Google Adds a Billing API Into its Cloud Platform
Small to medium sized businesses are adopting public cloud technology because these services save on costs and increase efficiency from a technical services standpoint. In efforts to better manage the real costs of running a public cloud, Google has added an API that allows cloud developers to chart the actual daily cost of running cloud services. Google’s billing API works quite simply by outputting data that can be analyzed and incorporated into existing applications also hosted within the company’s cloud.
Each day, Google will export .CSV or a .JSON files into your cloud storage bucket. The API can then be used to pull data from this sheet allowing managers, developers and decision makers to utilize cloud services more efficiently based on these numbers. For example, let’s say a decision maker found that they could reduce their cloud budget by 5-10% by using the intelligence found in these reports. If such is the case, there is definitely value in putting this API to work inside of Google’s public cloud.
On the downside, the report is generated on a daily basis and the data which is grabbed by the API is not in real time. Unless enterprises are using large scale mega-clouds that require extreme attention to details and costs, this information won’t typically be needed on a real time basis. Google’s main competitor is Amazon and they are more notably mature with its public cloud offering because Amazon has offered this same type of API for quite sometime now.
Companies still see a need for better and more precise analytics surrounding cloud costs. Cloudability is a company that has created a business model emphasizing this granular approach to actual costs as they relate to the public cloud. Cloudability will embolden a CIO with advanced reporting capabilities that can satisfy the requirements of any Chief Financial Officer or staff accountant. Cloudability boasts that it has over 8,000 clients that are currently using its cloud computing cost reporting tools. The company’s corporate website says that the software oversees nearly half a billion dollars in cloud computing costs. Although Google has just released its API, its obvious that companies want more when it comes to simply tracking the costs associated with cloud computing.
