OpenCost is an open source implementation for Kubernetes cost monitoring and now cloud cost monitoring for AWS, Azure, and GCP. The project makes all of this data accessible via an API and user interface. While discussing the idea of running OpenCost on platforms besides Kubernetes we realized that with this new Cloud Costs feature there are users who want API access to their cloud billing data without needing to run on Kubernetes. I opened the Issue OpenCost without Kubernetes #2268 and as luck would have it, we had our internal Hackathon last week.

If you're not familiar with OpenCost, it's the open source CNCF project for monitoring Kubernetes and cloud spending. It's a Golang implementation of the OpenCost Specification for monitoring Kubernetes cloud costs. It has an optional web UI and you can also run it as a Prometheus metrics exporter. The code is all at https://github.com/opencost/opencost and you can learn more about the project at https://opencost.io

We are pleased to announce that OpenCost is being integrated into Microsoft’s new Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Cost Analysis tool to enable usage metrics collection. Microsoft Azure customers can now experience native visibility of cost allocation based on Kubernetes-specific constructs.

AKS Cost Analysis is an add-on for Standard and Premium-tier AKS clusters offered to customers at no additional cost. It provides cost allocation reports directly in the Azure portal. AKS customers can now easily visualize their Kubernetes cost allocations as the foundation for further optimization and anomaly detection.

New Kubernetes Namespaces view.

AKS is also the first Azure service that drills down into the specifics of the service’s granular cost details. These Kubernetes-specific views will surface cost allocation across AKS cluster resources (i.e. VMs, public IPs, disks, etc.). "Our goal in Microsoft Azure is to build Kubernetes-centric experiences on top of vendor-neutral open-source solutions, ensuring that our customers can take advantage of the innovation and portability of the CNCF ecosystem natively in Azure,” said Sean McKenna, Director of Product Management for Azure Cloud Native. “We've really enjoyed partnering with the OpenCost community on this project and are thrilled to get it in the hands of our customers." AKS customers will be able to configure how shared costs are allocated across namespaces.

New Kubernetes Cluster view.

OpenCost is the open source CNCF sandbox project and specification for the real-time monitoring of cloud costs and associated Kubernetes deployments. It models and tracks current and historical Kubernetes cloud spend and resource allocation as well as general cloud costs, which may be used as the basis for cost observability and optimizations. Check out the code on GitHub or join the community.

Microsoft announced their involvement with OpenCost earlier this year and have been active in the community ever since. Today’s announcement is just another great step in our journey together. Microsoft has committed to helping establish OpenCost as the open source standard for Kubernetes and cloud costs monitoring. If you want to run your own OpenCost deployment, we have Azure-specific instructions, including accessing your own Price Sheet API and configuring Azure Cloud Cost access.

As more AKS users get visibility and understanding of their Kubernetes cloud billing, we’re sure they’ll join us in our goal of building more consistency across all providers. As we continue to ship new features, AKS users will continue to benefit from OpenCost’s success.

KubeCon North America 2023 is coming up next week November 6-9 and we can't wait for all the OpenCost-related events going on!

There will be an OpenCost Working Session on Monday from 9:30 - 10:30am in the Hilton Garden Inn McCormick Place on level 3 in the Premier room. Everyone is encouraged to attend, whether you're an end-user, contributor, or just wanting to learn more about the project. We are planning on discussing the status of Incubation, the roadmap for the project, and future development on carbon footprint and the external asset costs.

OpenCost will be at the Project Pavilion in kiosk F34. We're there the entire duration, so be sure to stop by and say "hi", ask questions, and get stickers and other swag. We're looking for more volunteers to staff the kiosk, why don't you drop by and help answer questions?

Kubecost's Alex Meijer and Michael Dresser are giving the talk "Node Size Matters - Running K8s as Cheaply as Possible". They will be presenting a study of the system overhead, one of the biggest "hidden" costs of using Kubernetes, across cloud providers' node families and demonstrate new OpenCost functionality for measuring system overhead. This informative session is Wednesday, November 8 from 5:25pm - 6:00pm at W179.

Mark Poko and JuanJo Ciarlante from Grafana Labs will be presenting "Where's Your Money Going? The Beginners Guide to Measuring Kubernetes Costs". They'll dive into Grafana Labs' usage of OpenCost and how they embed it in their Grafana Cloud platform. We're looking forward to the session Thursday, November 9 from 2:55pm - 3:30pm at W180.

In addition to the OpenCost working session, kiosk, and the presentations we'll be discussing the new cloud costs feature we just launched. Be sure to join us at this week's Community Meeting for a sneak peek, or visit the KubeCon kiosk to learn more about cloud costs or anything else OpenCost-related. See you there!

We are thrilled to announce that OpenCost is expanding beyond Kubernetes (K8s) cost monitoring to provide a fully open source cloud cost monitoring solution. This marks our first major expansion since becoming a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project in 2021.

In an era where cloud computing has become an integral part of most businesses, keeping track of infrastructure costs can be a daunting task. This is becoming even more challenging with the growing use of shared infrastructure, multi-cloud and an ever increasing number of other infrastructure solutions. As the complexity of cloud environments expands, there is a pressing need for unified and open solutions that provide a clear and normalized view of all infrastructure expenditures. That's where we see OpenCost playing an increasingly key role.

OpenCost UI now allows you to monitor cloud cost by service, tag, and more. It also provides the ability to drill down all the way to individual item level

We're excited to announce that the OpenCost plugin for Backstage is now available in the latest release (v1.18.0). With the OpenCost plugin, Backstage users can now view and access their Kubernetes cloud costs directly in their developer portals.

Reposted from the VictoriaMetrics blog: Monitoring Kubernetes costs with OpenCost and VictoriaMetrics

Original author: Zakhar Bessarab

This week at the FinOps X conference the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) will be announcing the first release of their specification for defining an open standard for cloud cost, usage, and billing data. The OpenCost project is excited to announce we're supporting this standard and have already started shipping initial patches with this terminology supported.

Reposted from the Grafana Labs blog: Rein in spending with Kubernetes cost monitoring in Grafana Cloud

Original authors: Vasil Kaftandzhiev, Jake Swiss

Understanding Kubernetes cloud costs can be a challenge that many teams lack the necessary tools and visibility to solve. In response to this challenge, the CNCF launched the OpenCost project with code provided by Kubecost, which provides an open-source Kubernetes cost monitoring standard for the industry. Microsoft is now giving users of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) better cost transparency and contributing to the OpenCost project on behalf of their customers. Without proper cost monitoring tools like OpenCost, teams using Kubernetes may struggle to grasp their expenditures and the factors driving their costs, making it difficult to optimize their infrastructure. By leveraging OpenCost, teams can take their first step towards understanding and improving the efficiency of their Kubernetes cloud spend.

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft has joined the OpenCost community as a contributing partner and is bringing new functionality to both AKS and the OpenCost community. Microsoft’s initial contributions improve their cost reporting and make it easier to export OpenCost data to other reporting platforms.

It’s been a busy start to the year. We’re excited to announce that OpenCost is now a FinOps Certified Solution. The FinOps Foundation has certified OpenCost because it delivers Kubernetes cloud cost monitoring, a specific part of cloud cost management. According to Vas Markanastasakis, Principal at the FinOps Foundation: "Our focus at the FinOps Foundation is helping advance the people and the practice of cloud financial management. OpenCost's vendor-neutral open source project shares that focus." We look forward to helping more practitioners in the community and working with the FinOps Foundation to drive open standards.

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