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The Cloudability dashboard is your go-to resource for tracking cloud cost and usage data. It's the first screen that you see upon login, featuring a set of customizable widgets you can build and arrange according to what data and reports are most relevant to you.

Here's a sample overview dashboard:

Create and manage dashboards

Before you get started creating and editing your dashboards, here is some key background information.

  • You can create multiple dashboards in addition to your default dashboard. For example, you could create a dashboard for your Operations team, a dashboard for your Finance team, and one to track Reservations.
  • Starred dashboards appear in the sidebar for quick access.
  • You can share dashboards with other users in your organization (more on that below).

Create a dashboard

To create a new dashboard:

  1. Navigate to Home > My Dashboard and select ALL DASHBOARDS .
  2. Select the New Dashboard icon.
  3. In the Dashboard Name field, enter a name for your dashboard.
  4. Select Save .

Your dashboard opens and you can begin adding widgets.

Share a dashboard

You can share dashboards with other users in your company's Cloudability account, or the entire organization all at once.

Note:

At present it is not possible for you to share the dashboard with the group of users in Cloudability. Cloudability dashboards can only be shared with individual users.

Each dashboard has a unique URL (for example, app.cloudability.com/#/dashboard/12345) that can be shared with other Cloudability users in your account, for easy pasting into emails or messaging tools.

To share a dashboard:

  1. Select the SHARE icon on your dashboard page.
  2. In the Share to User field, select an individual to access your dashboard.
  3. In the Permissions field, select whether that individual can edit or view your dashboard.
  4. Select Save .
    Your dashboard is shared.

You can also share the dashboard via a link that applies the current view. To do this, in the Share by URL field, choose the Include Current View check box and copy the url from the Link field. The recipient must already have access to the dashboard (with view or edit permissions). If the applied view is not accessible to the recipient, they will get the appropriate error message.

Add an annotation

You can create an annotation for a specific date, to easily remember events that impacted your data. These annotations will show up on any dashboard widget that shows that specific date in the chart. Annotations are currently user specific.

To add an annotation:

  1. Select the ANNOTATE icon on your dashboard page.
    The Annotations panel opens.
  2. Select the Create New button.
  3. In the Annotation Name field, enter a name for your annotation.
  4. In the Date selector, pick a date from the calendar.
  5. In the Description field, enter a detailed note regarding the event you want to record.
  6. Select Save .

Your annotation will display for every widget in your dashboard that contains the date you specfied.

Create and edit widgets

Before you get started adding widgets, here is some key background information:

  • A dashboard contains multiple widgets.
  • Widgets are the key components of your dashboard.
  • Widgets can be moved and sized within a set grid. The grid is 4 columns wide and can be extended down the page as far as needed to support the widgets on the page.
  • Hovering over the title of a widget reveals additional controls, and also allows you to move the widget to other locations on the page (it will snap to the grid).
  • The bottom-right corner of each widget has an arrow that allows you to resize the widget. It will snap to the grid after sizing.

To create a widget:

  1. Navigate to Home > My Dashboard and selectAdd Widget .
  2. In the Widget Type field, select an option to begin defining your widget.
    There are several widget types to choose from, each of which has a unique set of options to customize the data displayed on your dashboard. For example, Chart widgets can include multiple layers of data, and be displayed as lines or bars. On the other hand, the Estimate widget has a single purpose: to calculate your estimated monthly costs.
  3. In the Widget Name field, enter a name for your widget.
  4. In the Time period field, select a date range to display in the widget. If a dynamic date range is selected, the widget updates daily as fresh data is processed.
    Note:

    There is no dashboard-level date range that applies to all widgets on the dashboard in Cloudability.

    All times are listed in UTC. You can optionally analyze two discrete periods of time by checking the Compare option.

  5. In the X-Axis field, choose your x-axis (horizontal axis) dimension.
    It can be either a Cost dimension (from vendor billing files) or a Utilization dimension (from an API like Cloudwatch). This dimension serves as the x-axis for every layer of data you add to the widget.
  6. In the Y-Axis field, choose your y-axis (vertical axis) dimension.
    The drop-down will be limited to metrics associated with the dimension you chose earlier (for example, you'll only see cost metrics if you chose a cost dimension earlier):
  7. Configure advanced options for the layer, for example (some of these options only apply to a Chart widget type):
    • Group By - add a secondary dimension to dive deeper into the data
    • Series Name - add a prefix to the series name on the chart to help differentiate it from other chart layers you create
    • Display As - choose between line, area, vertical column, and horizontal bar charts
    • Start Scale At - adjust the bottom bound of your chart
    • Limit Results to - only show the top (or bottom depending on the sort) N number of items
    • Sort By - ascending or descending based on the Y-axis total
    • Hide Scale - hide it from the chart axis
    • Show Trendline - show a line representing the aggregate trajectory of the data across the series
    • Hide Legend - remove it from the chart display
    Note:

    If you add a secondary dimension to a Widget (Group By), the Trendline and Limit options are disabled.

    Cost Dimensions and Metrics

  8. You can also add one or more filters to a chart layer to hone in on the specific data points you're interested in. Filters can be added based on tags, account groups, products, and many other cost and usage dimensions and metrics . You can select from a variety of operators as well.
  9. You can also add more layers to the widget to overlay additional metrics on the chart by selecting Add Layer . You can use a compatible Cost or Utilization metric depending on the original x-axis you chose at the beginning of the process.
  10. When you are finished, select Save . Your widget is added to your dashboard.