Paraphrasing a case study: “I created DynamoDB tables on AWS: With no data in them yet, no API calls, no read/write… and yet we are seeing a $0.65 charge on Nutanix Beam. Where is that charge originating?”
The big picture concept here is that DynamoDB has read/write capacity defaults which are put in place as “Provisioned” meaning there is a charge for them whether they are used or not. You do have the ability to modify these settings; so this definitely comes under the “learning the ropes” category of cloud use.
To continue the paraphrase of the Researcher - CloudBank helpdesk conversation, CloudBank responded thus:
"Per Nutanix Beam: You are incurring a $.09 daily charge for API operation CommittedThroughput. Some searching / digging around leads us to your DynamoDB Dashboard:
Total capacity for US East (Ohio)
Provisioned read capacity 15 (Max: 80000)
Provisioned write capacity 15 (Max: 80000)
This article indicates that there is a baseline cost in Provisioned mode. Choose one of your empty tables in the AWS console and look at the Capacity tab to find the estimated charge for Provisioned: $2.91/month with current settings.
To fix this you can modify parameters; and you also have the option to switch to OnDemand.