FAQ

This FAQ answers common questions about Cloudaware FinOps.

Question: Which cloud providers and billing sources are supported?

Answer: Cloudaware supports billing data ingestion for major public clouds including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as additional sources, such as Oracle Cloud and Kubernetes. For details and prerequisites per provider, see Billing Integrations and Cloud Billing Sources.

Question: How often is cost data refreshed?

Answer: Cost data is refreshed as new billing exports and API data become available from each provider. In practice:

• Most providers update billing exports daily, with some adjustments and discounts posted later.

• Cloudaware pulls new data on a schedule once billing integrations are configured.

Use Data Health & Freshness to understand expected latency and to troubleshoot missing or delayed data.

Question: Why don’t Cloudaware numbers always match my cloud console?

Answer: Cloudaware reads provider billing exports (for example, CUR, EA, Billing Export to BigQuery) and may apply allocation, shared‑cost rules, and effective‑cost calculations. Differences usually come from:

• Timing – enterprise discounts posted after period end.

• Scope – different filters or account selections.

• Calculation – use of effective cost vs. on‑demand or blended rates.

When investigating differences, first confirm:

• That you are comparing like‑for‑like periods and scopes.

• Which cost metric is being used (on‑demand, blended, or effective cost).

Question: What happens if tags are missing or inconsistent?

Answer: FinOps still ingests and stores costs even when tags are missing. However:

• Spend without required tags may be classified as unallocated or mapped to default buckets.

• Tagging issues reduce allocation coverage and make showbacks/chargebacks less precise.

Use Tagging Strategy to improve tagging quality over time. Unallocated and partially allocated spend should be monitored using dashboards and KPIs.

Question: How are shared costs handled?

Answer: Shared costs (platform, networking, security, shared clusters, support, etc.) are configured via allocation and showback/chargeback models. Common approaches include:

• Keeping some costs in a central “Platform” bucket.

• Allocating shared costs using fixed percentages or usage‑based drivers.

See Shared Costs and Model Design for guidance.

Question: What does “effective cost” mean?

Answer: Effective cost includes the impact of commitments and discounts (for example, RIs, Savings Plans, CUDs) spread across the usage that benefits from them. It is intended to represent the true economic cost of running workloads, not just list/on‑demand rates.

See Commitments & Reservations

Question: What happens if I remove a cloud account from Cloudaware?

Answer: Removing or disabling a cloud integration for an account does not delete historical billing data that has already been ingested. Historical costs remain available in FinOps dashboards and reports for analysis and showback/chargeback, subject to your data retention policies.

New billing data for that account will no longer be collected once the integration or export is removed.

Question: Can I limit who can see billing data?

Answer: Yes. Use role‑based access (RBAC) controls and sharing rules to:

• Restrict who can view detailed billing objects and financial fields.

• Limit visibility to specific scopes (BUs, apps, customers, accounts).

• Provide high‑level dashboards and statements to broader audiences without exposing sensitive detail.

See Governance, Policy and Risk for recommendations.

Question: Can I export cost data to Finance and BI systems?

Answer: Yes. Cloudaware FinOps supports:

• Report‑based exports (CSV/Excel/email) from analytics dashboards and reports.

• API‑based integrations for automated feeds.

• Patterns for loading data into BI tools and ITFM/ERP systems.

See Exports for examples and best practices.

Question: How is forecasting different from anomaly detection?

Answer: Forecasting projects future spend based on historical data and known changes, helping you anticipate whether budgets will be met. Anomaly detection highlights unexpected changes in spend or usage that deviate from historical patterns, even when no budget is set.

Use both together: forecasts and budgets to define expectations and guardrails, and anomalies - to catch unexpected behavior. See Budgeting & Forecasting and Anomaly Management.