August 2022 Summaries

Vantage has introduced a new feature in their Cost Reports that automatically amortizes upfront payments, such as fees for Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Marketplace purchases, and Support, on a daily basis over the term of the fee. This change applies to all plans and is now the default setting, though users can opt to view upfront fees as incurred by toggling off the amortization feature in the report settings. Previously, these fees were shown only in the month they were incurred, which could lead to a skewed understanding of costs over time. The new amortization feature helps users better track usage and budget by spreading costs evenly across the term of the purchase. While this feature is automatically applied to all existing and new upfront purchases, it does not yet support certain static fees from providers like Datadog and Fastly, though future support is planned.

Vantage has introduced Autopilot Controls, allowing customers to manage and adjust settings for Autopilot, which helps optimize reserved instance purchases by providing visibility into usage trends and committed coverage for various compute categories. This feature enables users to view detailed graphs of their cloud usage, adjust target commitment levels, and selectively enable or disable Autopilot for specific compute categories, offering more precise control over cost-saving strategies. Previously, customers could only see overall savings estimates and had to contact support for category-specific adjustments, but now they can make these changes directly through the Autopilot settings page at no additional cost. The new controls are available to all customers, including those already using Autopilot, and changes to settings are implemented within 24 to 48 hours, with some limitations due to AWS's reserved instance holding periods.

Vantage has introduced a new feature called Budgets, allowing users to create and assign monthly budgets directly within the platform, providing an integrated approach to tracking spend against forecasts and budget targets. This enhancement eliminates the need to use external systems like spreadsheets or other software for budget management by enabling users to link a budget to a Cost Report and monitor financial performance in one tool. Users have the flexibility to define multiple budget periods, accommodating monthly and quarterly planning, and can adjust amounts as necessary over time. Available for free to all Vantage users, including those on the free tier, Budgets simplify financial oversight by offering real-time tracking and performance monitoring, although the feature currently lacks the capability to import budgets from external sources or set alerts for overspending, with some functionalities like alerts under development. Access is controlled by workspace, allowing specific teams to manage and view budgets, and anyone with an "Editor" role or above can manage budget creation and adjustments.

The article explores strategies for identifying and managing expensive queries in Snowflake, a cloud-based data warehouse with a usage-based pricing model. It highlights methods to calculate the cost per query by examining factors such as query execution time and warehouse size, using SQL queries that pull data from Snowflake's QUERY_HISTORY and WAREHOUSE_SIZE tables. The piece also discusses the application of query tags, which allow businesses to track costs associated with specific units, such as teams or services, thus optimizing resource usage. By leveraging these techniques, organizations can align data consumption with business processes and improve cost efficiency. The article underscores the importance of these practices as part of data engineering efficiency, offering tools and methods for better financial management and encouraging readers to sign up for a Vantage demo to further explore these capabilities.

Vantage has introduced Snowflake cost support within its platform, enabling users to view detailed cost analyses related to their Snowflake usage, such as costs per query, user, or warehouse. This new feature allows customers to integrate Snowflake with Vantage easily, which then ingests and visualizes the spending data, providing insights into cost efficiency and identifying cost drivers. Snowflake, a key component for many businesses, contributes significantly to overall cloud expenses, and previously, it was challenging to pinpoint the exact sources of these costs. The integration facilitates detailed reporting by cost category and offers filter options by various dimensions such as region and query tag. Available to all Vantage users, including those on the free tier, this enhancement aids customers in managing and optimizing their cloud expenditures without additional charges for the support, although exceeding monthly cost limits may necessitate a plan upgrade.