Billing Sources can be setup to ingest the FOCUS specification from the cloud service providers (CSPs). The FOCUS spec is a consistent cost and usage dataset across different providers. For more information on the FOCUS spec and it’s purpose, please refer to the FinOps Foundations documentation, where you will also find specific setup instructions for each CSP. These setup instructions are subject to change by the discretion of the providers.
By using FOCUS for a Billing Source, users can ensure data parity across the CSPs for all data types. For example, List price in Kion was historically an AWS only option. With FOCUS, it will be available for all providers. Additionally, FOCUS will enable additional reporting features long-term, as the consistent data allows for new dimensions, filters, and details to be surfaced to our users.
For Kion, users can setup a billing source to use the FOCUS export or the CSP billing report. If FOCUS is enabled alongside a CSP billing report, Kion will prioritize the FOCUS export first for all future months and only use the CSP report as a backup option if required to complete financial visibility for a given month. For historical months, the previously chosen data types will be preserved unless they are out of date or financials are reprocessed. For more information on reprocessing, please refer to Financial Settings documentation here.
Currently, all four of the supported CSPs provide a FOCUS option, but please note that the exports may have incomplete data or be in a preview state. Kion ingests billing data according to the FOCUS 1.0 spec, and if there are gaps from the CSPs, you may see incomplete data.
Please note that when a billing source is initially setup to ingest a FOCUS export, the test connection can be successful but it may take up to 24 hours to properly ingest the first export. This may result in an indicator that the FOCUS report is missing or that the report cannot be found during the first 24 hours.