Introduction

QuickSight powers data-driven organizations with unified business intelligence (BI) at hyperscale. QuickSight dashboards can deliver easy-to-understand insights from multiple sources, coupled with enterprise-grade security, global availability, and built-in redundancy.

When you implement data analytics, it’s important to balance your analytics requirements with cost efficiency. For example, it’s a data complexity challenge to manage diverse datasets efficiently. In addition, you might encounter integration complexity when you integrate QuickSight with your existing infrastructure.

As part of the AWS Support team, we help customers optimize their AWS environments every day. There are a number of tools that can aid in cost optimization strategies for data analytics as your usage grows. One of these tools is AWS Trusted Advisor, which provides recommendations specific to your QuickSight implementation. QuickSight also helps you optimize the cost of data analytics.

In this article, you will learn two key strategies, centralization and right-sizing, that you can use to optimize your costs. With a basic understanding of AWS and data analytics concepts, you can easily implement these strategies and leverage the cost-effective power of QuickSight.

Solution overview

Prerequisites to implement cost optimization strategies

Make sure that you meet the following prerequisites:

• You must be familiar with QuickSight.
• You must be familiar with AWS services, such as Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).
• You must have access to AWS Trusted Advisor.

Note: An AWS Business Support plan subscription is required to access the full set of Trusted Advisor recommendations.

A good understanding of the following topics can be helpful to optimize your costs:

• Cloud financial management
• Data analytics concepts, such as data ingestion and data visualization
• Cost optimization principles, especially in cloud environments

Review QuickSight pricing

To make the most out of QuickSight while also optimizing costs, you first need to understand the pricing framework for the service. QuickSight offers flexible pricing options that are tailored to your usage needs.

QuickSight’s pricing framework is structured around two key factors: user classification and pricing model.

• User classification divides users into two categories, readers and authors. Readers can access dashboards and reports, and authors have the authority to create, publish, and share content. This distinction makes sure that each user has access to the tools and information that they need based on their role.
• QuickSight offers pricing flexibility with two different pricing models: pay-per-session and annual subscription. With the pay-per-session model, you can pay only for the sessions that you actually initiated, making it a cost-effective option for sporadic usage. The annual subscription model charges a fixed cost for a specified number of users and sessions. This is ideal for organizations with consistent usage patterns. For more information, see Amazon QuickSight pricing.

Configure QuickSight to optimize your costs

It's crucial to customize QuickSight to align with your organization's unique requirements and usage habits for efficient data visualization and reporting. You can configure QuickSight to align with your organization’s specific needs and usage habits with specific approaches. The following are some examples of specific approaches for how you can configure QuickSight to optimize user costs.

Optimize user assignments: Grant access based on role by curating user cohorts and allocating IAM roles and user groups.

• Tailor author roles for those that need content creation capabilities and reader roles for those that seek access exclusively.
• Regularly review user access and adjust permissions as necessary.
• Deactivate or reassign the licenses for users that no longer need certain privileges.

Use AWS IAM Identity Center: Use IAM Identity Center for user authentication and license administration. To grant users the minimum rights required for their roles, you can assign the right set of permissions through IAM Identity Center groups for optimal usage and cost-effectiveness. This makes sure that users have access to the resources that they need while maintaining security and minimizing costs.

Monitor and analyze usage

• Track user activity: You can monitor user activity within QuickSight to identify usage trends and patterns. Then, you can use this data to optimize license allocation and resource use.
• Analyze session usage: Analyze session usage to determine peak utilization periods. Adjust license allocation accordingly and plan for the procurement of reserved capacity for predictable usage patterns.
• Implement cost controls: Implement robust cost control measures to manage costs that you spend on QuickSight.
• Budget management: Establish budget alerts within AWS to proactively monitor QuickSight spending. This helps you get timely notifications as spending approaches predefined thresholds so that you can take required actions to reduce costs.
• Cost allocation tags: Use cost allocation tags to track QuickSight spending by user, department, or project.

Solution implementation

Step 1 - Analyze usage patterns

Use Amazon CloudWatch to collect comprehensive data on your centralized QuickSight usage. You can use CloudWatch to dive deep into usage patterns and identify peak hours, user groups, and specific dashboards or analyses that are in high demand. This analysis forms the foundation for understanding your workload requirements and optimizing resources.

The following are some examples of how you can analyze your usage patterns:

• Set Up CloudWatch metrics: Configure CloudWatch to track QuickSight user activities, peak usage times, and dashboard interactions.
• Identify high-demand resources: Analyze usage data to pinpoint frequently accessed dashboards and peak usage periods.
• Evaluate user activity: Review metrics to find inactive accounts and adjust access permissions.
• Optimize resource allocation: Remove or archive rarely used dashboards and scale QuickSight resources based on demand.
• Continuous monitoring: Regularly monitor usage patterns and adjust resources to achieve cost-effectiveness and performance.

To access QuickSight metrics in CloudWatch, see the Access QuickSight metrics in CloudWatch section in Monitor your Amazon QuickSight deployments using the new Amazon CloudWatch integration.

Step 2 - Tailor SPICE capacity

After you collect usage insights, you can optimize SPICE (Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine) capacity to handle anticipated workloads. Adjust SPICE capacity based on your usage analysis to match workload demands. Consider using Reserved Instances or Savings Plans to reduce costs for predictable workloads. These options, available through AWS, help reduce costs for predictable workloads by providing discounted pricing compared to on-demand usage. By tailoring SPICE capacity based on usage insights, you can make sure that you allocate the right amount of resources to handle your workload effectively.

For more information, see Managing SPICE memory capacity.

Note:

• Prepare your data before you load it into SPICE. Convert your data into efficient formats, such as Parquet or ORC, and apply compression techniques, such as Gzip or Snappy, to improve processing efficiency and reduce storage requirements. This step is essential for streamlining data handling and maximizing the benefits of SPICE.
• Implement data partitioning within SPICE for large datasets to improve query performance.
• Use QuickSight Q's automatic data preparation feature to automate data optimization for effective storage and querying.
• Evaluate the available pricing options and choose the most cost-effective plan for your organization's needs.
• Monitor SPICE usage over time.

For more information, see Best practices for Amazon QuickSight SPICE and direct query mode.

Step 3 - Manage user access

QuickSight administrators manage user access in QuickSight. For more information, see Managing user access inside Amazon QuickSight. For precise control over user access to QuickSight resources, you can implement IAM roles and user groups. By assigning licenses based on user needs, you can avoid unnecessary costs, contributing to overall cost efficiency. Also, granular access control improves security by reducing the risk of data breaches. This approach supports compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards.

Be sure to do the following:

• Identify users who no longer need access and revoke unused licenses to prevent unnecessary costs.
• Adjust user roles and group memberships based on changing business requirements and user needs.
• Set up alerts for unusual access patterns or policy violations. For more information, see Visibility and alerting.
• Generate regular reports on user activity and license usage to get insights into resource utilization and cost optimization.

For more information about Pro roles in QuickSight, see Get started with Generative BI.

Step 4 - Use AWS cost management tools

Use the following cost management tools:

• Use Trusted Advisor to gain insights and recommendations for cost optimization opportunities that are specific to your centralized QuickSight implementation. Trusted Advisor continuously evaluates your AWS environment through best practice checks across the categories of cloud cost optimization, performance, resilience, security, operational excellence, and service limits. Then, it recommends actions to remediate any deviations from best practices.
• Use AWS Cost Explorer for real-time cost visibility of your centralized QuickSight environment. Track costs that are associated with SPICE capacity, user licenses, data transfer, and other QuickSight services.
• Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your costs.
• Incorporate AWS Cost and Usage Reports into QuickSight.
• Set up cost alerts within AWS Budgets to proactively identify potential cost overruns and take corrective actions. Define budgets for your centralized QuickSight deployment and monitor adherence to prevent unexpected spikes in expenditure.

Step 5 - Continuously optimize and perform regular cost reviews

Conduct regular cost optimization workshops with stakeholders to identify new cost-saving opportunities and analyze cost trends to identify areas for further improvement. If you have an Enterprise Support plan, then contact your Technical Account Manager (TAM) for access to cost optimization workshops. For more information, see Accelerating customer outcomes with AWS Enterprise Support. Continuously monitor and adjust QuickSight resources and configurations based on performance and cost metrics to get maximum efficiency and ROI from your QuickSight deployment. Use the prescriptive guidance that’s provided by the Cost Optimization pillar of the AWS Well-Architected framework to deliver business value at the lowest price point.

Cleanup

• Delete temporary QuickSight users that you created for the tutorial. Identify and deactivate QuickSight users who no longer require access.
• If you increased SPICE capacity settings for the tutorial, then revert them to the default or to a lower value. For more information, see UpdateAccountSettings.
• Delete any IAM roles and policies that you created for the tutorial.
• Delete IAM Identity Center configurations that you created for the tutorial.
• Delete any test data, dashboards, or analyses that you created for the tutorial.
• Turn off cost tracking or monitoring tools that you turned on for working through the tutorial.

Conclusion

Implement these strategies in your QuickSight deployment to optimize costs and improve efficiency. Regularly review your usage patterns, adjust resource allocations, and leverage automation features to stay ahead of cost challenges.

Cost optimization is an ongoing process that requires regular monitoring, analysis, and adjustment. With the right tools and practices in place, you can achieve cost-efficiency without compromising the quality or performance of your QuickSight analytics solutions. With Premium Support plans, you get expert guidance, best practices, and technical support to help you maximize the value of your AWS services. To learn more, see AWS Support.

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About the author

Shivani Jahagirdar

Shivani is a Cloud Support Engineer for Amazon QuickSight who currently works for the AWS Support Data Insights & Analytics department. With her experience in cloud computing and a keen focus on AWS solutions, Shivani brings a unique blend of technical expertise and customer-centric approach.