CostGuard
Overview
Finout’s CostGuard is a powerful tool for identifying areas within your infrastructure that are ripe for cost optimization. As cost optimization is always a high priority, CostGuard provides a comprehensive solution that is seamlessly integrated with the MegaBill.
With CostGuard, you can easily identify cost optimization opportunities and potential savings relevant to your virtual tags, different teams, environments, and cost centers, all in one centralized location. This makes it easier than ever to streamline your cost optimization efforts and achieve maximum savings.
Moreover, CostGuard continuously scans your resources and costs, identifying potential cost-saving opportunities across various use cases for Finout and Azure scans. With this feature, you have everything you need to optimize your costs.
CostGuard recommendations are divided into three different use cases:
Idle
Almost every organization has resources that were provisioned but are no longer in use. Forgetting to switch off these Idle resources eats away at your tech budget.
Commitment
Identifying resources that are regularly in use helps to identify potential savings that can be had by signing up for savings plans. The Commitment to using a resource for a specific amount over the agreed period can safely be made based on the CostGuard scans.
Rightsizing
Resources that are in use may be underutilized and exceed your current workload performance and capacity requirements. Rightsizing means that you can downsize these resources without compromising on your service levels.
Finout helps guard against resource wastage and provides you with quick access to potential savings. You can drill down into the various scan reports to view a list of resources that require adjustments to achieve the specific savings. CostGuard provides you with the information and confidence to optimize your resourcing and save money.
The CostGuard feature is available out of the box and generally requires no configuration. If you need additional scans, please get in touch with support at [email protected].
Using and Managing CostGuard Scans
How to View Potential Savings
Select CostGuard.
(Optional) Apply the required Filters.
(Optional) Select whether to view the type of potential savings: Idle, Rightsizing, or Commitment.
(Optional) Select the required Group By option.
To download a list of the potential savings, click and Download CSV. A list of the potential grouped monthly savings and the number of resources per group is downloaded.
To download a table of the monthly scans, in the Scans area, click Download CSV. A list of the monthly scans, with the scan names, cost centers, use cases, potential savings per scan, and number of resources per scan, is downloaded.
To view a specific scan, in the Scans pane, click on the scan report.
CostGuard Management
Enables you to manage and configure scans that align with your account’s interests, reducing noise and enhancing the relevance of scan results.
In Finout, navigate to CostGuard.
Click
.
Set the threshold. This excludes low-savings resources by defining the minimum yearly savings needed to display them.
Click Save. The settings are saved.
How to Optimize Kubernetes Resources
The Finout CostGuard scans help you set the correct allocation of resources for Kubernetes. For detailed information on how Finout calculates the cost of a Kubernetes K8 pod, see How Finout Calculates K8s Costs.
The report allows you to perform a “what-if” analysis and view the costs and savings if you lower the requested memory or CPU to the maximum usage or by 10% (P90) or 20% (P80).
1. Select CostGuard.
2. Scroll down to the list of scans, and click the Cost Center column to locate the Kubernetes scans easily—The user identified the resource's recommendation as irrelevant. When applying this status, the resource's recommendation will be archived and removed from the table unless it is filtered.
3. Click on a K8s scan, for example, K8s - Deployment.
4. Click to select a report.
5. The report covers the period of the last 14 days and includes:
Cost and waste for the resource over the period.
Breakdown of the Memory and CPU usage (Max, Average, and Min) versus the current request over the period.
To view the impact of reducing the requested memory by 10% (P90) or 20% (P80), click P90 or P80. The New waste and Potential savings are updated.
To view the impact of selecting the maximum memory (as recorded in the past 14 days), click Max. The New waste and Potential savings are updated.
Similarly, to view the impact of changing the number of cores, click Max P90 or P80. The New waste and Potential savings are updated.
To view the CPU/memory ratio for the resource, click the information icon.
To copy the configuration with the selected changes, click Copy to copy the JSON snippet to the clipboard.
Using and Managing Individual Scans
View Cost Scans
The key information appears at the top of the scan report, with the detailed resource information listed in the table below.
Select CostGuard.
Select the required cost scan in the Scans pane.
(Optional) Apply the required Filters.
(Optional) Click Additional Columns, select the required columns, and click Apply.
To sort the resources table, click on the required column name. Click again to sort in reverse order.
To view resources with a specific status, click the required status button. For more information on statuses see How to manage the resource status.
To return to viewing all resources, click All Resources.
Apply any required column viewing options. These column viewing options do not affect the exported cost scan.
Export a Cost Scan
You can export the cost scan with the applied filters, visible columns, selected resource status, and in the visible sort order.
Select CostGuard.
Select the required cost scan in the Scans pane.
(Optional) Apply the required Filters.
(Optional) Click Additional Columns, select the required columns, and click Apply.
To view resources with a specific status, click the required status button.
To sort the resources table, click on the required column name. Click again to sort in reverse order.
Click the download icon. A CSV file is downloaded.
Create a Snapshot of a Cost Scan
You can create a link to a scan report. The link is copied to the clipboard.
Select CostGuard.
Select the required cost scan in the Scans pane.
Click Generate Report. The link is sent to the clipboard.
Manage the Resource Status
You can manage the status of each of the resources, allowing you to track whether or not you are working on it, have dismissed it, or are done. A resource starts with a New status. This can be updated to Working on it, Dismissed, or Done. You can view a list of all the resources that you are working on.
CostGuard Statuses:
New - This resource was identified today as applicable for the scan's recommendation, but the recommendation has not been implemented and remains unresolved.
Working on it - The recommendation for this resource is currently being implemented.
Done - The recommendation has been implemented for the resource.
The "Done" status applies only to the day it was marked.
If a recommendation is marked as Done and later determined by Finout to no longer meet the scan’s threshold, it will be automatically removed from CostGuard, like all other recommendations.
Dismissed - The recommendation for the resource was identified by the user as irrelevant. When applying this status, the resource's recommendation will be archived and removed from the table unless filtering by this status.
The "dismissed" status applies only to the day it was dismissed.
If a recommendation is dismissed and later determined by Finout to be incompatible with the scan's threshold, it will no longer be applicable and will automatically be removed from CostGuard, like all other recommendations.
Manage CostGuard Statuses:
Select CostGuard.
Select the required cost scan in the Scans pane.
Select a resource and select a Status from the dropdown.
Select one or more resources and then click Change status and select the required status.
To view a list of all the resources that you are working on, click To Do.
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