CV0-004 Operations and Support Practice Question
A company wants to optimize cloud costs by identifying underutilized EC2 instances. Which AWS service provides rightsizing recommendations?
⚠ Common exam trap
CV0-004 often tests the distinction between cost visibility tools (Cost Explorer, Budgets) and cost optimization tools (Compute Optimizer, Trusted Advisor), so candidates must remember that only Compute Optimizer provides detailed rightsizing recommendations for EC2.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS Compute Optimizer
AWS Compute Optimizer is the dedicated service that analyzes historical utilization metrics (CPU, memory, network, disk) from CloudWatch to generate rightsizing recommendations for EC2 instances, Auto Scaling groups, EBS volumes, and Lambda functions. It uses machine learning to identify over-provisioned or under-provisioned resources and provides specific instance type recommendations. Unlike other cost tools, Compute Optimizer is purpose-built for resource optimization and rightsizing, making it the correct choice for identifying underutilized EC2 instances.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor flags idle load balancers, low-utilisation EC2 and unassociated Elastic IPs, but its checks are threshold-based cost hygiene, not instance-family rightsizing. Compute Optimizer analyses CloudWatch metrics to recommend specific instance types; that is the rightsizing tool.
- ✗
AWS Cost Explorer
Why it's wrong here
AWS Cost Explorer reports historical spend and forecasting by service and tag, but it does not analyse instance utilisation or emit rightsizing recommendations. It is tempting because it is the default place to inspect cost, yet it would be the right choice for tracking spend trends, while Compute Optimizer delivers the utilisation-based sizing advice.
- ✗
AWS Budgets
Why it's wrong here
AWS Budgets tracks spend against thresholds and fires alerts or actions when forecasts breach them; it reports cost, not instance sizing. Rightsizing requires Compute Optimizer's CloudWatch metric analysis to recommend a different instance type, which Budgets cannot produce.
- ✓
AWS Compute Optimizer
Why this is correct
AWS Compute Optimizer analyses CloudWatch metrics and resource configuration to generate rightsizing recommendations for EC2 instances, identifying over-provisioned or underutilised capacity. This directly satisfies the goal of finding underutilised instances, unlike billing or inventory tools that only report spend.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This CV0-004 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CV0-004 exam.