Various accounting structures can be used by AWS customers, as per their need

Business Unit (BU) Account Structure

  • Beneficial if want to align AWS operational and billing controls with individual Business units.
  • Offers  individual units operational autonomy
  • Company is provided with a consolidated bill
  • Combined view of all AWS charges, separated by group, OU, or cost center

Environment Lifecycle Account Structure

  • Beneficial if want to align AWS operational and billing controls with application development lifecycle.
  • Offers development-lifecycle operational autonomy
  • Providing a company with a consolidated bill
  • Combined view of all AWS charges, separated by development environment.

Project-Based Account Structure

  • Beneficial if align AWS operational and billing controls by product or, application workload or program. Offers project or workload operational autonomy
  • Provide a consolidated bill
  • Combined view of all AWS charges, separated by project.
  • Simplifies the ability to trigger cost alerts based on project, application workload, or program consumption of AWS resources.

Hybrid AWS Account Structures

Hybrid combinations of above account structures by multiple dimensions, used for large AWS customers

Other Billing and Pricing Considerations

Consolidated Billing for Organizations

  • Consolidates payment for multiple AWS accounts
  • See a combined view of AWS charges incurred by all of accounts. 
  • Get a cost report for each member account, associated with master account.
  • No additional charge for consolidated billing

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