* Quick Housekeeping. Check for stale snapshots, ensure that your EBS volumes are backed up, check to see if Amazon has any scheduled maintenance set over your cloud during the weekend, and ensure ports are closed. Otherwise, in the event of an unexpected event, such as hurricane damage or a security breach, your data may be difficult or impossible to recover. We've also seen our customers backup their application environments so they can restore, and ultimately resume business, as fast as possible.

If you're expecting business to slowdown over the holiday or want to shut down part of your application environment, make sure your resource management strategy is aligned with a planned decrease in demand so you don't over-spend.

* Check idle instance count. Idle instances are EC2 instances that you're paying for but aren't using. When gone unchecked, idle instances can run up your AWS bill. If executed over a large batch, or forgotten about over a long period of time, your bill can easily run through the roof. The problem can become more complex when your cloud environment changes frequently and you may not recall what resources are running vs. what you exactly need. Consider an auto-scaling solution to identify and close unused instances over the weekend.

* Check for abnormal changes in cost. Abnormal changes - both increases and decreases in your cloud - can denote substantial changes to your cloud configuration. Cost increases, such as recently purchased resources should be confirmed and aligned with your planned three-day weekend needs. At times, decreases in costs may indicate that you may not have adequate resources to meet planned demand over the weekend.