Cloud Cost Views
The product name for this user guide has changed from Foundation and Cloudscape to Business Service Discovery and Migration Planning. Previous UI pages known as Foundation have changed to Business Service Discovery. Previous UI pages known as CloudScape have changed to Migration Planning.
The Cloud Cost Views page ( Add Intelligence > CloudScape > Cloud Cost Views ) is a dashboard that helps you build a view into what the future of your IT estate might be like in the cloud. After selecting Cloud Cost Views , a welcome screen opens and introduces you to a workflow to help you pick cloud providers, arrange your cloud portfolio, and model your cloud environment.
Following are the stages of creating a Cloud Cost Views dashboard.
- Establish total cost of ownership.
- Select a pre-calculated view or build a custom view.
- View your new cloud cost views dashboard.
- Further customize your cloud cost views dashboard.
Following are descriptions of the Cloud Cost Views workflows:
- Get Started! —You can create a new cloud cost view.
- Load A View —You can select from your list of saved cloud cost views.
- Compare All Views —You can view and compare all of your saved cloud cost views.
Creating a Cloud Cost View
The following sections describe how to use the Cloud Cost Views features:
Creating a Default Cloud Cost View
After completing the Total Cost of Ownership report, you can complete the following steps to create a default cloud cost view. This cloud cost view provides a dashboard with the cost of moving your on-premise devices to a specific cloud provider and the recommended cloud provider instances for your devices.
To create a default cloud cost view:
- Go to Add Intelligence .
- From the CloudScape menu, select Cloud Cost Views . The Welcome to the Cloud Cost Views! page appears.
- Select Get Started! The following page appears: First, Let’s Double Check Your Total Cost of Ownership .
- Click the Create New View button in the upper-right corner. The following page appears: Now Let’s Select a Starting Point .
- Select from one of the following cloud providers to create a cloud cost view, and then click View Dashboard .
- Amazon Web Services
- Google Cloud Platform
- Microsoft Azure
- Oracle
- After the Calculate Cloud Pricing dialog box appears, select the appropriate option for storage price calculation:
- Assume blob storage
- Match disks based on throughput (BETA)
- For further details on these storage price calculation options, see IaaS Cloud Pricing.
- Click Confirm . The cloud provider’s dashboard appears. After the dashboard widgets is a table titled Cloud Cost by Asset , which further details the cloud cost and recommended instance for each device using several different metrics.
Creating a Custom Cloud Cost View
After viewing your default cloud cost dashboard, you can further customize the dashboard by completing the following steps to customize and pick any specific instance classes to be included in or excluded from your migration plans. This feature enables appropriate pricing data to be reflected. Descriptions of the cost matching criteria are available in Analyzing Cloud Provider Costs in the Cloud Cost by Asset Table.
To customize your cost matching criteria:
- Go to Add Intelligence .
- From the CloudScape menu, select Cloud Cost Views . The Welcome to the Cloud Cost Views! page appears.
- Select Get Started! The following page appears: First, Let’s Double Check Your Total Cost of Ownership .
- Click the Create New View button in the upper-right corner. The following page appears: Now Let’s Select a Starting Point .
- Select from one of the following cloud providers to create a cloud cost view, and then click View Dashboard .
- Amazon Web Services
- Google Cloud Platform
- Microsoft Azure
- Oracle
- After the Calculate Cloud Pricing dialog box appears, select the appropriate option for storage price calculation:
- Assume blob storage
- Match disks based on throughput (BETA)
- For further details on these storage price calculation options, see IaaS Cloud Pricing.
- Click Confirm . The cloud provider’s dashboard appears. After the dashboard widgets is a table titled Cloud Cost by Asset , which further details the cloud cost and recommended instance for each device using several different metrics.
From your custom cloud cost dashboard view, you can click Customize View Further to further customize an instance class. For example, you may wish to customize an instance class for a specific group of devices.
- When the Customize <Name of Your Cloud Cost View> Further page appears, go to the Instance Class box. Within the box, you can search for multiple instance classes by separating them with commas.
- Click Customize Assets . The Customizing Assets dialog box opens.
- Select the Instance Class radio button.
- Click Select Instance Class to select the cloud provider’s recommended instance types.
- When the Select Instance Class dialog box opens, select the appropriate instance class and click Confirm . The Customizing Assets dialog box opens.
- Click Apply Customizations . The Recalculating View dialog box opens.
- When the View Successfully Updated dialog box opens, click View Updated Dashboard to view and analyze the instance class updates in your custom cloud cost dashboard view.
- Select the appropriate Resource Usage Matching Criteria to customize your cloud cost view. The following table provides further descriptions for these criteria.
| Resource Usage Matching Criteria | Description |
|---|---|
| Metric Provisioning Slider | Move the slider to the left to underprovision a metric on a percentage basis; move the slider to the right to overprovision a metric on a percentage basis. Following are the available metrics: CPU Memory Network Storage StorageIO StorageThroughput Discount |
| Performance Aggregation Method | To the right of each metric provisioning slider is a series of radio buttons. Select the appropriate performance metric option for the device: Avg (Average) 95th (95th percentile) Max (Maximum) Inv (Provisioned Inventory) |
| Prioritize Cores First? | Selecting this box enables recommended instances with fewer processor cores, even if they are more expensive. |
| Include Zombies? | Selecting this box includes devices in the cost estimation that have been flagged as Zombies. For a description of a device with a Zombie profile, see Performance Profiles. |
| Storage Class? | Selecting this box enables a match for the provisioned storage based on throughput. |
| Add Discount? | Selecting this box enables the Discount slider under Resource Usage Matching Criteria . Move the slider to the right to enable the correct Cloud Cost percentage discount. The total discount amount includes instance, network, storage, storage IO, and storage throughput costs. |
-
Depending on the selected cloud provider, some of the Resource Usage Matching Criteria may not be available, including StorageIO , StorageThroughput , and Storage Class These unavailable options will be indicated with an information icon and will appear dimmed. For a list of cloud providers that do not support the Storage Class feature, see the CSV file All Active Cloud Providers Without Storage Class.
- Click Calculate View . Your custom cloud cost dashboard appears with the following Resource Usage Matching Criteria that are described in the following table.
From your custom cloud cost dashboard view, you can click Customize View Further to further customize an asset listed in the Cloud Cost by Asset table. When the Customizing Assets dialog box appears, the cloud providers that display in the Select Provider dropdown list depend on whether you have enabled or disabled the Storage Class feature in step 11. When the Storage Class feature is disabled, the Select Provider dropdown list includes those cloud providers listed in the CSV file All Active Cloud Providers. When the Storage Class feature is enabled, the Select Provider dropdown list includes those cloud providers listed in the CSV file Cloud Providers With Storage Class.
| Resource Usage Matching Criteria | Description |
|---|---|
| Prioritize Cores , Include Zombies , Storage Class, Instance Class, and Discount | Displays these flags at the top of the dashboard and underneath the view name that you entered in step 8. The selections Yes or No for these criteria are based on your entries in steps 11 and 12. |
| StorageIO and StorageThoughput | Displays in the Inventory Cost bar chart widget. |
| Storage Class | Displays in the Storage Class Names pie chart widget. The recommended storage class name and cost are based on the cloud provider you selected in step 9. Based on the storage class costs for the affected devices, you may decide the following to lower your cloud costs: Switch the affected devices to a less expensive storage class. Not move the affected devices to the cloud. |
| Storage Class Names Count | Displays in the Storage Class Names Count pie chart widget. The count represents the number of devices listed in the Cloud Cost by Asset table with the recommended storage class for the cloud provider you selected in step 9. Based on the affected number of devices, you may decide the following to lower your cloud costs: Switch the affected devices to a less expensive storage class. Not move the affected devices to the cloud. |
| Discount | Displays the selected percentage’s discount amount in the Total Cloud Cost Usage widget and the Inventory Cost bar chart widget. From your custom cloud cost dashboard view, you can click Customize View Further to further customize an asset listed in the Cloud Cost by Asset table with a different discount amount. Click Customize Assets . When the Customizing Assets dialog box appears, select the Add Discounts checkbox and move the Discount slider to the right until the appropriate discount percentage displays. Click Apply Customizations to enable the new discount. |
Analyzing Cloud Provider Costs in the Cloud Cost by Asset Table
- After customizing your cloud cost dashboard, scroll past the bottom of the dashboard where you will see the following information displayed in the Cloud Cost by Asset table.
| Cloud Cost by Asset Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Hostname | Displays the device name. |
| IP Address | Displays the device’s unique address on the internet or a local network. |
| OS | Displays the device’s Operating System. |
| Device Type | Displays the appropriate option as described in Device Type Definitions. |
| Stack Names | Displays the unique identifier to reference a nested stack from within a parent stack. |
| Location | Displays the device’s connectivity location. For further details, see the Location definition in Connectivity Definitions. |
| Provider | Displays the selected cloud provider. |
| Instance Class | Displays the recommended virtual server category for the device to help narrow the recommended Instance . Depending on the cloud provider, the instance class may offer several different sizes of instances. By default, the least expensive Instance Class displays. To further customize the cloud provider’s Instance Class options, see Creating a Custom Cloud Cost View. The Instance Class column displays when the Instance Class feature flag displays Yes at the top of the custom cloud cost dashboard view. |
| Instance | Displays the recommended virtual server for the device. By default, the least expensive Instance displays. To further customize the cloud provider’s Instance options, see Creating a Custom Cloud Cost View. |
| Storage Name | Displays the recommended storage class name based on the selected cloud provider. The Storage Name column displays when the Storage Class feature flag displays Yes at the top of the custom cloud cost dashboard view. |
| Storage Under Max | Displays Yes when the device is within the StorageIO and StorageThroughput limits for the associated storage class. Displays No when the device exceeds the StorageIO and StorageThroughput limits for the associated storage class. |
| Performance Profile | Displays the tag of the device’s performance profile. For a list of the possible performance profile options and descriptions, see Performance Profiles. |
| CPU Frequency in Gb | Displays the device’s number of CPU cycles per second in terms of gigabytes. |
| Memory in Gb | Displays the device’s current memory in terms of gigabytes. |
| Network in Gb Per Day | Displays the device network traffic demand in terms of Gb per day. |
| Storage in Gb | Displays the device’s current data storage in terms of gigabytes. |
| Storage I/O | Displays the device demand in terms of Input/Output operations. |
| Storage Throughput | Displays the device demand in terms of MB/s . |
| Instance Cost Per Day | Displays the cost per day for the instance listed under the Instance column. |
| Network Cost Per Day | Displays the network cost per day based on the value from Network in Gb Per Day . |
| Storage Cost Per Day | Displays the cloud provider’s storage cost per day. |
| Storage I/O Cost Per Day | Displays the cloud provider’s storage input/output cost per day. |
| Storage Throughput Cost | Displays the cloud provider’s storage throughput cost for the storage class listed under the Storage Name column. |
| Discount | Displays the discount percentage that is applied to the Cloud Cost calculation process, including instance, network, storage, storage IO, and storage throughput costs. Any customized assets that have a discount applied to them display as blue font in the Cloud Cost by Asset table. |
| Total Cost Per Day | Displays the total cost per day to run the device in the cloud, including: Instance Cost Per Day Network Cost Per Day Storage Cost Per Day Storage I/O Cost Per Day If a discount is applied, the selected Discount percentage is reflected in the Total Cost Per Day amount. |
Cloud to Cloud Migration
The Cloud to Cloud Migration page provides visibility into the estimated cost of moving from one cloud provider or region to another. Unlike the Cloud Cost Views and IaaS Cloud Pricing pages, the resources here do not need to be inventoried; that is, the page relies upon a CSV import rather than tying into existing inventory like the other pages. The report allows two resource types at the moment - ‘VM Instance’ and ‘Object Storage’.
The feature consists of a predefined CSV template to add current Cloud resources inventory and set the new target cloud provider/region for the migration plan. Then the template must be uploaded for processing, where each inventory resource will be compared to the available target resources and select the best match, considering the cost and current resource specs like CPU/Memory (VM Instance) and Storage Size, IO, and Throughput (Object Storage).
The results will be kept until a new file is uploaded and processed, so the results could be fetched and analyzed without the need to re-upload and re-process the inventory file. Migration results would be displayed in a table format in the same portal section, with an additional Download option for further analysis and planning.
Cloud to Cloud Migration Template Headers Description
| Header | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| migration_group_id | alphanumeric | Unique id for each record. Examples: "lab_center_01", "data_center_01", "123". |
| current_provider | string | This must be one of the four major providers: "AWS", "Google Cloud Platform", "Microsoft Azure", or "Oracle Cloud". |
| current_region | alphanumeric | This field must be an exact match of an available specific region within the selected "current_provider". Examples: "AWS - US Virginia", "Google Cloud Platform - US", "Microsoft Azure - Central US", "Oracle Cloud-North America/Europe/UK". |
| resource_type | string | Select between the different migration types: "VM Instance" or "Object Storage". |
| resource_name | alphanumeric | The VM Instance or Object Storage name of the current resource to be compared for cloud migration. Examples: "r5.xlarge", "e2-micro", "a2-v2", "VM.Standard2.2". |
| resource_os | string | (VM Instance - only) The Operative System running on the current VM Instance resource. Either "linux" or "windows". (Use "n/a" for "Object Storage" resource type). |
| storage_size | numeric | (Object Storage - only) The storage size in GB to be migrated and used in storage cost calculations. (Use "n/a" for "VM Instance" resource type). |
| storage_io | numeric | (Object Storage - only) The number of IOPS per month used in storage cost calculations. (Use "n/a" for "VM Instance" resource type). |
| storage_throughput | numeric | (Object Storage - only) The data throughput in MB per month used in storage cost calculations. (Use "n/a" for "VM Instance" resource type). |
| total_instances | numeric | The amount of instances to be migrated. |
| target_provider | string | The migration target provider: "AWS", "Google Cloud Platform", "Microsoft Azure", or "Oracle Cloud". |
| target_region | alphanumeric | This field must be an exact match of an available specific region within the selected "target_provider". Examples: "AWS - US Virginia", "Google Cloud Platform - US", "Microsoft Azure - Central US", "Oracle Cloud-North America/Europe/UK". |
Report will have a few additional columns consisting of:
- Target Resource Name
- Current Unit Cost
- Current Total Cost
- Target Unit Cost
- Target Total Cost
Current report will be replaced the next time an inventory file is uploaded and processed.
Creating Cloud to Cloud Migration CSV Using AWS CLI
You can use AWS CLI console commands to create a CSV containing EC2 instances and EBS volumes suitable for import via the Cloud to Cloud Migration page.
First, we will need the CSV template, which can be downloaded from the Cloud to Cloud Migration page using the “Download Template ” button. Alternatively, you may run the following to populate an empty CSV file (cloud_to_cloud.csv in the following examples) with the required headers:
echo 'migration_group_id,current_provider,current_region,resource_type,resource_name,resource_os,storage_size,storage_io,storage_throughput,total_instances,target_provider,target_region' > cloud_to_cloud.csv
Using AWS CLI, the EC2 instances in a given account can be added to the CSV. This makes the assumption that AWS CLI is configured to use the correct region and account by default; see AWS CLI documentation for more details. The “--arg” lines in this command need to be populated with the relevant details for your specific environment. To determine which region names are acceptable, visit the Cloud to Cloud Migration page and click the “View Regions” button to search.
The following command can be used to export the EC2s and append them to the CSV in the required format:
aws ec2 describe-instances --filters 'Name=instance-state-name,Values=running' |
jq -r \
--arg current_provider 'AWS' \
--arg current_region 'AWS - US Virginia' \
--arg target_provider 'Microsoft Azure' \
--arg target_region 'Microsoft Azure - Central US' \
--arg resource_type 'VM Instance' \
-s 'map(.Reservations[].Instances) | group_by(.[].InstanceType) | map([(now|tostring| split("." ) | join("")|tonumber), $current_provider, $current_region, $resource_type, .[0][0].InstanceType,
if .[0][0].PlatformDetails == "Linux/UNIX" then "linux" else "windows" end, "N/A", "N/A", "N/A", length, $target_provider, $target_region])[] | @csv | sub("\"";"";"g")' \
>> cloud_to_cloud.csv
Example output (that will be appended to cloud_to_cloud.csv):
1738873009208859,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,c5.xlarge,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,2,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208876,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,m6i.large,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,18,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208884,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,r6i.2xlarge,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,7,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208892,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.large,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,3,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208899,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.medium,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,14,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208907,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.micro,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,3,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208914,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.small,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
You can also export the details from disk volumes using AWS CLI. These are described using separate rows for each even if they’re associated with an instance. This accommodates instances which have multiple EBS volumes attached.
The following command, which uses the --filters flag to limit results to in-use volumes of certain types, can be used to export EBS volumes and append them to the CSV in the required format:
aws ec2 describe-volumes --filters 'Name=status,Values=in-use' 'Name=volume-type,Values=io2*,gp3' |
jq -r \
--arg current_provider 'AWS' \
--arg current_region 'AWS - US Virginia' \
--arg resource_type 'Object Storage' \
--arg target_provider 'Microsoft Azure' \
--arg target_region 'Microsoft Azure - Central US' \
--arg throughput '1200' \
-s 'map(.Volumes[]) | group_by(.Size) | group_by(.[].VolumeType) | map([(now|tostring|split("." )|join("")|tonumber), $current_provider, $current_region, $resource_type, .[0][0].VolumeType, "N/A", .[0][0].Size, .[0][0].Iops, $throughput, length, $target_provider, $target_region])[] | @csv | sub("\"";"";"g")' \
>> cloud_to_cloud.csv
Example output (that will be appended to cloud_to_cloud.csv):
1738873021205909,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,50,3000,1200,2,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205976,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,16,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205986,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,64,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205994,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,8,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
Here is an example of the completed CSV after running both commands, which is suitable for import into the Cloud to Cloud Migration page:
migration_group_id,current_provider,current_region,resource_type,resource_name,resource_os,storage_size,storage_io,storage_throughput,total_instances,target_provider,target_region
1738873009208859,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,c5.xlarge,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,2,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208876,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,m6i.large,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,18,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208884,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,r6i.2xlarge,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,7,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208892,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.large,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,3,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208899,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.medium,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,14,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208907,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.micro,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,3,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208914,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.small,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205909,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,50,3000,1200,2,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205976,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,16,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205986,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,64,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205994,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,8,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208859,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,c5.xlarge,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,2,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208876,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,m6i.large,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,18,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208884,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,r6i.2xlarge,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,7,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208892,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.large,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,3,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208899,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.medium,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,14,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208907,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.micro,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,3,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873009208914,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,VM Instance,t3.small,linux,N/A,N/A,N/A,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205909,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,50,3000,1200,2,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205976,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,16,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205986,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,64,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US
1738873021205994,AWS,AWS - US Virginia,Object Storage,gp3,N/A,8,3000,1200,1,Microsoft Azure,Microsoft Azure - Central US