CloudPouch Files

Features (this release is all about making EBS over- and under-provisioning visible — and giving you the cheapest fix)

⚙️ New Cost Insight: EBS Volume Type Advisor

CloudPouch now analyzes every attached EBS volume against 14 days of real CloudWatch usage and tells you the most cost-effective volume type and provisioning for the actual workload — across gp2, gp3, io1, io2, st1, sc1, and Magnetic.

• Compares provisioned IOPS and throughput against observed peak and average usage from CloudWatch, rather than guessing from volume type alone.
• Recommends the cheapest feasible volume type, including a move to Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) or Cold HDD (sc1) when the access pattern is sequential and IOPS are low.
• Right-sizes within the same type — for example, lowering provisioned IOPS or throughput on a gp3/io1/io2 volume without changing the type.
• Surfaces gp2 → gp3 savings even before CloudWatch data is available, since gp3 is cheaper per GB and can be configured to match gp2's guaranteed performance.
• Flags legacy Magnetic (standard) volumes to migrate away from.
• Each row shows the attached EC2 instance, observed IOPS and throughput (max / avg), the recommended type and provisioning, and a stacked Current Cost breakdown (storage + provisioned IOPS + provisioned throughput).

Why it matters: EBS is billed on three separate dimensions — capacity, provisioned IOPS, and provisioned throughput — so it is easy to keep paying for performance a workload never uses. The advisor turns two weeks of usage into a single, concrete "switch to X" action with the exact monthly difference, and the section header brags about how many volumes were reviewed even when most are already optimal.

📈 Cheapest-Path Performance Upgrades (cost-insight)

When a volume is genuinely saturated, CloudPouch now recommends the least expensive way to add headroom instead of always jumping to a premium type.

• A volume is flagged as near capacity when peak usage reaches roughly 85% of what it can deliver.
• CloudPouch sizes for peak usage plus a 20% safety buffer, then picks the cheapest configuration that satisfies it.
• Raising provisioned IOPS/throughput on the current type is compared head-to-head against migrating to a higher tier — and the cheaper option wins.
• For example, a gp3 volume sitting at its 3,000 IOPS baseline but briefly peaking just above it is told to raise gp3 IOPS for about 5.00 USD/month rather than migrate to io2 for roughly 268.00 USD/month — same headroom, a fraction of the cost.

Why it matters: "Fix performance" advice that defaults to the most expensive option quietly erodes both trust and budgets. Recommending the cheapest sufficient configuration keeps performance and cost aligned.

How to Use It

1. Open CloudPouch and select your AWS profile.
2. Choose Current Month or Previous Month.
3. Go to EC2 - Other and run Check Cost Insights.
4. Open the EBS optimization / rightsizing section.
5. Review the per-volume recommendations, estimated monthly savings, and upgrade suggestions — and export everything to TSV when you need to share it.

Other Features

• Cost breakdown in the table: Current Cost splits into storage, provisioned IOPS, and provisioned throughput with a total, so you can see exactly which dimension drives the bill.
• Attached instance at a glance: each volume shows the EC2 instance it is attached to, alongside region and age.
• Clear HDD sizing: st1/sc1 recommendations show the size-derived throughput they will deliver — and when a volume needs to grow to reach it — with a short "throughput scales with size" note.
• Idle volumes are right-sized, not ignored: volumes with zero I/O over the window are treated as real zero-usage data and right-sized to baseline instead of being dropped.

Bug Fixes & Maintenance

• CloudPouch now distinguishes a genuinely idle volume from one whose CloudWatch metrics could not be fetched, dramatically increasing how many volumes receive a recommendation instead of an "insufficient data" message.
• Removed the older, narrower GP2 → GP3 section and the standalone provisioned-IOPS section; both are fully superseded by the Volume Type Advisor, which covers the same volumes with more options and better pricing logic.
• Recommendation quality is validated against realistic volume and CloudWatch-metric fixtures, reducing the risk of noisy or misleading insights.