We are thrilled to announce that OpenCost is expanding beyond Kubernetes (K8s) cost monitoring to provide a fully open source cloud cost monitoring solution. This marks our first major expansion since becoming a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project in 2021.

In an era where cloud computing has become an integral part of most businesses, keeping track of infrastructure costs can be a daunting task. This is becoming even more challenging with the growing use of shared infrastructure, multi-cloud and an ever increasing number of other infrastructure solutions. As the complexity of cloud environments expands, there is a pressing need for unified and open solutions that provide a clear and normalized view of all infrastructure expenditures. That's where we see OpenCost playing an increasingly key role.

OpenCost UI now allows you to monitor cloud cost by service, tag, and more. It also provides the ability to drill down all the way to individual item level

We're excited to announce that the OpenCost plugin for Backstage is now available in the latest release (v1.18.0). With the OpenCost plugin, Backstage users can now view and access their Kubernetes cloud costs directly in their developer portals.

Reposted from the VictoriaMetrics blog: Monitoring Kubernetes costs with OpenCost and VictoriaMetrics

Original author: Zakhar Bessarab

This week at the FinOps X conference the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) will be announcing the first release of their specification for defining an open standard for cloud cost, usage, and billing data. The OpenCost project is excited to announce we're supporting this standard and have already started shipping initial patches with this terminology supported.

Reposted from the Grafana Labs blog: Rein in spending with Kubernetes cost monitoring in Grafana Cloud

Original authors: Vasil Kaftandzhiev, Jake Swiss

Understanding Kubernetes cloud costs can be a challenge that many teams lack the necessary tools and visibility to solve. In response to this challenge, the CNCF launched the OpenCost project with code provided by Kubecost, which provides an open-source Kubernetes cost monitoring standard for the industry. Microsoft is now giving users of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) better cost transparency and contributing to the OpenCost project on behalf of their customers. Without proper cost monitoring tools like OpenCost, teams using Kubernetes may struggle to grasp their expenditures and the factors driving their costs, making it difficult to optimize their infrastructure. By leveraging OpenCost, teams can take their first step towards understanding and improving the efficiency of their Kubernetes cloud spend.

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft has joined the OpenCost community as a contributing partner and is bringing new functionality to both AKS and the OpenCost community. Microsoft’s initial contributions improve their cost reporting and make it easier to export OpenCost data to other reporting platforms.

It’s been a busy start to the year. We’re excited to announce that OpenCost is now a FinOps Certified Solution. The FinOps Foundation has certified OpenCost because it delivers Kubernetes cloud cost monitoring, a specific part of cloud cost management. According to Vas Markanastasakis, Principal at the FinOps Foundation: "Our focus at the FinOps Foundation is helping advance the people and the practice of cloud financial management. OpenCost's vendor-neutral open source project shares that focus." We look forward to helping more practitioners in the community and working with the FinOps Foundation to drive open standards.

There's even more news!

The OpenCost UI is now available as a user-friendly interface for managing Kubernetes cloud costs. It allows users to easily monitor and visualize their cloud spend, making it easier to reduce Kubernetes costs while improving efficiency.

We are excited to share the launch of OpenCost, an open source project that provides real-time cost monitoring for teams running Kubernetes workloads!