May 2025 Summaries

Vantage has introduced a new Flexible Match filter operator that allows users to match various string variants by ignoring differences in casing, whitespace, underscores, and hyphenation during filtering operations. This tool is designed to streamline the process of standardizing tag values across multiple permutations, such as "TeamA," "team-a," and "team_a," into a single tag value, without the need for multiple filter configurations. The Flexible Match functionality can be applied to Cost Reports, Segment Reports, and Virtual Tag creation, and is available at no additional cost to all Vantage users, although only those with the "Owner" role can create Virtual Tag configurations. Users can access this new feature through the Vantage console, and it supports filtering in Vantage Query Language (VQL) but does not account for misspelled words or similar variations. While currently not supporting regex, Vantage plans to incorporate it in the future to further assist users in managing tag nomenclature errors.

Vantage has launched FOCUS-Compatible Data Exports, enabling customers to export their cloud cost and usage data in the FinOps Foundation's open-source schema, the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS). This new feature allows users to download cost reports from Vantage in a standardized format, facilitating easier analysis across various cloud providers by eliminating the need for extensive data engineering work. Previously, users had to deal with raw exports from each cloud provider, which often required significant normalization efforts. The FOCUS-Compatible Data Exports offer a uniform export schema for all vendors integrated with Vantage, allowing for seamless exports via the Vantage console or API without additional costs. This development is particularly beneficial for developers and finance teams who need to analyze cost data at scale, as it provides a method to unify and standardize data across multiple providers, including those not natively supporting FOCUS exports. Vantage will maintain compatibility with evolving FOCUS specifications, ensuring ongoing utility and integration for users.

Vantage has enhanced its Anomaly Detection feature by introducing Resource Attribution, which automatically identifies and associates cost anomalies with the specific resources responsible for them. This enhancement allows users to quickly pinpoint the exact resource causing unexpected cloud expenses, thus reducing the time needed for remediation and minimizing potential cost overruns. The feature is available to all Vantage customers at no additional cost and requires no extra configuration. Anomaly Detection is powered by a machine learning model that detects deviations at a service-category level, and with this update, customers can view anomalies with associated resources directly in their Cost Reports, facilitating a more efficient resolution process. Resource information is also included in anomaly alerts sent through platforms like Slack or Jira, and Vantage will retroactively apply this capability to the previous six months of anomalies.

Vantage has introduced new capabilities that allow users to configure Business Metric integrations for Datadog and CloudWatch using either the Vantage API or Terraform Provider, enhancing the ease and automation of managing these integrations programmatically. This update alleviates the previously manual and error-prone process of configuring Business Metrics through the Vantage console, enabling customers to efficiently manage, update, and scale Business Metric integrations across environments. Users can now leverage API requests or Terraform scripts to define Business Metrics based on Datadog Queries or CloudWatch metrics, facilitating the calculation of unit costs such as cost per API call or subscriber. The API and Terraform Provider are available for free, and existing configurations via the Vantage UI remain unaffected. This development aligns with Vantage's strategy to provide more streamlined and automated solutions for managing cloud cost metrics, maintaining flexibility through both programmatic and console-based configuration options.

Vantage has introduced Ephemeral Workload Monitoring for its Kubernetes Agent, enabling users to configure polling intervals as brief as 5 seconds, significantly enhancing the granularity of monitoring short-lived Kubernetes workloads such as data processing tasks. This new feature addresses the limitations of the previous one-minute polling interval by allowing users to gather precise insights into resource utilization, facilitating improved chargeback and utilization reporting. Users can set their desired polling frequency, ranging from 5 to 60 seconds, through the agent.pollingInterval parameter in the Helm chart, although reducing the polling interval may increase the load on the Kubernetes API server and memory consumption. The upgrade, which is included in the existing Vantage subscription at no additional cost, requires users to update their Kubernetes Agent to the custom-poll image tag. The enhanced monitoring capability aids in better cost management by enabling detailed visibility into in-cluster costs, thus optimizing resource allocation effectively without any retroactive monitoring of past usage.