Vantage

Vantage manages cloud cost opacity and inefficiency by providing a comprehensive cloud cost management and optimization platform. At its core, Vantage's architecture leverages deep integrations with AWS, Azure, and GCP, allowing for the aggregation and analysis of cloud costs across multiple dimensions, including tags, business units, and accounts.

The platform employs a structured API to capture 100% of cloud costs, offering real-time cost visibility and forecasts. Users can create hierarchical reports that map costs to their organizational structure, from individual services to cost center owners. This is achieved through the use of Cross Account IAM Roles with ReadOnly permissions, ensuring seamless data synchronization with cloud accounts.

Key operational considerations include the setup of custom cost allocation tags and the ability to filter and group costs by various dimensions. Vantage also offers automated purchasing of AWS Compute Savings Plans, optimizing commitment coverage and highlighting changes in coverage types over time. For Kubernetes environments, Vantage provides efficiency metrics and rightsizing recommendations to optimize resource allocation.

From a technical standpoint, Vantage's Kubernetes agent captures cost and utilization metrics, enabling the identification of inefficient pods and clusters. The platform also integrates with network flow analysis, correlating data transfer costs with specific AWS resources and external services. However, the scalability of these features can be limited by the complexity of the cloud environment and the volume of data being processed.

In terms of operational limitations, Vantage's pricing model is tiered based on monthly cloud spend, with custom tiers available for large-scale users. While the platform offers significant cost savings, the fee structure, such as the 5% fee on AWS Compute Savings Plans savings, needs to be factored into the overall cost analysis.