AnyCost
With CloudZero’s AnyCost framework, you can ingest cost data from any source and automate the processing of that data. Using the tools we provide, you send cost data from different vendors to CloudZero on whatever schedule you prefer. Then, you can register a new Billing Connection that automatically detects, ingests, and integrates that data into the CloudZero platform.
Common Bill Format
CloudZero's Common Bill Format (CBF) is a standard data model to ingest cost data from any source. It accommodates many types of cost data, including taxes, discounts, credits, and more.
Read more about the Common Bill Format.
Adaptors
To ingest any vendor's cost data, you must create an Adaptor. These Adaptors are code that run in your own environments, translate a single vendor's cost data into the Common Bill Format, and transfer the data to CloudZero on an automated schedule.
For example, if a vendor only makes cost data available once a day, you will likely only transfer data to CloudZero once every day. However, some vendors have Billing or Cost APIs that provide cost data on a more frequent basis, and for those you may decide to transfer cost data every 8 hours or even hourly.
If you have five vendors whose cost data you want CloudZero to ingest, you will need to create five AnyCost Adaptors (one per vendor).
Adaptor Types
CloudZero supports two types of AnyCost Adaptors:
- An AnyCost Bucket Adaptor uploads cost data to an AWS S3 bucket.
- An AnyCost Stream Adaptor sends cost data directly to the CloudZero REST API.
To help choose the AnyCost Adaptor type that you need to create, refer to the following table outlining the key differences:
| Attribute | AnyCost Bucket Adaptor | AnyCost Stream Adaptor |
|---|---|---|
| Method of transmitting data | Upload a gzipped CSV file of cost data to S3 | Send a JSON request body with records of cost data to the CloudZero API |
| Required cloud infrastructure | Amazon Web Services S3 bucket | None |
| Maximum size of cost data | No maximum | Currently, 5MB request body (uncompressed) |
| JSON manifest required | Yes | No |
| Required actions | Create manifest, convert raw data to CBF-formatted file, send file to CloudZero | Convert raw data to CBF, send CBF to CloudZero |
| Supported cost source | Any | Any |
As a rule of thumb, create an AnyCost Bucket Adaptor if you use AWS and need to transfer large volumes of cost data without size limitations.
If your cost data fits within a 5MB JSON request body, consider creating an AnyCost Stream Adaptor for simpler implementation. AnyCost Stream Adaptors are cloud-agnostic.
Billing Connections
Before you can start transferring cost data to CloudZero, you must register the Adaptor as a Billing Connection in the CloudZero UI. The Billing Connection will begin to ingest your custom cost data.
Billing Connections report the health and status of the automated ingestion process and will indicate if there are issues with the Common Bill Format syntax or transmission of data.
Getting Started
Updated about 2 months ago