Viewing Potential Savings
Important:The Manage organization or View cloud costs role is required to access the Optimization page and the Manage organization role is required to access the Recommendation Sets page. For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles.
This section describes the features and business value provided on the Optimization page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Optimization) and the Recommendation Sets page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Recommendation Sets) and explains the following subsections:
| • | Total Potential Savings |
| • | Setting Up Recommendations |
| • | Setting Up a Recommendation Set (Beta Release) |
| • | AWS Discount Program Coverage |
You can also view potential savings within a billing center. For more information, see Viewing Potential Savings in a Billing Center.
On the Optimization page, the Total Potential Savings chart shows how much spend could be saved per month for your organization. Using the Billing Centers dropdown list, you can home in on the specific cost center or line of business you desire to investigate.
In the Total Potential Savings section, clicking All Recommendations—navigates you to a table describing each specific recommendation and the potential savings for that recommendation. Clicking the specific recommendation link in the table opens the <Recommendation> slideout. The information about the recommendation is available under the following tabs—Recommendation, Details, Tag Dimensions, and Rule-Based Dimensions. Click the relevant tab to view the details. The Recommendation tab is enabled by default, displaying information such as recommendation details, potential savings, recommendation type, billing center, currency, and detected (days ago). On the Recommendation tab, the recommendation details display only if these details are available in the Recommendation Details column. To copy the recommendation details, click the Copy button next to the recommendation.
Flexera recommendations are created from our powerful Automation capability and Policy templates, allowing organizations to quickly add and customize recommendations. Recommendations provide some distinct advantages over recommendations provided directly by your cloud provider.
| • | Flexera recommendations are configurable allowing you to choose different parameters to meet your business needs. |
| • | Flexera recommendations are associated to billing centers allowing cost center owners to view the potential savings specific to their line of business. |
| • | Flexera recommendations are included for multiple cloud providers in a single view. |
| • | Flexera recommendations show savings based on actual cost of resource versus public pricing. |
Total Potential Savings are tracked in two distinct categories:
| • | Rate Reduction |
| • | Usage Reduction |
Note:Consider the following:
| • | Relevant properties (columns) are displayed by default in the Rate Reduction and Usage Reduction recommendations tables. |
| • | You can group recommendations by relevant properties (columns) to draw additional insights. For more information about the Group by capability, see Group By Capability in Recommendations Tables. |
| • | Your user settings are saved in the backend and are available the next time you log in to Flexera One, whether you are using the same or a different device or browser. These settings include table column visibility, table column order, table column filter state, table column sort state, table column width, table column pinning, dashboard settings, and dashboards and tabular view widget settings. |
Rate reduction shows what you might save per month by using a discount program, such as reserved instances, from a cloud vendor. The savings are aggregated from the output of Flexera’s cloud automation engine. See the following table for a description of the specific, automated recommendation policies and versions used by Flexera to aggregate the potential savings. Policies with version 2.6 or higher will need to be applied by your organization to gather the potential savings. See the Setting Up Recommendations section for more information.
Click the link in the Policy Name column to access the corresponding policy template.
|
Policy Name |
Description |
Version |
|
Identifies AWS RIs to purchase and calculates savings. |
2.6 or higher. |
|
|
Identifies AWS Savings Plans to purchase and calculates savings. |
2.6 or higher. |
|
|
Identifies Azure RIs to purchase and calculates savings. |
2.17 or higher. |
|
|
Identifies Azure Savings Plans to purchase and calculates savings. |
1.0 or higher. |
|
|
Finds Google Committed Use Discount Recommendations and reports when it finds them. |
2.0 or higher. |
Usage reduction shows what you might save by eliminating waste in your cloud ecosystem. See the following table for a description of the specific, automated recommendation policies and versions used by Flexera to aggregate the potential savings. Policies will need to be applied by your organization to gather the potential savings. See the Setting Up Recommendations section for more information.
Click the link in the Policy Name column to access the corresponding policy template.
|
Policy Name |
Description |
Version |
|
Checks for snapshots older than specified number of days and calculates savings if deleted. |
3.3 or higher. |
|
|
Finds AWS GP2 volume types and recommends them for an upgrade to GP3, if this would result in savings. |
2.0 or higher |
|
|
Checks for EC2 instances that have inefficient utilization for a specified number of days and downsizes or terminates them after approval. |
2.0 or higher |
|
|
Checks for RDS instances that have inefficient utilization for a user-specified number of days and downsizes or deletes them after approval. |
4.0 or higher |
|
|
Checks AWS for unused IP Addresses and calculates savings if deleted. |
3.4 or higher. |
|
|
Checks for unused volumes and if no read/write operations performed within a specified number of days and calculates savings if deleted. |
3.3 or higher. |
|
|
Checks for snapshots older than specified number of days and calculates savings if terminated. |
3.0 or higher. |
|
|
Checks for instances that have inefficient utilization for the last 30 days and downsizes or deletes them after approval. |
1.0 or higher. |
|
|
Finds underutilized managed disks and recommends downgrading the managed disk tier, if this results in savings and satisfies required usage levels. |
2.0 or higher. |
|
|
Checks for oversized NetApp capacity pools and suggests recommendations for rightsizing the capacity pools and volumes to optimize efficiency and reduce costs. |
1.1 or higher. |
|
|
Checks for SQL database instances that have inefficient utilization for the last 30 days and downsizes or deletes them after approval. |
4.0 or higher. |
|
|
Checks for unused IP addresses in the given account and calculates savings if deleted. |
3.0 or higher. |
|
|
Checks for unused volumes older than specified number of days and calculates savings if deleted. |
3.0 or higher. |
|
|
Finds Idle Cloud SQL Instance Recommendations and reports when it finds them. You can then delete the idle volumes. |
2.0 or higher. |
|
|
Finds Idle IP addresses and reports when it finds them. You can then delete the idle IP Addresses. |
2.0 or higher. |
|
|
Finds Idle Persistent Disk Recommendations and reports when it finds them. You can then delete the idle volumes. |
2.0 or higher. |
|
|
Finds underutilized and idle Google VM instances and downsizes, stops, or deletes them after approval. |
1.0 or higher. |
Group By Capability in Recommendations Tables
In the Rate Reduction and Usage Reduction recommendations tables (Cloud > Cloud Optimization > Optimization and Cloud > Cost Optimization > Billing Centers), you can group recommendations by relevant properties (columns) to draw additional insights.
To group recommendations, simply drag the relevant properties (columns) in the Group by panel. The Group by panel is located above the recommendations table and can also be accessed by clicking the Columns button. You can use the following properties (columns) to group recommendations:
| • | Recommendation |
| • | Policy Set |
| • | Billing Center |
| • | Service |
| • | Resource Type |
| • | Resource ID |
| • | Region |
| • | Account Name |
| • | Account ID |
| • | Cloud |
| • | Term |
| • | Payment Option |
| • | Platform |
| • | Scope |
| • | DB Edition |
| • | License Model |
| • | Deployment Option |
| • | Resource Name |
| • | Lookback Period |
| • | Size |
| • | State |
| • | Recommended Resource Type |
| • | Rule-Based Dimension |
| • | Threshold |
| • | Threshold Type |
| • | Tag Dimensions |
| • | Type. |
Note:You cannot group recommendations by Utilization and Tags properties (columns).
This section describes how to set up recommendations.
To set up recommendations:
| 1. | Create the Flexera Credentials for your cloud(s). Click the recommendation name in the table above for the permissions needed for each of the recommendations. Add the credentials by navigating to Credentials page (Automation > Credentials). Create the credentials in the “Master” account. |
| 2. | Use the Flexera Automation Catalog to apply the policies for the recommendations from the tables above. Use the Parameters to decide which options fit your savings options needs. Go to the Automation Catalog page (Automation > Catalog) and find the Recommendations listed below and apply the policies. The policies need to be applied in the same account where the credentials were created. Policies must be applied to the “Master” account. |
Note:The minimum version is recommended for the best experience for Spend Recommendations. Using earlier versions may cause incomplete data.
Setting Up a Recommendation Set (Beta Release)
Important:This beta feature is available with Cloud Cost Optimization and is not available to all customers yet. If you would like the Creating Recommendation Set beta feature enabled in the user interface, contact Flexera Support. For more information, see Contacting Flexera Support.
Cloud Cost Optimization includes a capability that streamlines the process of enabling optimization recommendations through the creation of recommendation sets. This feature enables you to quickly apply relevant policies for your cloud providers to generate savings recommendations, eliminating the need to manually navigate and apply policies from the Flexera Automation Catalog.
A recommendation set is a construct that simplifies the application of a core policy across multiple accounts. A user-friendly, step-by-step wizard guides you through the creation process on the Optimization page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Optimization) or the Recommendation Sets page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Recommendation Sets). After the recommendation sets are created, the corresponding savings recommendations will be enabled and available in the Rate Reduction and Usage Reduction recommendations tables (Cloud > Cloud Optimization > Optimization and Cloud > Cost Optimization > Billing Centers).
Important:Consider the following:
| • | A policy is applied to all accounts, subscriptions, or projects. You do not have the option to specifically choose accounts, subscriptions, or projects. |
| • | A policy is applied using the default parameter values. You do not have the option to customize the parameter values. |
This section covers the following topics:
| • | Prerequisites for Creating a Recommendation Set |
| • | Creating a Recommendation Set |
| • | Editing a Recommendation Set |
| • | Viewing a Recommendation Set |
| • | Terminating a Recommendation Set |
Prerequisites for Creating a Recommendation Set
The following prerequisites are required for creating a recommendation set:
|
Prerequisite |
Notes |
|
The Manage organization or View cloud costs role is required to access the Optimization page and the Manage organization role is required to access the Recommendation Sets page. |
For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles. |
|
You must have already created the automation credentials for your cloud providers. |
For information on how to create credentials, see Managing Credentials. |
|
You must have bill connect configurations already set up for your various cloud vendors. |
For information on how to create bill connect configurations, see Bill Connect Configurations. |
You can create and customize policy parameter values for a new recommendation set on the Optimization page or the Recommendation Sets page. This section assumes you have met the Prerequisites for Creating a Recommendation Set.
To create and customize policy parameter values for a new recommendation set:
| 1. | Go to one of the following pages: |
| • | Optimization page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Optimization). |
| • | Recommendation Sets page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Recommendation Sets). |
| 2. | Click Add Recommendations. The Create Recommendation Set slideout opens. |
| 3. | Use the Filter option to: |
| a. | Choose the recommendation type by selecting the checkboxes next to the following options: |
| • | Rate Reduction |
| • | Usage Reduction |
| b. | Choose the cloud vendor by selecting the checkboxes next to the following options: |
| • | AWS |
| • | Azure |
| • | GCP |
| 4. | Select the optimization recommendation policy template to create the recommendation set. |
| 5. | Click Next. The Create Recommendation Set > Create Set Details page opens. |
| 6. | To customize the Recommendation Parameters values, click Edit in the upper-right corner. The Edit Parameters slideout opens. |
| 7. | Enter the appropriate parameters to customize how this recommendation policy runs in your environment and click Apply. You return to the Create Recommendation Set page. |
| 8. | Click Next. The Create Recommendation Set > Create Set Details page opens |
| 9. | In the Recommendation set name field, enter the name of the recommendation set. |
| 10. | From the Select Credentials dropdown list, select the cloud provider credentials to which you want to apply the policy. |
| 11. | From the Select Credentials: flexera dropdown list, select the Flexera One credentials, if required. |
| 12. | Click Next. The Create Recommendation Set > Summary page opens. |
| 13. | Review the summary of the recommendation set to be created. Click Create to create the recommendation set. A recommendation set will be applied for your cloud vendor. |
Note:After you create a recommendation set, it takes up to 24 hours for the recommendations to appear on the Optimization page.
You can edit and customize policy parameter values for an existing recommendation set on the Recommendation Sets page. This section assumes you have met the Prerequisites for Creating a Recommendation Set.
To edit and customize policy parameter values for an existing recommendation set:
| 1. | Go to the Recommendation Sets page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Recommendation Sets). |
| 2. | In the Recommendation Sets table, go to the appropriate row in the Set Name column. |
| 3. | In the far-right column, click the Recommendation Actions Menu (three vertical dots) and select Edit. The Create Recommendation Set page opens. |
| 4. | To edit or customize the Recommendation Parameters values, click Edit in the upper-right corner. The Edit Parameters slideout opens. |
| 5. | Edit or customizethe appropriate parameters to customize how this recommendation policy runs in your environment and click Apply. |
| 6. | Click Next. The Create Recommendation Set > Create Set Details page opens. |
| 7. | In the Recommendation set name field, enter any necessary edits. |
| 8. | Click Next. The Create Recommendation Set > Summary page opens. |
| 9. | Review the summary of the recommendation set to be updated. Click Update to save the updated recommendation set. |
Note:After you update a recommendation set, it takes up to 24 hours for the updated recommendations to appear on the Optimization page.
You can view the recommendation set details including the number of active policies and the number of policies in the error state.
To view the recommendation set details:
| 1. | Go to one of the following pages: |
| • | Optimization page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Optimization), and then click Manage. |
| • | Recommendation Sets page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Recommendation Sets). |
The Recommendation Sets page opens, listing the recommendation sets.
| 2. | Do one of the following: |
| • | Use the filter controls to search for the recommendation set. Click the recommendation set name. |
| • | Locate the recommendation set and click the recommendation set name. |
| • | Click the three-dot menu button in the recommendation set row, and select View. |
The <Recommendation Set Name> slideout opens, displaying the details such as the scope, recommendation, and policies.
| 3. | To view the individual policies in various states, click the number link under Active Policies. The Applied Policies page opens, displaying the policies that match the count. |
Note:You can sort the recommendation set by clicking the Set Name column, and view the policies that are applied for the recommendation set.
| 4. | To view the errors, click the number link under Errors. The Applied Policies page opens, displaying the policies with the status Error. |
Terminating a Recommendation Set
You can terminate a recommendation set.
To terminate the recommendation set:
| 1. | Go to one of the following pages: |
| • | Optimization page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Optimization), and then click Manage. |
| • | Recommendation Sets page (Cloud > Cost Optimization > Recommendation Sets). |
The Recommendation Sets page opens, listing the recommendation sets.
| 2. | Do one of the following: |
| • | Use the filter controls to search for the recommendation set. Click the recommendation set name. The <Recommendation Set Name> slideout opens, click Terminate. |
| • | Locate the recommendation set and click the recommendation set name that you want to terminate. The <Recommendation Set Name> slideout opens, click Terminate. |
| • | Click the three-dot menu button in the recommendation set row, and select Terminate. |
The Terminate Set dialog box opens, asking you to confirm if you want to terminate the recommendation set.
| 3. | Click Terminate. After all the corresponding policies are removed, the recommendation set is removed from the list. |
Another graph available is the AWS EC2 Running Cost by Purchase Option. This shows the percentage of coverage of various discount mechanisms. The four categories are On Demand, Savings Plan, Reserved, and Spot.
This graph appears for organizations that have enabled reserved instance reallocation and savings plan reallocation. When these are enabled the purchase amount for the discount program is spread to the resources where those discounts are used. This shows the discounted cost of those resources, rather than showing no cost. Contact Flexera Support if you would like reallocation enabled.