tasks with Wiv.ai, you can:

  • Gain full visibility into your backup costs.
  • Detect and eliminate duplicate backups.
  • Ensure compliance with your backup and retention policies.
  • Save on unnecessary costs while maintaining data protection.

Why pay for backups you can’t use—or duplicates you don’t need? Automate with Wiv.ai and start saving today!