IBM Kubecost is a cost monitoring & optimization solution for teams running Kubernetes. The solution supports:
Cost Allocation
Real-time, customizable cost allocation across Kubernetes concepts and organizational dimensions.
Kubecost ties cloud spend to actual Kubernetes usage, enabling accurate showback and chargeback. Cost metrics are continuously updated and reconciled with billing exports for accuracy.
• Allocate spend by namespace, deployment, service, label, and more across any major cloud or on-prem K8s environment.
• Map costs to teams, applications, projects, or environments using native K8s metadata or custom business labels.
• View unified cost data across multi-cluster, multi-cloud environments through a single UI or API endpoint.
Unified Cost Monitoring
Combine in-cluster resource costs with out-of-cluster cloud services for full-stack visibility.
Kubecost integrates with AWS, GCP, Azure, and Oracle billing data to join cloud service costs with K8s resources—enabling true end-to-end cost transparency.
• Correlate cloud services (e.g., RDS, BigQuery, S3) to Kubernetes workloads based on tagging or labels.
• Track network, storage, and compute costs in real time with hourly granularity.
• Share and distribute both in-cluster and external cloud costs across teams, services, or business units.
Optimization Insights
In-cluster recommendations to right-size workloads, reduce waste, and improve cost efficiency.
Kubecost analyzes actual usage to detect over-provisioned resources, idle infrastructure, and savings opportunities—without exporting usage data outside your environment.
• Get tailored rightsizing recommendations at the pod, container, and volume level based on historical usage.
• Detect idle nodes, abandoned volumes, and inefficient request settings.
• Export recommendations via UI or API, plus the optional ability to dynamically apply insights for immediate results.
Alerts & Governance
Prevent cost overruns and enforce cost efficiency with built-in alerting and policy enforcement.
Kubecost enables teams to set spending thresholds, define efficiency targets, and receive proactive alerts via Slack, email, or Teams.
• Configure budgets by team, namespace, or application with real-time usage tracking.
• Get alerts on anomalous spend or low-efficiency workloads to prevent waste from escalating.
• Generate automated reports with trend analysis and cost breakdowns for recurring visibility and accountability.
Seller
Apptio, an IBM CompanyDiscussions
Kubecost, an IBM Company CommunityLanguages Supported
English
Overview by
Jennifer Staretorp