Cloudability Cost Sharing -Telemetry and Consumption Based Allocations

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Overview

Telemetry Based Allocations enables you to distribute shared costs across your cloud environment using actual usage metrics from your systems. By uploading telemetry data, you can create more accurate and data-driven allocation rules within Cost Sharing.

Benefits

Using telemetry data for cost allocation provides several key advantages, as in:

  • Usage-Based Cost Distribution : Allocate costs based on actual system usage rather than static percentages or estimated metrics

  • Improved Cost Accuracy : Create a direct correlation between resource consumption and cost distribution

  • Defensible Allocation Model : Support cost allocations with concrete usage data, making it easier to justify charge-back models

  • Flexible Metric Support : Use any measurable metric (API calls, compute usage, storage operations) to drive allocation decisions

Before you begin

The file used for uploading your telemetry data should be a CSV file with the following required fields:

  • Date: The time stamp for the metric measurement

  • Category: Maps to your business dimension category

  • Value: The metric measurement (e.g., number_of_api_requests, compute_hours)

The following example displays a CSV file format.

Date Category Number of API requests
2025-01-01 Team A 15000
2025-01-01 Team B 8500
2025-01-01 Team C 12000

Using Telemetry in Cost Sharing

Follow the steps below to use Telemetry and consumption based allocations:

  1. Upload your telemetry data file through the Cost Sharing interface within a specific business dimension.

  2. Create or edit an allocation rule.

  3. Select Telemetry Based Allocation as your allocation strategy.

  4. Choose your uploaded telemetry metric from the dropdown.

  5. Save your allocation rule.

The system will automatically compute allocation ratios based on your telemetry data and apply them to your shared costs.

Best Practices

Follow the best practices in Telemetry as below:

  • Ensure your telemetry data covers the same time period as your cost allocation periods.

  • Validate that your Category field values align with your existing business dimension categories.

  • Regular updates to telemetry data will provide the most accurate cost distribution.

  • Consider seasonality and usage patterns when selecting appropriate metrics for allocation.