A company needs to track spending in its AWS account.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

AWS Budgets Overview:

AWS Budgets enables you to set custom cost and usage budgets, and it provides alerts when you exceed those thresholds. It is designed for cost management with minimal operational overhead.

Recurring Cost Budget Creation:

Go to the AWS Budgets Console.

Select Create a budget.

Choose the Cost budget option.

Define whether this budget tracks actual costs or forecasted costs (you will create two budgets, one for each).

Configure the Budget Thresholds:

Set your budget thresholds for both actual costs and forecasted costs.

For example:

Actual Costs Alert: Budget = $1000, Alert at 80% usage ($800).

Forecasted Costs Alert: Budget = $1000, Alert at forecasted usage exceeding 80% ($800).

Alert Configuration:

In the budget creation process, enable Notifications and Actions.

Specify the email addresses or an Amazon SNS Topic to receive alerts.

Set up alerts for both:

Actual Cost Exceeding Budget.

Forecasted Cost Exceeding Budget.

Amazon SNS Setup:

If using an SNS topic, ensure an Amazon SNS topic is created.

Grant appropriate permissions for the Budget service to publish to the SNS topic.

Add subscribers (e.g., email addresses or endpoints) to the SNS topic.

Automation and Monitoring:

Once set up, AWS Budgets continuously monitors actual and forecasted costs.

Alerts are sent automatically when thresholds are breached, reducing manual overhead and reliance on periodic monitoring.

Why This is the Best Option (Least Operational Overhead):

AWS Budgets directly integrates with SNS, allowing real-time alerts without building custom workflows or parsing reports.

It is a native AWS service specifically designed for cost tracking, minimizing complexity and setup time.

No custom code or additional services like Lambda or Step Functions are required, reducing operational maintenance.