A finance officer wants an alert when a public-works AWS account is forecast to exceed its monthly dollar limit. Which AWS cost tool should they configure?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Need a heads-up before a department blows its monthly cloud allowance? That is AWS Budgets. Set a threshold, get notified, and keep the surprise invoice away.
Full Explanation
A finance officer who wants an alert when a public-works AWS account is forecast to exceed its monthly dollar limit should configure AWS Budgets. Budgets can set cost or usage thresholds and notify stakeholders when actual or forecasted spend approaches or exceeds those limits—ideal for municipal guardrails before a department overruns its cloud allocation mid-month.
Amazon Route 53 health checks monitor DNS endpoint availability, not dollar forecasts. AWS Artifact delivers compliance reports and agreements, not spend alerts. Amazon Polly synthesizes speech and does not watch cloud spend. Availability, compliance, and speech services are unrelated to budget threshold notifications.
Exam caveat: Budgets = thresholds/alerts (cost, usage, reservation coverage); Cost Explorer = analyze historical spend; Pricing Calculator = estimate future designs; CUR = detailed exports. Forecast-exceeds-limit alerts → Budgets.
Operational check for public works: create a monthly cost budget equal to the appropriation, enable forecasted alerting at 80–100%, notify finance and the app owner via SNS email, review alert noise monthly, and pair with Cost Explorer investigation playbooks so an alert leads to action rather than ignored mail.