New Anodot Cost Update: Improved Budget Monitoring Features for Multi-Cloud Environments

Cloud budgeting just got easier on the Anodot platform. Our budget monitoring tool has transformed to make tracking finances in the cloud seamless, customizable, and, above all, easy. 

If you can’t stand the anticipation, it’s available on our user’s accounts now for you to check out for those who want a detailed update on what’s new, this post got you covered on what to expect in this new update and how Anodot Cost has been further revamped to be manageable across multiple providers and teams.

What are the new cloud budget monitoring features in Anodot Cost?

Working in various cloud environments is standard in the industry, with 98% of enterprises that use public cloud opting for a multi-cloud setup. 

It’s a smart move since a multi-cloud strategy offers many perks, such as cost optimization, improved resilience, and the ability to tap into the strengths of different cloud platforms.

But every strategy has its challenges, and when it comes to cloud budgeting across many cloud providers, cost tracking has limitations, complexity, and visibility that can cause oversights and hidden costs. 

We understand this has been a constant problem (especially for MSPs and Enterprises!). That’s why we’ve created these new budgeting monitoring features, which will make working in multi-cloud environments much easier and without all the headaches.

Budget Improvements

Our budget management updates align with your need for a holistic view of expenses across different cloud platforms and to establish rolling budgets that adapt monthly based on the current period.

Edit Existing Budgets: Modify and adjust their existing budgets to better suit changing cost requirements.

Define Slack Channels for Budget Alerts: Choose particular Slack channels to receive budget alerts, ensuring quick notifications and collaboration.

Multicloud Budget Alerts: Establish budget alerts, offering a comprehensive expenditure overview across various cloud platforms.

Rolling Budgets: Create monthly budgets that automatically adjust based on the current period.

MSP Customization

Private Pricing Transfer for MSPs has become increasingly significant. Customized pricing based on specific client needs, usage patterns, and service agreements can lead to client retention in the highly competitive and dynamic cloud services market.

And now it’s available on the Anodot platform! 

Personalized Private Pricing Transfer: MSPs now have the option to transfer Private Pricing settings to their customers, giving them greater control over pricing configurations.

Expanded Slack Integration

What’s even better than one Slack update for budgeting? Getting another one. Streamlining communications in multi-cloud environments is a must for smooth workflows, improved collaboration, and quick responses.

Our new Slack integration updates now have timely notifications so you can respond and react to any cloud activity.

  Alerting features: The integration with Slack has been enhanced to enable the definition of alerts for anomalies, budgets, and other relevant notifications to be sent to specific Slack channels, streamlining communication and incident response.

Business Mapping Rules

Our Business Mapping feature already helps you gauge the business value of your cloud spending in detail by determining costs across different product sections. 

You can allocate costs by project, customer, department, or any other category you prefer. Utilize specific rules and operators to establish the level of detail needed.

Now, you can make rules for item descriptions! 

 Item description rules: Create mapping rules based on item descriptions and available options. This allows for more precise categorization and management of cost data based on specific criteria.

How to Access Budget Monitoring in Anodot

Our Budget Monitoring helps you tackle the challenges of managing cloud costs in constantly changing environments. Whether you’re in FinOps, finance, or part of a dev team, our platform provides robust tools for budgeting, monitoring, and forecasting to optimize your cloud spending. 

Here’s a handy step-by-step guide to learning the features inside out and getting the most out of our Budget Monitoring immediately. 

Anodot Budget Monitoring Components

1. Monitor: Set and track budgets at multiple levels for daily and monthly periods.
2. Forecast: Plan and allocate resources wisely to control costs and optimize cloud infrastructure to meet business objectives.
3. Report: Visualize actual spending or forecasted data for all stakeholders.
4. Alert: Receive notifications when budgets are at risk using thresholds compared to actual or forecasted spending.

Creating a Budget

1. Navigate to Monitoring > Budget: From the left menu.
2. Click ‘Create Budget’: Start the budget creation process.

Steps to Create a Budget

1. Details & Filters:

• Budget Name: Mandatory and should be unique.
• Budget Description: Optional for budget details presentation.
• Cost Basis: Mandatory selection from Amortized, Net Amortized, Unblended.
• Filters: Set filters to reflect the total spend if none are selected.
  
  

2. Settings:

• Budget Period: Monthly, with a default of 1 year onward.
• Budget Type:
  • Fixed Monthly Budget: Tracks spending against a fixed monthly amount.
  • Planned Monthly Budget: Sets the budget amount for each month, with options for auto-filling values.
  • Fixed Period Budget: Tracks spending against a fixed set number of months.
  • Alerts:
  • Alert Granularity: Choose from Daily, Monthly, or Total budget periods.
  • Alert Threshold (%): Define when the alert should trigger based on spend.
  • Alert Trigger: Select from Forecasted Spend or Actual Spend.
  • Recipients: Configure multiple email recipients.
  • Complete Creation: Click ‘Create Budget’ to finalize.

Viewing and Editing Budgets

• Existing Budgets: View a list of budgets and a summary of their status.
• Single CSP Budget and Multi-Cloud Budget:
• Fields Shown: Budget Name, Cloud Provider, Cost, Accumulated Current Spend, Budget Amount, Forecasted Spend, Current vs. Budgeted, Forecasted vs. Budgeted, Exceeded Budget, Remaining Budget, Alerts, Actions.

Daily and Monthly View

• Daily View: Shows an accumulated daily view with data points representing daily costs.
• Monthly View: Shows bars representing the monthly budget.

Budget Alerts

• Alerts are triggered once the threshold is crossed.
• Alerts for updated budgets are triggered from that point onward.
• Daily and monthly granularity alerts include both actual and forecast conditions.

Budget Forecast Algorithm

• Accurate Forecasting: The platform’s median monthly accuracy is 98.5%.
• Autonomous and Flexible: Designed for business analysts without data science intervention.
• Rolling Budget: A dynamic strategy that updates and extends the budget over time, rolling over unspent funds to the next period.

Let us know if you have further questions about accessing Budget Monotiring in your account!

This is just the Beginning

In 2024, get ready for even more from Anodot! We’re introducing new upgrades and updates to different tools on the platform. Whether you’re an MSP, Enterprise, or somewhere in between, your Anodot account will stay at the forefront of innovation, equipped with cutting-edge tools to optimize your cloud savings.