Skip to main content

Cost allocation model

Overview​

Costimizer allocates cloud spend using a layered model:

Cloud billing data
       ↓
Resources (discovered + tagged)
       ↓
Assignment rules (auto-mapping)
       ↓
Pools (hierarchy: org → team → project)
       ↓
Owners & perspectives (views)

Pools​

Pools are hierarchical containers for cost allocation:

  • Budget pools — financial limits and forecasts
  • Team pools — engineering or business unit ownership
  • Project pools — initiative or product-level allocation

Child pools roll up spend to parent pools.

Assignment rules​

Rules automatically assign resources to pools based on:

  • Resource tags (e.g., team=platform)
  • Cloud account or subscription
  • Resource type, region, or name patterns

Rules run continuously as new resources are discovered.

Tags and owners​

  • Tags — cloud-native metadata; Costimizer reads and optionally writes allocation tags
  • Owners — Costimizer-derived or configured resource owners for accountability views

Chargeback workflow​

  1. Define pool hierarchy matching org structure
  2. Enforce tagging via tagging policies
  3. Create assignment rules
  4. Review spend in Cost Explorer filtered by pool
  5. Share pool dashboards with team leads (showback or chargeback)