AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner / Question #732 of 719

Question #732

Which AWS service provides interactive dashboards and detailed reports to analyze, forecast, and optimize cloud costs and usage trends?

A

AWS Budgets

B

AWS Trusted Advisor

C

AWS Cost Explorer

D

AWS CloudWatch

Explanation

AWS Cost Explorer (C) is designed for visualizing, analyzing, and forecasting AWS costs and usage. It offers interactive dashboards, granular filtering (e.g., by service, account, tags), and historical/forecasted cost reports.

Other options:
- A: AWS Budgets focuses on setting cost/usage thresholds and alerts, not detailed analysis.
- B: AWS Trusted Advisor provides cost optimization recommendations but lacks interactive dashboards or forecasting.
- D: AWS CloudWatch monitors operational metrics (e.g., CPU usage), not financial data.

Key Points:
1. Cost Explorer specializes in cost/usage analysis and forecasting.
2. Trusted Advisor and Budgets are complementary but serve different purposes.
3. CloudWatch is for infrastructure monitoring, not cost management.

Answer

The correct answer is: C