A company wants to add its existing AWS usage cost to its operation cost dashboard...

Understanding the Requirement: The company needs programmatic access to its AWS usage costs for the current year and cost forecasts for the next 12 months, with minimal operational overhead.

Analysis of Options:

AWS Cost Explorer API: Provides programmatic access to detailed usage and cost data, including forecast costs. It supports pagination for handling large datasets, making it an efficient solution.

Downloadable AWS Cost Explorer report csv files: While useful, this method requires manual handling of files and does not provide real-time access.

AWS Budgets actions via FTP: This is less suitable as it involves setting up FTP transfers and does not provide the same level of detail and real-time access as the API.

AWS Budgets reports via SMTP: Similar to FTP, this method involves additional setup and lacks the real-time access and detail provided by the API.

Best Option for Minimal Operational Overhead:

AWS Cost Explorer API provides direct, programmatic access to cost data, including detailed usage and forecasting, with minimal setup and operational effort. It is the most efficient solution for integrating cost data into an operational cost dashboard.