A county cloud office sees rising Elastic IP and EBS snapshot charges even though several citizen-facing apps were retired. Architects want AWS-native checks that highlight never-associated Elastic IPs and aged snapshots that can be deleted safely after review. Which approach best identifies those unused resources?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Trusted Advisor waves the unused-EIP flag; Cost Explorer shows the snapshot bill climbing. Together they tell you what never got associated and what backups outlived the app. Review, then delete—don’t buy RIs for addresses that do nothing.
Full Explanation
When a county cloud office sees Elastic IP and EBS snapshot charges climb after citizen-facing apps retire, the durable identification path is AWS-native unused-resource checks plus cost filters: Trusted Advisor highlights never-associated Elastic IPs and related idle findings, while Cost Explorer isolates Elastic IP and snapshot spend so architects can list candidates for governed deletion after review. That pairing connects operational waste signals to the municipal bill so retired apps stop taxing the appropriation. Disabling Elastic IP allocation accounts-wide fails conceptually because it is a blunt availability control, not an identification workflow; legitimate high-availability designs still need Elastic IPs and would break without them. Exporting only CloudTrail management events while ignoring Trusted Advisor and Cost Explorer fails because CloudTrail narrates API history; it does not replace unused-resource cost findings or show which addresses never associated. Purchasing Reserved Instances for every Elastic IP fails because commitment discounts do not apply to idle Elastic IP waste and buying reservations for unused addresses converts a waste problem into a locked-in spend problem. Exam caveat: do not confuse commitment purchasing with rightsizing unused network and snapshot artifacts—RIs and Savings Plans optimize utilized compute, not orphaned addresses. Operational check: run Trusted Advisor unused checks, filter Cost Explorer on Elastic IP and snapshot, age-gate snapshots against retention policy, confirm no restore need with application owners, delete under change control, and verify next month's county bill declines for those line items.