How to Alert on Savings Plans Utilization Below 90%?
A company recently purchased Savings Plans. The company wants to receive email notification when the company's utilization drops below 90% for a given day. Which solution will meet this requirement?
Community Insight
The question tests which AWS service natively tracks Savings Plans daily utilization and can send email; the trap is assuming a CloudWatch metric alarm or a non-existent standalone Savings Plans alert handles it.
Savings Plans utilization alerts are configured through an AWS Budgets Savings Plans budget, not a standalone Savings Plans alert or a CloudWatch alarm action to SQS. The page confirms that an AWS Budgets budget with an Amazon SNS email subscription is the correct solution when daily utilization falls below 90%.
A common mistake is choosing the CloudWatch SavingsPlansUtilization metric with an SQS queue, because CloudWatch can alarm on the metric but SQS does not deliver email notifications.
Community Discussion (1 comments)
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Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
AWS Budgets includes a Savings Plans budget type that tracks utilization, and it supports alert thresholds such as utilization dropping below 90% for a given day. You attach an Amazon SNS topic with an email subscription so the notification actually reaches recipients by email. Option D matches every requirement: the right tracking mechanism, the threshold condition, and a working email notification channel. Savings Plans budgets are the native AWS feature for this cost-management alert, whereas CloudWatch alarms are aimed at operational metrics.Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option A relies on a Trusted Advisor Savings Plan check plus a CloudWatch alarm action to an SQS queue, but SQS is a queueing service and does not send email. Option B names the SavingsPlansUtilization metric correctly, but CloudWatch alarm actions target SNS rather than SQS, and SQS still cannot deliver email by itself. Option C invents a standalone “Savings Plans alert” as if it were a separate AWS feature; the native way to alert on Savings Plans utilization is through AWS Budgets. Option D is the only choice that pairs the proper Savings Plans budget with an SNS email subscription.Community Comment Notes
The community record here is sparse: Bad_Mat selected option D and described it as “Use AWS Budgets to create a Savings Plans budget” to track daily utilization. That aligns with the AWS Budgets Savings Plans budget feature and the requirement for an SNS email notification. No contrary reasoning or alternative vote pattern is present in the provided comments, so the community signal does not change the analysis.Exam Strategy
First eliminate any option that sends the alert to an SQS queue, because the requirement explicitly asks for email and SQS is a queueing service. Then look for the AWS cost-management feature that natively supports Savings Plans utilization thresholds—AWS Budgets—rather than accepting a fictitious standalone Savings Plans alert or a CloudWatch metric alarm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is a CloudWatch alarm with an SQS queue wrong for Savings Plans email alerts?
CloudWatch alarm actions publish to Amazon SNS, not SQS, and SQS does not send email; an SNS topic with an email subscription is needed.
Does AWS have a standalone Savings Plans alert feature?
No; AWS Budgets provides Savings Plans budgets with utilization thresholds, and those alerts can publish to an SNS topic for email delivery.
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