Exploring Cloud Cost Management

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Cloud Cost Management

    Cloud Cost Management in ServiceNow enables organizations to thoroughly analyze and manage the costs associated with their cloud assets. It continuously monitors cloud infrastructure to provide actionable insights that help optimize cloud spending and improve operational efficiency.

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    Key Features

    • Cloud Cost Management Workspace: Offers executives, FinOps practitioners, cloud managers, and administrators a user-friendly interface to gain full visibility into cloud spend and usage.
    • Rightsizing Resources: Provides automated recommendations to correctly size cloud resources according to actual usage, helping cloud administrators and application owners reduce costs.
    • Reservation or Saving Plans: Enables cost reduction by converting on-demand payment plans to reservation plans for cloud resources.
    • Unused Resources Identification: Detects high-spend areas and stranded assets so administrators and application owners can target cost optimizations.
    • Business Hours Automation: Automatically turns off unused cloud resources outside normal working hours to save costs.
    • Cloud Budgets: Allows FinOps practitioners and cloud administrators to allocate and manage budgets effectively.
    • Change Management Integration: Automates cloud optimization approvals by integrating optimization tasks into existing change management workflows.

    Key Outcomes

    • Complete transparency and control over cloud expenditures for multiple roles across the organization.
    • Reduced cloud costs through rightsizing, reservation plans, and elimination of unused resources.
    • Improved operational efficiency by automating routine cost-saving actions like powering down idle resources.
    • Streamlined financial governance with budget allocation and approval workflows integrated into change management.

    Learn more about Cloud Cost Management with a sample workflow and reviewing the benefits that it can provide for different users in your organization.

    Cloud Cost Management overview

    Cloud Cost Management helps you analyze the full range of costs related with cloud assets so you can identify and act on chances to save money and optimize operations.

    Cloud Cost Management workflow

    Cloud Cost Management continuously monitors your cloud infrastructure to analyze costs so you can identify and act on resources to save money and optimize operations.

    Figure 1. Monitor your cloud infrastructure
    Monitoring the cloud infrastructure to analyze costs of your cloud assets.

    Cloud Cost Management benefits

    Benefit Feature Users
    Optimize cloud costs and usage by gaining complete visibility of your cloud spend and usage through an intuitive and streamlined user interface. Cloud Cost Management Workspace Executives/FinOps Practitioners/Cloud Managers/Cloud Administrators
    Rightsize cloud resources by getting automated recommendations on how to reduce cloud costs by correctly dimensioning cloud resources to match usage. Rightsizing resources Cloud Administrators/Application owners
    Decrease costs by the conversion of on-demand payment plans to reservation plans for your cloud resources. Reservation or Saving plans Cloud Administrators/Application owners
    Identify cost optimizations targets by analyzing areas of high spend and stranded cloud assets. Unused resources Cloud Administrators/Application owners
    Turn off resources when not in use by identifying cloud resources that aren’t used outside normal working hours and automatically turn them off and on. Business hours Cloud Administrators/Application owners
    Allocate budgets Cloud budgets FinOps Practitioners/Cloud Administrators
    Automate optimization approvals by integrating cloud optimization tasks into your existing change management processes. Change Management FinOps Practitioners/Cloud Administrators