Understanding Cloud Pricing and Chargeback
Welcome to the grand finale of our illuminating three-part series on VMware Cloud Cost Management! Your patience and enthusiasm have brought us to this highly anticipated conclusion, where we unravel the complexities of Chargeback.
In our initial installment, we delved deep into the art of comprehending and controlling cloud expenses with Aria Operations. We explored the Total Cost of Ownership, identified Cost Drivers, analyzed expenses, and discussed Show-back and Optimization strategies. Each element was meticulously unpacked to provide a comprehensive view of managing expenses in the cloud environment.
Our journey continued in the second segment, where future planning took center stage. We navigated through the intricate processes of preparing for upcoming workloads, infrastructures, or migrations. The What If analysis capabilities of Aria Operations served as our compass, offering insightful cost comparisons to guide our decision-making processes.
Now, as we step into the concluding chapter of this enlightening journey, the focus shifts to the intricate world of Chargeback. Whether you are a service provider seeking to bill your tenants or an enterprise aiming to allocate costs to different departments, this segment is crafted for you.
What is Chargeback and why is it important?
Chargeback is a crucial aspect of cloud services, especially for service providers utilising VMware technology. It refers to the process of attributing the costs of cloud resources and services directly to the users or departments that consume them. This practice is pivotal for both service providers and tenants, ensuring that there is a clear, transparent mechanism for billing and payment.
In the complex ecosystem of cloud services, providers often offer a range of infrastructure options and billing models to their tenants. This variety, while beneficial, can make the tracking, allocation, and billing of resources a complicated affair. Aria Operations Chargeback Capabilities are engineered to navigate this complexity effectively. It meticulously meters the infrastructure, applying configured pricing models to accurately calculate charges based on actual usage.
Aria Operations ensures that tenants are not left in the dark regarding their consumption and associated costs. It provides detailed, tenant-specific views that break down usage, offering a transparent look at how charges are incurred. This transparency is not just a matter of clarity but also fosters trust between service providers and tenants. It ensures that every charge is justified and understood, eliminating surprises and disputes over billing.
In a world where cloud services are increasingly intricate and diversified, tools like Aria Operations are indispensable. They bridge the gap between the complexity of cloud resource consumption and the simplicity and transparency that clients and service providers seek in billing. Chargeback, facilitated by advanced tools and clear policies, ensures that the business of cloud services is straightforward, fair, and easily comprehensible for all parties involved.
Chargeback and Provider Operations for VMware Cloud Director
Background
For many service providers utilizing VMware cloud, the VMware Cloud Director has been the linchpin for managing multitenancy and orchestrating resource and service provisioning. In this ecosystem, VMware Chargeback, previously known as the Tenant App, has played a pivotal role in facilitating precise and logical billing for cloud service consumption.
Originally, VMware Chargeback stood as a distinct entity, relying heavily on Aria Operations for the intricate tasks of metering and pricing data computations. It served as a bridge, ensuring that service providers could easily and accurately bill their tenants, fostering transparency and trust.
Excitingly, we’re ushering in a new era of simplicity and flexibility. We’ve integrated Chargeback capabilities directly into Aria Operations, eliminating the need for a standalone product. This integration streamlines the entire process of metering, pricing, and billing, reducing complexity and enhancing efficiency.
Service providers can now enjoy a more intuitive and consolidated experience, with all the tools needed for effective billing housed under a single, comprehensive umbrella. This not only enhances the accuracy and transparency of billing but also empowers providers with more flexibility to tailor their services to meet the diverse needs of their tenants.
Join us as we explore this seamless integration, unpacking the enhanced features and benefits that await in the enriched landscape of Aria Operations.
What’s New in Chargeback and VCD Operations?
Chargeback features can now be seamlessly accessed directly from the Aria Operations Launchpad, located within the VMware Cloud Director Infrastructure Tile. This integration ensures a more streamlined and user-friendly experience for managing and analyzing cloud service costs and usage.
From the vantage point of a service provider, the VMware Cloud Director Infrastructure Tile is your comprehensive toolkit, equipped with an array of essential features. Nestled within, you’ll find pivotal configuration capabilities, including seamless integration options, tenant access controls, and configurations for inbound tenant emails and outbounds for sending reports/notifications.
Tenant consumption specific views are not left behind in this enhanced interface. A consumer’s view is intricately designed to offer insights into chargeback overviews and present detailed Sovereign Cloud Compliance Reports. Every stakeholder, from service provider to consumer, is catered to, ensuring that the VMware Cloud Director Infrastructure Tile is not just a tool, but a comprehensive solution
for multifaceted cloud service management.
For providers, a tailored view is accessible, offering a suite of functionalities designed to streamline operations. Delve into the creation and assignment of pricing policies, schedule and generate bills with ease, and manage tenant notifications and reports effortlessly. Every tool is at your fingertips, ensuring that managing your offerings is as intuitive as it is efficient.
Now, let us understand, each of the above areas in detail-
Supportability
The following combinations of products will be supported-
Getting Onboarded
Chargeback Capabilities for VCD/CDS users will soon be now present within Aria Operations.
The following combinations of products will work. Upgrade your versions to get access
- VCD 10.5.1 (On Prem) and above with Aria Operations 8.16 (On Prem)
- VCD 10.5.0 (On Prem) and above with Aria Operations SaaS (January 2023 version)
- CDS (any version since June 2023) with Aria Operations SaaS (January 2023 version)
- Starting Aria Operations 8.16, only natively integrated Chargeback capabilities will work (no standalone VMware Chargeback)
Migration from standalone VMware Chargeback to Aria Operations
If you are already using VMware Chargeback (formerly known as Tenant App), you can follow the following steps-
Prerequisites:
- Aria Operations upgraded to 8.16
- VCD version upgraded to 10.5.1
- Existing chargeback to be at least 8.10
Steps:
- Upgrade VMware Chargeback to the latest version VMware Chargeback 8.16
- From the Migration Tab within VMware Chargeback (Tenant App) ‘Initiate migration’ process
Migration will be completed in a few minutes and all your Chargeback capabilities will now be accessible through Aria Operations
Configuration
Integration
Integration capabilities are fundamental in establishing a robust and efficient cloud ecosystem. They facilitate seamless operations, especially vital in the context of chargeback processes. By integrating core platforms like vCenter, VCD, Cloud Director Availability, and NSX, service providers can harness a well-rounded environment that bolsters the simplicity and accuracy of chargeback procedures.
Initiate your integration journey by configuring the necessary adapters. These adapters are integral, enabling seamless interoperability between diverse platforms and applications.
Available Management Packs:
- VMware Cloud Director: A cornerstone for cloud service delivery.
- vCenter: Centralizes the management of virtualized hosts and virtual machines.
- Cloud Director Availability: Guarantees continuous service availability.
- NSX: A comprehensive network virtualization and security platform.
Identify the required management packs and proceed with their config, download and installation. This ensures your system is primed for optimal performance.
Note: Explore beyond the provided list of management packs to discover additional options tailored to enhance your cloud management framework.
Visit the ‘Learn More’ section on the Launchpad for an in-depth visual guide, equipped with a job aid video for detailed insights into the integration setup process.
Chargeback Settings
Chargeback settings play a crucial role in administering and managing the user experience for your tenants. These settings are essential in offering a customized operational experience that is specifically tailored to meet the unique needs and preferences of each tenant. In this guide, we will explore the intricacies of chargeback settings and provide a step-by-step approach to effectively utilizing them.
Enabling the Aria Operations Plugin
Before embarking on the journey to customize the chargeback settings, the first pivotal step is ensuring that the Aria Operations plugin is enabled for your tenants. This plugin lays the foundational stone, offering visibility into cloud operations and ensuring that tenants can effectively monitor, manage, and optimize their activities. With the Aria Operations plugin enabled, the door to a plethora of customizable options swings wide open, paving the way for a tailored user experience.
As a service provider, you have the option to either enable or disable the ‘Aria Operations Plugin’ directly from the ‘Customize Portal’ feature within your VMware Cloud Director environment.
Customize Tenant Views
With the Aria Operations plugin in place, admins are granted the liberty to personalize tenant views according to distinct requirements. This level of customization ensures an intuitive interface and user experience, meticulously crafted to align with each tenant’s operational needs.
Manage Metrics with Precision
Chargeback settings offer the luxury of selective metrics visibility. Admins can toggle the visibility of various metrics, ensuring tenants are exposed to information that is directly relevant to their operational requirements. This selective exposure fosters an efficient and focused operational environment.
Control Page Accessibility
The ability to control the accessibility of pages is another gem offered by chargeback settings. Admins can dictate which pages are accessible to tenants, ensuring a targeted and distraction-free user experience that is honed to meet specific operational needs.
Innovative Pricing Settings
Financial management is seamlessly integrated into chargeback settings. Admins have the tools to set detailed chargeback models, such as the “Pay as you go” option for storage. This integration offers tenants flexibility and control over their financial engagements, ensuring transparency and customization in billing.
Data Retention Protocols
Data management is streamlined with the ability to set specific durations for bill and tenant data retention. These protocols ensure that data is managed, stored, and discarded in compliance with operational and legal standards. Regular reviews and adjustments to these settings are encouraged to adapt to the evolving landscape of needs and regulations.
Visit the ‘Learn More’ section on the Launchpad for an in-depth visual guide, equipped with a job aid video for detailed insights into Chargeback Settings.
Email Configuration
The robust email configuration feature empowers you to meticulously set up and manage tenant emails for dispatching critical alerts and comprehensive reports. This feature is designed with an intuitive interface and user-friendly functionalities, ensuring a seamless experience in keeping your tenants informed and engaged. Here’s a breakdown of the steps to optimize this feature:
Begin by navigating to the email settings section, offering a variety of customization options for tenant notifications. Enter the tenants’ email addresses to ensure they receive pertinent alerts and reports. Customize the notifications according to each tenant’s needs and interests. Don’t forget to save and test the configurations to confirm their accuracy and reliability.After tuning the settings to perfection, save your configurations and propel a test email into the ether. This step is crucial to affirm that notifications are not just sent but are received in the intended format, ensuring clarity and comprehension.
Pro Tip:
Regularly update tenants’ email addresses to ensure all notifications are received accurately.
Outbound Settings
Outbound settings are pivotal in ensuring efficient communication of alerts and reports, offering a tailored experience in information delivery. These settings are designed to offer customization, precision, and reliability, ensuring that every piece of critical information is dispatched and received timely and accurately.
Navigate to the outbound settings and enter the designated outbound email address. Choose the types of notifications—alerts, reports, or both—to be sent. Always save and test the settings to confirm their functionality.
It’s advisable to periodically review and update these settings to align with the changing communication needs and ensure the continuous delivery of timely notifications.
Provider’s View
Pricing Policy Definition
The Pricing Policy Definition tool is your ally in formulating and managing pricing policies, ensuring a streamlined billing process for your tenants. With intuitive navigation and user-friendly interfaces, you’re equipped to create and adjust policies with precision, aligning them with both your and your tenants’ needs.
Creating a Pricing Policy
Initiate the process by navigating to the policy section and selecting ‘Add Policy’. Enter the policy name and required details, then opt for the VCD Pricing tile. Unlock the parameters you intend to modify, ensuring a customized pricing policy. Always preview the policy to validate its accuracy before saving the configuration to cement your settings.
Managing a Pricing Policy
Modification is just as seamless. Locate the desired policy on the policy page, click to unveil a suite of actions, and select ‘Edit’. In the VCD section, unlock and amend the parameters as needed. A preview of the changes allows for meticulous verification of every adjustment. Upon satisfaction, confirm and save the edits to update the policy.
Pro Tip
A golden rule to uphold is previewing every change before saving. This practice ensures that every adjustment is accurate, fostering a billing environment that’s both transparent and precise.
In essence, the Pricing Policy Definition is a cornerstone in billing management, offering a blend of simplicity, precision, and flexibility. By leveraging this tool, you ensure that every tenant is billed with accuracy, promoting transparency and trust in every transaction.
Pricing Policy Assignment
The intricacies of billing are simplified with Pricing Policy Assignment, a tool designed to assign specific pricing policies to tenants with ease and precision. It transforms a complex process into an intuitive experience, ensuring every tenant is aligned with the appropriate pricing structure.
For assigning a Pricing Policy, Kickstart the assignment by identifying the policy you aim to append objects to. Unassigned or newly created policies are conveniently located under the Inactive section, ready for activation.
The right side of the page hosts the object navigation, where you can select the desired Org or Org VDC with ease. The culmination of the process is as intuitive as a drag-and-drop action, where the chosen object is seamlessly assigned to the selected policy.
Vigilance in ensuring that the appropriate objects are aligned with the correct policies is paramount. This attention to detail guarantees that pricing is not just accurate but is also reflective of each tenant’s specific engagements and utilizations.
Billing
Billing capability stands as a cornerstone for efficient financial management, offering tools to generate and schedule bills seamlessly for your tenants. It transforms the often-complex billing process into a streamlined, automated, and error-free operation, ensuring consistency and accuracy in every transaction.
Generating Bills Manually
Initiate the billing process by navigating to ‘Generate Bill’. Fill in the essential details including the bill name, description, and billing period.
Select the billing objects, which could either be an Organization or Organization VDC, and with a simple click on ‘Generate Bill’, your invoice is ready and detailed, reflecting all the financial engagements accurately.
Scheduling Bill Generation
For a more automated approach, click on ‘Schedule Bills’. This action ushers you into a new realm of efficiency – Automation Central, where you can set up automated bill generation. Fill in the base details, select the billing objects and set the schedule recurrence for automatic bill generation.
With a click on ‘Save Schedule’, you activate a system where bills are generated and dispatched as per the defined schedule, ensuring timeliness and consistency.
It’s essential to periodically review and refine your scheduling preferences. This practice ensures that your billing process remains not just timely but also aligns with the dynamic needs of your tenants and the regulatory landscape.
In essence, billing capability is your partner in fostering a transparent and efficient financial environment. By leveraging manual and automated billing processes, you ensure every invoice is a reflection of accuracy, transparency, and trust, enhancing the tenant experience and fostering long-term, value-driven relationships.
Tenant Notifications
Tenant Notifications are instrumental in creating a responsive and informed tenant environment. This feature enables you to configure and customize alerts and notification rules, ensuring tenants are always in the loop and responsive to essential updates and alerts.
To configure the alerts. Begin this seamless process by heading to the alerts section. Here, you’re empowered to define specific criteria that trigger alerts, ensuring that every notification sent is relevant and timely.
To share with tenants, select the configured alerts and notifications and assign them to the respective tenant profiles (Organizations or OVDCs). This personalized approach ensures that every tenant receives notifications tailored to their specific needs and preferences.
Now set up notification rules. You get to determine the specific conditions that warrant notifications and choose their type, such as email or SMS, ensuring that every alert aligns with the communication preferences of your tenants.
A culture of periodic reviews and updates to the notification rules is essential. This practice ensures that as the tenants’ needs evolve, so does the notification system, guaranteeing relevance and responsiveness in every alert sent.
Tenant Reports
Tenant Reports are a handy tool for creating and sharing VCD reports with your tenants, and doing so is a straightforward process. To create a new report, simply head over to the VCD Reports section and click on ‘Create New Report’. When naming the report, start with [VMware Cloud Director] – and then add a title that best describes the report’s content. This helps in easily setting up the information that the report will include.
If you need to make changes to an existing report, it’s just as simple. All your saved reports are in the VCD Reports list. Find the one you want to update, and click ‘Edit’. You can then change the report details as needed to ensure it’s up-to-date and contains the right information.
When it’s time to share reports with tenants, the process is quick and easy. From the VCD Reports list, select the specific report you want to share and click either ‘Run for Tenants’ or ‘Schedule for Tenants’. This ensures your tenants get the information they need, right when they need it.
A quick tip – always make sure that the report names are clear and easy for your tenants to understand. This helps in ensuring that the recipients can easily grasp the insights and information provided in the reports.
Consumer’s View
VCD Chargeback
VCD Chargeback is a tool that lets service providers easily track and understand the ongoing costs and prices for VCD Tenants and OVDCs. It provides a detailed breakdown to help you manage and review your service’s financial aspects effectively.
To get started, you’ll begin at the VCD Chargeback Overview. From there, you can easily navigate to the VCD Chargeback Summary. This summary is a handy resource where you can quickly see ongoing prices and the actual costs associated with each organization or tenant. It provides a clear and concise view, making financial tracking a breeze.
The summary page is not just a snapshot; it’s a gateway to more detailed insights. Here, you’ll find links that will take you to OVDC Chargeback Details, vApp Chargeback Details, and VM Level Chargeback Details. Each link offers a more granular view of the costs, enabling you to understand every aspect of the pricing structure and the incurred costs.
A pro tip for making the most out of the VCD Chargeback is to utilize the detailed chargeback links. These links are your pathway to a more in-depth understanding of specific price breakdowns. They offer detailed insights that can be instrumental in making informed financial decisions and optimizations.
In essence, VCD Chargeback is designed to make cost tracking and management straightforward and efficient for service providers. With easy navigation and detailed insights at your fingertips, managing and reviewing the financial aspects of your service becomes a simplified, intuitive process.
Compliance reports
Navigating the complex waters of compliance becomes a breeze with the VMware Aria Operations Compliance Pack for Sovereign Cloud. Designed to offer continuous monitoring, detailed reporting, and automated solutions to address findings, this pack is a cornerstone for ensuring adherence to compliance standards, particularly for partners involved in the VMware Cloud Provider Program (VCPP).
The compliance pack is grounded in the robust 20-point Sovereign control checklist. This detailed set of criteria encompasses a range of controls, including micro-segmentation, encryption for data at rest and in transit, comprehensive logging, and efficient backup and recovery protocols. Each control is meticulously crafted to ensure that VCPP partners not only meet but exceed compliance requirements, instilling confidence and integrity in every operation.
Accessing the wealth of resources within this compliance pack is intuitive. Users can explore the available content by selecting an object type from a provided list or effortlessly search for specific content. This flexibility ensures that pertinent information and tools are readily accessible, streamlining the process of compliance monitoring and management.
In essence, the VMware Aria Operations Compliance Pack for Sovereign Cloud stands as a beacon of compliance assurance. It melds continuous monitoring, detailed reporting, and automation, ensuring that VCPP partners are always aligned with compliance requirements, fostering an environment of trust, integrity, and operational excellence.
Tenant Visibility
When the Operations Manager Plugin is activated for a tenant, it unlocks access to a suite of operational content for them. Tenants can seamlessly navigate through features such as the Operations Overview, view their Bills, receive Alerts, generate Reports, and utilize the Metric Selector to gain insights and manage their operations efficiently.
Operations Overview
The Operations Overview provides a detailed summary, offering insights into your infrastructure’s consumption trends and usage patterns.
Bills
Tenants can easily access information on their cloud expenses, review detailed consumption data, and understand the breakdown of pricing with this feature.
Alerts
The Alerts page enables tenants to receive notifications highlighting issues that need their attention or immediate action.
Reports
Reports provide tenants with in-depth information on aspects like capacity, consumption, pricing, and additional insights to enhance understanding and decision-making.
Metric Selector
The Metric Selector empowers tenants to explore objects and delve into detailed analyses of specific metrics for comprehensive insights.
Chargeback for vCenter (vSphere Lens)
Customers not utilizing VMware Cloud Director for service and resource provisioning, or those who aren’t service providers, still face the necessity to execute chargebacks to their application teams, cost-centers, and business units. In such instances, Aria Operations steps in as a viable solution. It facilitates chargeback processes for vSphere constructs including VMs, Hosts, Clusters, and more. Users have the flexibility to employ their own rate cards or Pricing Policies, which can be conveniently defined within Aria Operations.
Configure Pricing
Pricing Policy Definition
Initiate the process by navigating to the policy section and selecting ‘Add Policy’. Enter the policy name and required details, then opt for the VC Pricing tile. Unlock the parameters you intend to modify, ensuring a detailed pricing policy.
Pricing Policy Assignment
For assigning a Pricing Policy, start the assignment by identifying the policy you aim to append objects to. Unassigned or newly created policies are conveniently located under the Inactive section, ready for activation
The right side of the page hosts the object navigation, where you can select the desired Cluster or vCenter with ease. Just drag-and-drop the object to the policy and chosen object is seamlessly assigned to the selected policy.
Chargeback
The chargeback widget provides a detailed breakdown of VM prices within selected groups. Users can choose a specific group to view its month-to-date price. It highlights the top 100 most expensive VMs, offering insights into cost distribution. The widget identifies powered-off and idle VMs, presenting opportunities for cost savings by reclaiming unused resources. Additionally, it displays VMs with snapshots, indicating reclaimable storage and the age of each snapshot. This comprehensive tool aids in monitoring and managing costs effectively, ensuring resource optimization and cost efficiency through detailed insights into the pricing and configuration of each VM within the group.
Chargeback for Aria Automation (vRA lens)
Customers that use Aria Automation for resource and service provisioning can perform dedicated chargeback for the Aria Automation Projects and Deployments
Configure Pricing
Pricing Policy Definition
Users can directly define a pricing rate card within Aria Automation.
Rate Card Assignment
Rate card can be assigned to a vRA or Aria Automation Project through pricing card assignments.
Chargeback for Aria Automation
You can assess the price for your Aria Automation projects and deployments through a dedicated dashboard.
Chargeback for Horizon, Business Applications etc.
After setting up vCenter Chargeback, detailed VM pricing becomes accessible. Aria Operations seamlessly aggregates these prices, aligning them with various management lenses or infrastructure layers such as Aria Automation (previously known as vRealize Automation), Horizon (for Desktop as a Service) or Business Applications (for application monitoring).
Consequently, you can asses pricing data for Horizon users, VDI Pools, RDS Farms, Sessions, and Connection servers. This can also be represented/consumed using a dashboard or report.
Moreover, the pricing information is broken down per business application or tier, ensuring comprehensive visibility and accessibility of cost details across different service layers and user interactions.
Price Analysis
Our Cost Analysis feature facilitates price analysis, enabling the examination and comparison of cost, price, and VMware Cloud bill metrics across objects, groups, applications, tenants, etc.
Users can visualize data through graphs and tables for in-depth analysis. Analysis definitions can be saved for repeated use, eliminating the need to redo actions. The analysis table can also be exported for offline review.
Utilise this feature to scrutinise price metrics of your infrastructure, employing lists and comparisons, like assessing the Top 10 Business Applications by Total Price, or comparing prices of Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 with Business Application A over the past six months.
Conclusion
In this detailed exploration of Chargeback with Aria Operations and VMware, we’ve uncovered the intricate layers that constitute an efficient, transparent, and user-centric billing system. The journey spanned the configuration and integration of Aria Operations with VMware, a revelation of the detailed and customizable chargeback settings, and the unveiling of a comprehensive provider and consumer view. Each tenant, equipped with tailored views and alerts, navigates a transparent landscape of billing, rooted in accuracy and clarity. We’ve also dived into the seamless experience of setting up and managing pricing policies and the automation of billing, reducing human error and enhancing consistency.
In the ecosystem of Chargeback, every stakeholder, from service provider to consumer, is empowered with tools and insights tailored to their specific needs. The evolution from the complexities of cloud resource consumption to a simplified, transparent billing system is not just a journey but a transformation. It’s a shift from ambiguity to clarity, from complexity to simplicity, and from generalized to personalized experiences. In this world, every charge is justified, every bill is a reflection of accuracy, and every tenant is a knowledgeable participant in the financial exchanges.
As we close this chapter, it’s evident that Chargeback, facilitated by Aria Operations and VMware, isn’t just a feature but an ecosystem. It’s a world where billing is not a task but an experience, where transparency is not a goal but a norm, and where every tenant is not just a customer but a partner. In this space, the future of cloud services is not just predicted but crafted, one transparent, accurate, and user-centric bill at a time.
Note: The screenshots used are all from VMware Aria Operations (Early Access version that includes VCD Operations). Aria Operations helps with Multi-Cloud Operations (Observability, Availability, Performance, Capacity, Cost, Compliance and Sustainability). Reach out to me (Soumya Kapoor) or Kameswaran Subramanian, Sajan Liyon to know more about Aria Operations.
