While interest in Cloud Computing and related technologies run high, one area that has received little attention so far is the requirements for chargeback and metering. After all, when Enterprises deploy IT systems they need to know which business unit or cost center uses it and pays for it. IT cost allocation is needed to accurately represent the return on investment at a business and technology level.  Else it can easily become taking from Jerry to pay Jack. John Gannon had written a post on this last year which pointed to this issue as a barrier to enterprise adoption to cloud computing.

As long as IT infrastructure is physical, cost allocation is simpler. Progressive enterprise IT shops maintain asset management systems and some have built out CMDBs that provide a centralized repository of infrastructure components and related cost information. Using virtualization, still does not upset this process as long as virtual machines can be tied easily to physical systems which in turn can be linked to a  funding source from a business unit’s budget.

However, with cloud technologies the physical systems become an amorphous concept, as applications can dynamically scale within the infrastructure based on demand. After all, the whole point of cloud computing is to decouple the infrastructure provisioning and management from application owners and provide scalability from pooled enterprise resources. Restricting the cloud infrastructure by each business unit or process therefore become unsustainable.

In this scenario, chargeback systems need to adapt to new usage based models (e.g. CPU mins, Memory hrs, Storage days etc..). While the model itself is in use with current chargeback systems, the dynamicity of the cloud makes it much harder to track usage based on resource consumption by each application or business process.

It was interesting to see therefore that area is now receiving attention and existing cloud enablers are highlighting their system capabilities to address this area. VMWare’s vCenter Chargeback provides base capabilities but this only applies to their own systems.  Skytap recently announced the enhancement of their Virtual Lab offering with enhanced cost control and chargeback capabilities. However, with the Labs concept being limited to niche environments like Test and QA, IT operations and Sales Demo enablement – its applicability is useful but limited.

All said, there is a play in cloud metering and monitoring that is yet to evolve. If you know of any startup or large system vendor activity in this area do let us know.

- Ronnie