Understanding your subscription usage and billing

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The Subscription Management page shows your actual historical, monthly, and cumulative usage as reflected on your bill. Use this data to monitor usage, identify usage patterns, control budget, project expenses, and reconcile billing statements.

To access this page, click Subscription management in the left panel (Admin > Subscription management). There are two tabs, each providing key information.
  • The Account page states your subscription edition (Essentials, Advanced, and so on) and summarizes the features and volume allowances of your AoC plan. This page also describes your subscription term, making it easy to know when renewal date approaches.

    This tab includes your pre-paid volume for the three key usage components: transfer volume, egress, and storage. These volumes include your original in-plan allowance plus any additional allowance you added since the term began. (Pay-as-You-Go subscriptions do not have pre-paid volumes.)

  • The Subscription page, available to administrators of paid editions, displays historical and current monthly usage. In graphs and tables, you can see monthly and cumulative usage (when applicable) compared to your plan allowances or pre-committed maximums for each value. This page is available to administrators of all paid editions. For more access details, see "Availability" near the end of this article.
For details on AoC subscription editions, pricing, and available terms, or to start a free trial, see https://www.ibm.com/cloud/aspera/pricing. To discuss a current AoC subscription, contact your IBM Sales Representative.
Note: If you are the initial admin in your org, you also have access to the Aspera Usage Portal at https://usage.asperasoft.com/login. The Usage Portal provides data on transfer usage only, and allows you to download CSV reports of transfer usage. Additional admins can request access to the Usage Portal by emailing aspera-bss@wwpdl.vnet.ibm.com.

Trial subscriptions

Admins of trial subscriptions can access the Account summary page only. Trial subscriptions are the Advanced edition.

For a free trial of Aspera on Cloud, go to https://www.ibm.com/cloud/aspera/pricing.

Convert from trial to paid subscription: Contact IBM Sales

To convert from a free trial to a paid subscription, go to https://www.ibm.com/cloud/aspera/pricing, then click the Let's talk button to contact an IBM Sales Rep. Keep in mind that your trial subscription gives you the Advanced edition; if you convert to a different paid edition, available features and volumes will change.

Metric definitions

The Subscription management page shows your actual usage as reflected on your bill. See also the IBM Aspera on Cloud Service Description.

Subscription versions

Revisions to the Aspera on Cloud service description have changed some metric definitions. The content in this and related articles reflects the newest service description. Following are a few examples of these service description changes. There are other service description changes, including certain pricing details and tethered node limits, that do not impact these articles.

In the new service description:
  • Pay-as-You-Go editions do not have pre-paid storage; all your storage in use at the time of the monthly snapshot is billed to you.
  • Pay-as-You-Go editions no longer see a separately line item for egress. Instead, egress charges are included in transfer volume charges.
  • All editions allow unlimited users.
  • The Activity app is available to all editions.

Transfer volume

Your subscription accumulates transfer volume when you use any Aspera transfer server that is enabled by an entitlement to transfer files or folders. Your subscription does not accumulate transfer volume when you use a transfer server that is enabled by a license, which is bandwidth-based rather than consumption-based.

Your pre-paid subscription includes a pre-paid amount of transfer volume. If you exceed that pre-paid maximum, you'll receive a bill for the excess volume, billed at pay-per-use (overage) rates.

Pay-as-You-Go subscriptions do not have pre-paid transfer volume. As a Pay/Go subscriber, you are billed for all outbound and inbound transfers enabled by an entitlement.

For details, see Manage transfer volume in your subscription.

Egress

Egress measures the volume of data transferred out of your attached cloud storage using an Aspera-managed transfer server.

Your pre-paid subscription includes a pre-paid amount of egress. If you exceed that pre-paid maximum, you'll receive a bill for the excess volume, billed at pay-per-use (overage) rates.

Pay-as-You-Go subscriptions do not pay egress; egress fees are included in transfer volume fees.

For details, see Manage egress in your subscription.

Storage

This value is the volume of data that your organization places in your built-in IBM Cloud storage each month.

Your pre-paid subscription includes a pre-paid amount of storage. If you exceed that pre-paid maximum, you'll receive a bill for the excess volume, billed at pay-per-use (overage) rates.

Pay-as-You-Go subscriptions do not have pre-paid storage. As a Pay/Go subscriber, you are billed for all storage in your built-in IBM Cloud storage. For details, see Manage storage in your subscription.

Availability

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The Subscription management page provides two views: Account and Usage. These views are available to AoC admins according to the table below.
Note: The Subscription management page is not currently available to customers with multiple AoC organizations.

For any questions about availability of the Subscription management page, contact your IBM Sales Representative: go to https://www.ibm.com/cloud/aspera/pricing, then click Let's Talk; an IBM Sales professional will come online to assist you.

View Trial Pay/Go Essentials Standard Plus Premium
Account ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Usage — ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓