For Cloud Cost Transparency, does anyone have AWS and/or Azure data loaded into their CMDB or do you have the data loaded from AWS and/or Azure directly into TBM Studio?  Our CMDB team wants to know if they should work to add Cloud backup into our CMDB.  We think a load directly from the vendor would work best, but wanted to see what other companies have done.   Stacie

Although we had AWS connected in Datalink, my team partnered with the in-house AWS team on this one to understand, from a Cost Transparency/TBM standpoint what value-added insight not in AWS we could provide to our customers. We were able to avoid duplicative effort using this approach.

We connected directly to Azure via datalink.

Apptio can pull data directly from Azure (Commercial version of it) through data link into TBM studio.  We are in the process of R12 upgrade and the Apptio team set 2 data link for us:  Azure Commercial Current Month , Azure Commercial Previous Month. 

Below is some info:

Detailed: Provides an hourly, line-item view of all Azure services and their associated charges. This is most similar to a standard 'bill' of Azure services. Enrollment Number: The enrollment number can be found on the Enterprise Agreement (EA) portal at ea.azure.com. For help accessing this portal, please contact your Microsoft support contact. If your organization has multiple EAs, create a separate DataLink connector for each one. Azure API Access Key: The Azure EA Portal uses a key to authorize access to the billing API. The key is generated by the EA portal. Copy they key from the portal and paste it into the field. Time Period: The period into which the data will be loaded. Select the current month or previous month based on the date the load takes place, or select a specific month and year.

We connect directly to both AWS and Azure to get billing.  That's what Datalink is extracting from the sources directly.  Typically the CMDB needs the CI/resources for a completely different need (e.g. security reasons, application service mapping) and would need seperate cloud detailed data.  You may want to take approach letting both system do what they do best and not muddy the waters.  If you would just be pulling cloud billing data into the CMDB then passing that to CCM, you are wasting a step and creating another failure point to worry about.

We are currently setting up DataLink direct to AWS (plus Azure shortly). Private cloud is taken from our CMDB but the public cloud will be direct from AWS/Azure

Hello Stacie,

We have been using Datalink to pull Azure billing information for the past year.  In order to link the costs in the billing file to the Applications that make use of them we have developed the following in the attached PDF.

In principle we create a link between the Resource Groups in Azure and the same Resource Groups that are created in the CMDB that are linked to our applications in the CMDB.  We are required to have all Applications in the CMDB with the relevant owner and support team information.

This information from the CMDB is loaded in Apptio regularly and used to produce reports.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

Hi, like others have stated, we receive the monthly invoices directly from AWS and Azure through datalink connectors.