Cost Center

Cost centers provide visibility of expenditure to dynamically manage cloud operations and plan ahead. Cost centers are associated with node delpoyments. The limits defined in the cost center are checked before deploying nodes. The estimated costs accrued by cost centers are displayed visually as well as in a table.

You can create a heirarchical structure to capture costs and manage expenditure as per organizational requirements. At each level of the heirarchy you can set a budget. You can set a restrictive budget limit at the highest level to control overall expenditure. You can set limits on core, nodes and burn rate ($/hr) for each cost center to prevent unintentional spends.

Cost centers aim to provide day-to-day operational control. They are not meant to provide long term accounting data. They provide a cap on resources and spending to prevent accidental entry of high values and unintentional extreme spikes in spending.

Add a Cost Center

  1. In the navigation bar, click Cost center.
    The Global Cost center is displayed. All other cost centers are contained inside the Global Cost Center.
  2. If the table is hidden, click Show Table.
  3. Click add () to add a cost center.
  4. Provide a Name and a Description.
  5. Click Save.

    The cost center is enabled as soon as it is created. You can create a heirarchy of cost centers based on your requirements. For example, Wind Turbines division can contain cost centers for Structures and CFD with limits on each entity. The automation rules corresponding a cost center have to be updated before disabling the cost center.

Add Limits

  1. In the Cost Centers table click the name of the cost center.
  2. Click Add limit.
  3. You can add limits for Cores, Nodes and Burn rate. You can add one limit per metric.
  4. Click Save.

    When the threshold for the limits is exceeded, nodes will not be deployed for associated deployments. You can enable, disable, edit and delete the limits.

Add Budget Limits

  1. In the Cost Centers table click the name of the cost center.
  2. Click Add budget limit.
  3. Provide a name for the budget limit.
  4. Enter a threshold budget value ($).
  5. Set a start and end date for a budget period. The limit will be applied for this duration.
  6. Select Apply budget until disabled to apply the limit without defining a budget period.
  7. Click Save.

    When the threshold budget is exceeded, nodes will not be deployed for associated deployments. If the budget period has not expired, you can enable, disable, edit and delete the budget limit. You can also modify the budget period duration.