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Cut I/O-heavy Aurora database costs with automated savings recommendations.
Aurora’s default configuration charges separately for storage, I/O, and compute. For clusters that are write-intensive or experience frequent spikes, those I/O charges can quietly become the largest cost driver. Aurora I/O-Optimized pricing flips the model—charging more for storage and compute but eliminating I/O costs altogether.
But here’s the catch: knowing which clusters to switch requires manual effort to run calculations and check whether the DB engine supports I/O mode or not.
That’s where we come in. nOps Aurora I/O-Optimized Recommendations evaluates your Aurora clusters and flags the ones that could save you money by switching to the I/O-Optimized configuration.
What’s New
Aurora I/O Switch Recommendations
This feature analyzes historical usage and cost data to identify Aurora clusters with high I/O costs, and recommends switching to Aurora I/O-Optimized mode when it results in significant monthly savings.
Now you can:
- Reduce costs by 30%+: Save money by switching only the clusters where I/O-Optimized pricing beats standard pricing.
- Understand effort before implementation: See if a DB upgrade or restart is needed and whether rollback is possible.
Aurora I/O Optimization also flags clusters on extended support and older engine versions, so your team knows exactly what steps (if any) are required before switching.
Priortize Based on Effort
Each recommendation includes an estimated implementation effort—Low, Medium or High—based on factors like whether a DB engine upgrade is required or if extended support is enabled. Aurora I/O-Optimized mode doesn’t typically require a cluster restart, but effort can vary depending on how your environment is managed.
If your Aurora configuration is defined in Infrastructure as Code (IaC), updating and applying changes may require coordination and validation, especially in tightly controlled environments. If not, switching can often be done directly with minimal effort. Rollback feasibility is also shown, so you can move forward with confidence.
How it Works
1. Open Aurora Cost Recommendations under Business Context.
2. Review your monthly savings summary and effort-tiered recommendations. This recommendation’s effort logic considers if you will require engine upgrade or extended support as well:
- If the switch to IO Optimized requires engine upgrade, it will likely require a restart.
- Whether you need external support or not, the rollback to the previous version can only be done after 1 month.
- Most cases won’t require downtime
With these factors, we estimate between Low, Medium or High effort. An upgrade that wont require external support, no version upgrade needed and no downtime has the Low effort attributed.
3. Drill down to see resources that are driving the highest unnecessary costs.
4. Take action on prioritized, low-hanging savings before moving to higher-effort optimizations. You can also override recommendations you don’t want to see again — they move to a separate tab, so you can restore them later if needed.
How to Get Started
To start using Aurora Cost Recommendations, Business Contexts+ customers can access this new feature directly from the nOps Dashboard. Have questions? Want more details? Check out the documentation here or reach out to your Customer Success Manager.
If you’re not yet a Business Contexts+ customer, schedule a demo to learn more.
If you’re new to nOps…
nOps was recently ranked #1 with five stars in G2’s cloud cost management category, and we optimize $2+ billion in cloud spend for our customers.
Join our customers using nOps to understand your cloud costs and leverage automation with complete confidence by booking a demo with one of our AWS experts.
