# AWS CloudWatch optimization | Cloud Efficiency Hub Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-cloudwatch 8 documented AWS CloudWatch cost inefficiencies, each with how to detect it and how to fix it. [Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) 8 documented AWS CloudWatch cost inefficiencies, each with how to detect it and how to fix it. ## 8 inefficiencies [All services](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub#browse-by-service) - AWS CloudWatch CER-0233 ### [Overly Permissive VPC Flow Log Filters Sent to CloudWatch Logs](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/overly-permissive-vpc-flow-log-filters-sent-to-cloudwatch-logs) VPC Flow Logs configured with the ALL filter and delivered to CloudWatch Logs often result in unnecessarily high log ingestion volumes - especially in high-traffic environments. This setup is rarely required for day-to-day monitoring or... Other - AWS CloudWatch CER-0224 ### [Suboptimal Log Class Configuration in CloudWatch](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/suboptimal-log-class-configuration-in-cloudwatch) By default, CloudWatch Log Groups use the Standard log class, which has a higher per-GB ingestion price. AWS also offers an Infrequent Access (IA) log class designed for logs that are rarely queried - such as audit trails, debugging... Other - AWS CloudWatch CER-0090 ### [Excessive CloudWatch Log Volume from Persistently Enabled Debugging](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/excessive-cloudwatch-log-volume-from-persistently-enabled-debugging) Engineers often enable verbose logging (e.g., debug or trace-level) during development or troubleshooting, then forget to disable it after deployment. This results in elevated log ingestion rates - and therefore costs - even when the... Other - AWS CloudWatch CER-0060 ### [Inactive CloudWatch Log Group](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/inactive-cloudwatch-log-group) CloudWatch log groups often persist long after their usefulness has expired. In some cases, they are associated with applications or resources that are no longer active. In other cases, the systems may still be running, but the log data is... Other - AWS CloudWatch CER-0379 ### [High-Cardinality Custom Metrics in CloudWatch](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/high-cardinality-custom-metrics-in-cloudwatch) A classic CloudWatch metric is identified by its namespace, name and dimensions, and CloudWatch treats every unique combination of dimension values as a separate metric. Each of those is billed as a custom metric for every hour it receives... Other - AWS CloudWatch CER-0380 ### [Excessive CloudWatch GetMetricData API Polling by Monitoring Tools](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/excessive-cloudwatch-getmetricdata-api-polling-by-monitoring-tools) Third-party observability platforms, open source exporters and in-house scripts usually collect AWS metrics by calling the CloudWatch GetMetricData API on a schedule. GetMetricData is billed by the number of metrics requested and, unlike... Other - AWS CloudWatch CER-0381 ### [Orphaned CloudWatch Alarms for Deleted Resources](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/orphaned-cloudwatch-alarms-for-deleted-resources) CloudWatch alarms are not deleted when the resource they watch goes away. When an EC2 instance, Lambda function, load balancer, queue or database is removed, its alarms keep existing and typically move to the INSUFFICIENT\_DATA state... Other - AWS CloudWatch CER-0382 ### [Unnecessary EC2 Detailed Monitoring](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/unnecessary-ec2-detailed-monitoring) EC2 basic monitoring publishes instance metrics to CloudWatch at 5-minute granularity at no charge. Detailed monitoring switches those metrics to 1-minute granularity, and each metric EC2 sends is then billed at the CloudWatch custom... Other ## More AWS services - [AWS EC2 23](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-ec2) - [AWS RDS 19](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-rds) - [AWS S3 15](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-s3) - [AWS Lambda 12](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-lambda) - [AWS EBS 10](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-ebs) - [AWS EKS 8](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-eks) - [AWS ElastiCache 8](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-elasticache) - [AWS DynamoDB 7](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-dynamodb) - [AWS Bedrock 6](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-bedrock) - [AWS ELB 6](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-elb) --- Source: the public page above. Product screenshots and illustrative interfaces are examples, not live customer data.