CV0-004 Operations and Support Practice Question
A company wants to reduce cloud costs by identifying underutilized EC2 instances. Which AWS service provides rightsizing recommendations?
⚠ Common exam trap
CV0-004 often tests the confusion between cost visualization tools (Cost Explorer, Budgets) and cost optimization tools (Compute Optimizer, Trusted Advisor), tricking candidates into choosing a tool that only reports costs rather than recommends rightsizing.
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 analyzes historical utilization metrics of EC2 instances and provides rightsizing recommendations to identify underutilized or overprovisioned instances. It uses machine learning to recommend optimal instance types based on CPU, memory, network, and disk usage, directly addressing the goal of reducing costs by identifying underutilized 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 Budgets
Why it's wrong here
AWS Budgets tracks spend against thresholds and fires alerts when costs or usage exceed defined limits; it does not analyse instance metrics to produce rightsizing recommendations. It is tempting because it addresses cost visibility, and it would be the correct choice for notifying when monthly EC2 expenditure approaches a set budget.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor checks cost-optimisation flags such as idle load balancers and low-utilisation EC2 instances, but its rightsizing guidance is limited to average CPU over 14 days and excludes memory. Compute Optimizer delivers the detailed rightsizing recommendations this scenario requires.
- ✗
AWS Cost Explorer
Why it's wrong here
Cost Explorer visualises and forecasts spend by service, linked account and tag; it reports that EC2 costs are high but never compares instance metrics against instance types. Compute Optimizer analyses CloudWatch utilisation to recommend specific instance families and sizes.
- ✓
AWS Compute Optimizer
Why this is correct
AWS Compute Optimizer analyses CloudWatch metrics for EC2 instances and delivers rightsizing recommendations, directly satisfying the requirement to identify underutilised instances and cut cloud spend. It evaluates CPU, memory and network utilisation over time, unlike billing tools that only report cost.
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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
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