ElastiCache Idle Clusters

Amazon ElastiCache clusters (Redis, Memcached) are billed by the hour regardless of usage. Idle clusters with no active connections or negligible throughput represent pure waste.

Implementation Effort: Medium - Estimated time: 1-2 hours. Verify no application depends on the cache, export data if needed, then delete.

What We Detect

• Idle clusters -- ElastiCache nodes with no meaningful activity over an extended period, indicating the cache is not serving any application

Why It Matters

Even the smallest ElastiCache node (cache.t3.micro) costs ~$12/month. Production clusters with larger node types and multi-AZ replication can easily cost hundreds of dollars monthly while sitting idle.

Recommendations

1. Check application configurations to confirm nothing depends on the cluster
2. Export any data you need to preserve
3. Delete the cluster to stop hourly charges

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