One of the major issues with first-generation cloud cost management platforms is their tendency to become shelfware. Low data quality, high barriers to entry for new users, and low signal-to-noise ratio made it hard to drive cost accountability among engineering teams — and pushed many organizations to nearly give up on it.
But — as Werner Vogels so elegantly put it at re:Invent this year — engineers have the most power to impact cloud spend, and thus belong at the center of cloud cost management. To do so, they need high-quality data about their cloud infrastructure in a platform that’s easy to explore and drives action.
CloudZero is that platform — and we’re constantly making it more of that platform. This month’s release notes center on these very items: improvements to data quality, greater analytical flexibility, and ultimately, increased engineering accountability.
Take a look at what our product team accomplished in November, and stay tuned for more updates like these in the future!
Billing Data API
Introducing: CloudZero has long been the best option for getting cost data into the platform and unified in a single pane of glass. With our Billing Data API, you can now get cost data out of the platform with the same ease and accuracy — and integrate it with whatever other developer portals, observability, and/or business intelligence tools you’re working with.
You can use it to: Access and analyze cost data however you want to. We work with the best engineering teams in the world — teams that need maximum flexibility from their cost data. Our Billing Data API lets you retrieve data programmatically and load it into your backend systems, enable developer portal integration, and give your teams cost visibility in your organization’s internal tools.
Status: Live!
Invoiced Amortized Cost
Introducing: Invoiced Amortized Cost, a new cost type — similar to Discounted Amortized Cost — that amortizes only the recurring portion of the Reserved Instance (RI) and Savings Plan (SP) charges.
You can use it to:
- Generate a cost metric tied to your cloud invoices — that excludes fluctuating monthly RI and SP fees
- Give teams a more accurate idea of what they’re spending in the cloud
- Power more accurate showback and chargeback
Status: Live!
Enhanced Anomaly System
Introducing: A new and improved anomaly system that’s catching twice as many anomalies with even greater accuracy.
What changed?
- Improved the anomaly backend system, refining the logic by which CloudZero identifies anomalies
- Improved the display of anomaly metadata, making it easier for your engineers to address anomalies
- Anomalies are now delivered directly to the appropriate team for each View you create
You can use it to:
- Find and address more cost anomalies overall
- Create more targeted anomaly detection, based on Views you create for your teams
- Power greater cost accountability and spend more efficiently in the cloud
Status: Live!
Small Bites
Updated User Page UX
That includes a new design, an “Actions” column, and a search bar to help you find the user you’re looking for in seconds.
Cloud-Agnostic Trend Notifications
Words matter. CloudZero now reports overarching cloud spend trends as “Total Cloud Spend,” not “AWS Spend” (where applicable).
Generic Parameters For Analytics
Users can now create their own values for dashboards, allowing for increased flexibility and more refined data analysis.
The Cloud Cost Playbook
The step-by-step guide to cost maturity
