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[Bulah Landaker]

Netflix uses AWS for almost everything cloud computing. That includes online storage, a recommendation engine, video transcoding, databases, and analytics. So most of the $1 billion Netflix plans to spend on cloud services will go into Amazon Cloud Services.

These commitments may require a greater investment in AWS cloud services. Second, to satisfy shareholders and to avoid external financing for day-to-day operations, the company needs higher net profits.

To provide full cost visibility, the company deploys a custom data dashboard. The Efficiency Dashboard serves as a transparent feedback loop to its data consumers and producers. Netflix credits merging cost and usage context via dashboards for its cost-efficient architecture.

To appreciate how big of a deal that is, consider the amounts of data and different platforms Netflix needs to aggregate in one place, compute, and send to engineers so they can come up with working cloud cost optimization strategies.

The video streaming service generally uses two types of data platforms in motion and data at rest. While the first cost category involves processing transient data, data at rest systems involve physical data storage costs. Both categories include infrastructure spending.

Netflix gets its AWS billing data through the AWS Cost and Usage Report, like everyone else. You might know that the data can be tough to derive meaningful business insights from whether you consume it via S3 or CSV. It is even more challenging for decision-makers who are not data scientists.

Netflix uses a microservices architecture on AWS. Microservices architecture helps an organization to scale without additional work. It also helps maintain a cost-effective operation in the cloud and eliminates a single source of failure even if engineers change/update/upgrade multiple service areas in one go.

That agility helped the video streaming service innovate faster and cost-effectively, leading to Chaos Engineering, Spinnaker, and Global cloud, as well as the unprecedented growth Netflix sees today.

For example, you may see a high cloud bill at the end of a given month which may raise some alarms. However, you may have also signed new clients who demand more cloud usage and you may have also built a new product feature as part of a new and more lucrative client contract.

You do not need a team of data scientists or an in-house cost tool to improve your cloud costs. Instead, you can use a robust cloud cost intelligence solution to dig into your AWS bill, understand what you are spending and why, and maximize your ROI.

Depending on your subscription plan, the price hike adds up to an extra $24 or $36 you pay each year to the streaming service. Below, CNBC Select shares some ways to save on (and even benefit from) your Netflix subscription.

While you're unlikely to be happy about paying a higher monthly Netflix bill, it does mean you earn a bit more from that 6% cash back. Amex's cash back is earned in the form of Reward Dollars, which cardholders can then use as a statement credit to lower their credit card balance.

And with the U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature Card, cardholders can choose to earn 5% cash back on two bonus categories each quarter, on their first $2,000 in combined eligible net purchases, then 1%. Television, internet and streaming services are counted as a bonus category and U.S. Bank's website lists Netflix as a sample qualifying merchant. Again, you can use this cash back to essentially lower your credit card bill.

T-Mobile has a "Netflix On Us" deal where qualifying cell phone plans get a free Netflix subscription. Those who aren't happy with their current cell phone provider should consider this benefit, which not only makes Netflix complimentary but also consolidates your streaming and cell phone bill.

Netflix allows you to pause your membership and come back to it. This can give you a break from the monthly subscription if you're looking to cut costs or if you're just not watching a particular show at the moment.

You just have to connect the bank account you use to pay your Netflix subscription to Experian Boost, and Experian will add your payments to your Experian credit file. Consumers can link positive payment data as far back as 24 months. Experian Boost also includes access to your FICO Score and Experian free credit monitoring that alerts you to changes on your credit report, such as new account openings in your name and balance updates.

Basic and Premium plan Netflix subscribers will now pay a little more each month for the streaming service. To help save on this cost, get a credit card that rewards streaming purchases, switch your phone plan to T-Mobile or take a pause on your subscription. And, while you're paying more for it, make sure that monthly Netflix bill is helping your credit with Experian Boost.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every personal finance article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

Netflix Ultra refers to ultra-HD (also called 4K) resolution. Traditional HD starts at 1920x1080 pixels, but ultra-HD has twice that many pixels! Users in the US can get this ultra-HD content with the Premium Netflix plan. If you live in Europe, you can sign up for Netflix Ultra, which costs a little more than Premium.

Netflix is cracking down on password-sharing, limiting simultaneous streams to only work within the account owner's primary Wi-Fi network location. It's unclear when Netflix will implement these restrictions globally, but you can check out our piece on Netflix's new password rules to stay up to date.

Netflix users can now add extra members to Standard and Premium accounts for $7.99/month per extra member. Extra members will be able to manage their own account and password, though payments will be sent to the person who invited them to join their Netflix account. You can add one extra member to Netflix Standard and up to two extra members with Netflix Premium.

If you want to learn more about the kids content on Netflix and its excellent parental controls, head on over to our best streaming services for kids piece. Netflix won the No. 1 spot for the best service for your little ones.

Netflix suggests you have at least a 3 Mbps internet connection to stream and 5 Mbps for HD quality while using the app. If you have two simultaneous streams, you will need 10 Mbps for HD quality. (Not sure what internet speed you have? Test it out with our tool.)

I currently pay an additional $11 per month on my T-Mobile bill in order to get Netflix Premium. I just received a text message from T-Mobile that my cost would be increasing to $16 per month to keep Netflix Premium.

You should be able to change to Netflix Standard option for $8.50 per month added to your T-Mobile bill.

This was a nice perk for T-mobile customers and I am sure many have stayed with T-mobile as loyal customers for perks like this. The ad version of Netflix is a sharp downgrade for this perk and will likely lose them some customers which pull the trigger to find another carrier with a little better pricing and perks. I for one will be on the phone with T-mobile asking for a credit or something for this perk which I am losing and being a T-mobile customer for 12 years I hope I can get something for this loss of a great perk.

Netflix offers us Hulu with ads for free(that we never asked for) while downgrading Netflix without ads to Netflix with ads. They make it sound like this is a new benefit, which it is not. I will now downgrade my Magenta Max 55+ to the regular Magenta 55+ plan and pay for Netflix without ads separately.

Second, Call/T-Mobile: I felt uncomfortable with how the chat went, so I called to confirm I will not be changed. The agent was unable to to see anything that indicates I would stay on Basic. They believed (they were not sure) that Netflix was initiating the change. Makes sense I guess, so time to contact Netflix.

Third, Chat/Netflix: Agent informs me that Netflix cannot make plan changes to accounts billed through partners like T-Mobile. They state that I am on Basic and can stay on Basic and to let T-Mobile know I do not want to change.

So to all the people saying this is an overreaction and that "it costs nothing to simply not use it," every one of us is paying for this service, and if you think the price of Netflix isn't baked into the price you pay, then you don't know how business works. Even if we were getting it completely free, we may only have signed up for the service for specific perks, and may not be able to change services now due to the glut of legacy hardware and software that's in regular use around the world. We have a right to be pissed, because ads aren't nothing. They're annoying, they waste time, and more importantly they eat up data - and since we still have soft data caps that matters. Get off your high horse and recognize when you have nothing constructive to add to the conversation.

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