These terms and concepts are important for understanding cost management’s cost model workflow.
- Cost model
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A framework used to define the calculations for the costs stored in cost management, using base costs and metrics. The cost model is used for budgeting and accounting, and also the visualization and analysis of costs — in cost management it provides the basis for the cost information that the user will view. Costs generated by a cost model can be recorded, categorized and allocated to specific customers, business units or projects.
- Raw metrics and costs
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Raw metrics and costs are the metrics and costs provided by a third party that have not been modified in any way, such as the AWS costs provided by the AWS Cost and Usage Report files or the API, and the OpenShift metrics provided through Operator Metering.
- Base costs
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Base costs originate from different sources, such as metrics, inventory, or reports, which are normalized so a markup can be applied. Base costs can be calculated directly in the cost management application by applying a price list to metrics or inventory, or they can be calculated externally (for example, AWS provided costs). In the cost management application’s cost model, a markup is applied to base costs to get calculated costs.
- Price list
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A price list is a list of rates used within the application’s cost model to calculate the base cost of resources.
- Markup
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In the cost management application, the markup is the ratio, positive or negative, between the base cost and the calculated cost.
- Calculated costs
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Calculated costs are the costs stored in the application after a markup is added to the base costs.
- Distributed costs
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Calculated costs become distributed costs once they are associated to higher level application concepts, such as user, team, project, account, service, and so on.