Cost Allocation and Recommendations
Managing cloud costs effectively can be a complex and time-consuming task, especially as businesses adopt multi-cloud strategies. Organizations often struggle with visibility into spending across different cloud providers, making it difficult to identify areas for optimization and cost savings. Additionally, manually allocating costs across accounts and cost groups can be cumbersome and prone to errors.
Octo addresses these challenges by introducing a powerful new feature: Cost Allocation for AWS Fees. This feature automates the allocation of AWS savings acquired through Reserved Instances (RI) and Savings Plans (SP). Now, you can easily distribute these savings to different accounts or cost groups, ensuring that the benefits are shared across your organization.
🆕Cost Allocation for AWS Savings
This is the last part of the three functions under cost allocation. In this release, savings acquired through reserved instances and savings plans can be allocated to another account. This means that any savings on one account can be allocated to another. By having this, the account who uses the Reserved Instances (RI) or Savings Plan (SP) will benefit from the savings.
Sample Image
Sample Image
Allocation Source
Setting the allocation source is the same process with the previous two allocations (fees and account usage). In this type of allocation, we are going to identify the RI or SP that makes the savings. The details of the RI or SP are displayed in order to easily set up the allocator.
Allocation Target
The allocation target sets the account or cost group where you want to allocate the savings. In this step, you can specify the target account or cost group and set the specific cost for that target. When setting the cost, it can be done through percentage allocation or it could be based on the usage of the account or cost group.
How does Octo automatically allocate the cost?
Based on the created cost allocator, it will scan the record of RI and SP data. If the savings data on our database meet the criteria on the cost allocator, it will now get the corresponding usage where the savings has been applied. From the usage item, cost allocation will be based on the formula that you have provided. It could be done through percentage or usage ratio allocation.
🆕 Delete and Upgrade Recommendations
Here are the six (6) newly added supported delete and update recommendations:
Terminate EC2 Instance
Terminating an EC2 instance involves permanently deleting the instance and its associated resources to eliminate costs and free up capacity. This action is irreversible, meaning that all data stored on instance store volumes will be lost, and the instance cannot be recovered once terminated. The execution process includes stopping the instance (if running), initiating the termination request, and removing associated resources such as Elastic IPs and attached non-persistent volumes.
Rightsize RDS DB Instance Storage
Applying an RDS storage rightsizing recommendation involves optimizing the database instance's storage configuration to balance cost and performance based on workload demands. This process may include resizing the storage volume, changing the storage type (e.g., General Purpose SSD to Provisioned IOPS SSD for improved performance), adjusting the provisioned IOPS, and modifying the throughput settings where applicable.
Upgrade EC2 Instance
Upgrading an EC2 instance involves changing to a newer generation instance type to enhance performance, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Newer generation instances offer improved CPU performance, better network bandwidth, and enhanced features while maintaining compatibility with existing workloads.
The execution process includes stopping the instance, modifying the instance type to a newer generation, and restarting it to apply the changes.
Upgrade RDS DB Instance Storage
Upgrading an RDS DB instance's storage involves changing to a newer generation storage type to improve performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency. This process may include transitioning from older storage types (e.g., Magnetic or previous-generation SSDs) to newer options such as General Purpose SSD (gp3) or Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) for enhanced performance and scalability. Additionally, the upgrade may involve increasing storage size, adjusting provisioned IOPS, and optimizing throughput settings where applicable.
Upgrade RDS DB Instance
Upgrading an RDS DB instance involves changing to a newer generation instance class to enhance performance, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Newer generation instance classes provide improved CPU, memory, networking capabilities, and optimized hardware, ensuring better performance for database workloads.
The execution process includes modifying the DB instance to use a newer instance class. This change requires a restart of the database instance, resulting in brief downtime.
Upgrade EC2 Auto Scaling Group
Upgrading an Auto Scaling Group (ASG) involves updating its instance type to a newer generation for improved performance, cost efficiency, and scalability. Newer generation instances offer better CPU performance, enhanced networking, and improved energy efficiency while maintaining compatibility with existing workloads.
The execution process includes creating a new launch template version with the upgraded instance type and updating the ASG to use the latest version. Once applied, existing instances are gradually replaced through the ASG's scaling policies.
🛠️ Bug Fixes and Other Enhancements
Enhancements:
Discount Allocation: Updated discount plan components and interface.
Avatar Image Upload: Improved handling of uploaded image aspect ratio in avatars.
Recommendations: Third release for the execute feature.
Core: Added the text-none class to VBtn default styles in Vuetify configuration.
Bug Fixes:
Discount Allocation: Improved support and logic for SP and RI types, along with the addition of a discount allocation feature with localization support.
Helpers: Added the preventE function to block the 'e' key input in keyboard events.
Bug Fix: Enhanced error handling in dashboard widgets.
Dashboard [Reports]: Added a currency parameter to ViewParams and updated the duplicate action.
Dashboard [Recommendations/Report]: Refactored recommendation buttons to conditionally render based on the route.
Tests
Cypress Test → Discount Plan: Test case for viewing the discount plan.
Cypress Test → Budget Management: Test cases for budget management.
Cypress Test → Forecasting: Added test cases for viewing forecasted data in charts within the cost group.
Others
Recommendations: Support the execution of recommendations for the third release in Prod.
Thank you for your continued support. We will continue to improve our features based on user feedback.