For the past two months, we’ve been running an internal project called ‘Make it Aimably’ which we are excited to release to you later this week. Since we came together at the beginning of December with our expanded leadership team, we’ve been focusing on being precise with the value that we, as Aimably, intend to deliver to our customers.
The Aimably brand name and Aimably product suite represent our vision to democratize corporate financial understanding. Aimably’s products and services deliver peace of mind to our technology-driven clients: their AWS cloud hosting spend is under management. Included in that promise is absolute confidence and clarity regarding what is spent and why – without requiring cloud hosting cost experts on the payroll.
To deliver on this brand promise, we are making rapid changes to the Aimably product. In this upcoming release, you’ll see how we’ve reorganized all the existing components into meaningful categories and products. In future releases, you’ll see even more management capabilities pushed to your team.
Below, we’ll outline the new Aimably Product Suite, we’ll spotlight the capacities of the Work Scheduler module of Aimably Reduce, we’ll explain the focus we’re placing on ensuring prompt AWS connections for new customers, and we’ll outline additional bug fixes we’ve made – many of which have come at the suggestion of our intrepid Beta Program participants.
Introducing the Aimably Product Suite
While it might not look much different at first glance, the navigation menu of Aimably has been completely reorganized to group features and views by Aimably product module. All administrative and help-oriented functions have similarly been grouped together below the core product navigation. Read on for an orientation to each aspect of the reorganization.
Aimably Reduce
The purpose of Aimably Reduce is to provide straightforward tools for implementing cost-reduction activities without needing to master or grant admin access to the AWS Console.
Inside the Aimably Reduce product module, you’ll see three pages, each of which previously existed in CloudyCosts under other names. There’s no new functionality here yet, but expect some in the future.
Here’s a table describing the page name changes and the purpose of each page:
Aimably Reduce PageContents from CloudyCostsPage Purpose
Helpful Hints
- Formerly: Analytics Page
- Purpose: Aimably scans your AWS account looking for basic vulnerabilities, cost opportunities, and best practices that can be leveraged then provides all of these for you to review based on type and priority. These recommendations go above and beyond default AWS recommendations.
Work Scheduler*
- Formerly: Schedules Page
- Purpose: Configure and visualize timetables for running for virtual servers, with the goal of stopping infrastructure usage when they would ordinarily be idle in order to reduce your AWS bill.
Manual Control*
- Formerly: Servers Page
- Purpose: There’s always a moment when direct action needs to be taken on a server to take it offline. This page lets you do this without needing to grant users access to the AWS console.
* The Aimably Data & Scheduling policy is required on your AWS connection in order to take advantage of the full functionality provided in these pages.
Aimably Insight
The purpose of Aimably Insight is to provide detailed spend research information in the same context as actionable spend interventions, all without needing to master or grant admin access to the AWS Console.
Inside the Aimably Insight module, you will find four brand new pages that contain subsets of information previously found by exploring the old CloudyCosts Dashboard. We strongly recommend getting very familiar with these new pages as we will be replacing the dashboard in future releases with core communication and planning functionality.
Aimably Insight: Trends
On this page, you will find the majority of trend graphs previously displayed on the old CloudyCosts Dashboard. Use this page to track variation over time in cost and usage, by a variety of factors.
Aimably Insight: Inventory Summary
On this page, you will find summary data representing your total inventory in use aggregated over your AWS accounts under Aimably management. Additionally, you will find regional inventory summaries in map format and a tabular display that contains by-account breakouts as well. Use this page to assess the totality of your assets.
Aimably Insight: Inventory Details
On this page, you will find tabular details displaying all virtual servers under Aimably management, divided by region and AWS Account. In addition to listing the resources, their statuses, types, reference IDs, and applicable Aimably Work Schedules are listed and searchable. This can be particularly useful for cross-referencing billing details with specific machines.
Aimably Insight: Detailed Spend
On this page, you will find 30-day detailed trend graphs of historical daily spending. Use the page to research the details of spikes in spending. Access the page directly or by clicking on a node in a graph on the Trends page. Opening up an account’s graph will reveal the individual costs incurred by type as they appear on your AWS bill. Explore and compare time periods and search for specific cost metrics.
Configure
The purpose of the Configure module is to separate the administrative functions of the Aimably application from the core products.
Inside the Configure navigation group, you’ll see four pages, each of which previously existed in CloudyCosts under other names. Depending on the roles assigned to your user, you may not be able to access all of these administrative functions.
Here’s a table describing the page name changes and the user access for each page:
Manage Users
- Formerly: User Management
- Roles with Access: Admin, Manager
Update Company
- Formerly: Account Settings
- Roles with Access: Admin
Configure Warn Notifications
- Formerly: Alerts
- Roles with Access: Admin, Manager, Accountant, DevOps
Connect to AWS
- Formerly: Cloud Accounts
- Roles with Access: Admin, DevOps
Get Help
The purpose of the Get Help module is to separate the customer assistance functions of the Aimably application from the core products and administrative functions.
Inside the Aimably Get Help navigation menu group, you will find three pages that have been aggregated from previous areas of the CloudyCosts product, access to which is determined by user role.
Here is a table describing the page functions and the user role access for each page:
Audit Trail
- Purpose: Research which user performed which action in the Aimably account
- Roles with Access: Admin
Help Center
- Purpose: Written guides and troubleshooting instructions
- Roles with Access: All
Contact Support
- Purpose: Submit a request directly to customer support
- Roles with Access: All
Product Spotlight: Work Scheduler
As we continue to re-organize and release features, we are building out our training materials to explain how to best use each of the functional areas of the product.
In this set of release notes we are highlighting the Work Scheduler, which you can use to automate downtime or uptime of specific virtual servers, accomplishing significant cost savings. To encourage you to explore the Work Scheduler, we’ve released the following guides:
Understanding The Work Schedule Calendar
Limitations To The Work Scheduler
Ensuring Prompt AWS Connections
In our Beta program, we have noticed that quite a few prospective customers get stuck on the Connect to AWS step and are not able to establish a proper connection to start realizing cost management success.
In order to encourage prompt connections upon account creation, we’ve added some clarification information, more clear button text, and ensured that only users with the Admin role (and therefore ability to connect) are prompted to connect. We’ve also done away with the Expert Add process since the Wizard has been far more favorably received by our Beta program members.
Additional Changes and Bug Fixes
- Our Cost Alert emails tended to bunch up in a pile in your inbox due to having the same subject line. We’ve updated the emails so that now each subject line includes the date for easy searching and discovery.
- The password reset success page text was tiny. We’re convinced a magnifying glass was required to read it. We’ve taken care of it.
- Back when we established the Company Profile, we assumed that AWS supported billing well in a variety of currencies, and allowing you to select a display currency would enable us to provide you your accurate bill total in your local currency. As it turns out, we were wrong. We’ve hidden that currency setting from the Company Profile since it does not actually translate your AWS bill into local currency. If AWS makes a change in the future we’ll be happy to support it!
- Thanks to a great tip from a beta program participant, we discovered some performance issues in our AWS syncing process, most of which were driven by overzealous JavaScript. We’ve cut out a lot of the fat and are already seeing some great performance as a result. Keep the feedback coming!
- We found a few straggling references to the CloudyCosts product name and have corrected them. If you spot any other references in the future, please do let us know.
- Our detailed cost metric graphs (found now when you open a Child Account’s table row on the Detailed Spend page of Aimably Insight), previously did not display any metrics for which cost was not incurred on the particular day being reviewed. For example, if you were charged for a Data-Transfer-Out on March 29th, but not on March 30th and you had selected March 30th as your date for review, no data or graph would be presented for Data-Transfer-Out. We have corrected this issue and have also updated these cost metric graphs to histograms, allowing you to pinpoint exact dates and cost amounts on those dates.
Next, we’re going to be adding a central communication and planning workspace to the Aimably home page. How might you want to use Aimably to plan your cost management? Please submit your feedback to our team.
