Working with Goals

The Anodot Cost Goals feature enables users who are watching their cost metrics to show a “goal” on top of their usage stats (in the Cost & Usage Explorer). This enables users to compare actual to planned cost/usage/rate, and, in turn, set an alert for when a specific goal is reached.

For example:

• You could set a goal for having a monthly limit of $2000 per month on EC2 services.
• You can set a goal to monitor and ensure the monthly costs of Team A do not exceed $20,000.

Goals: an introduction

Goals are set according to the query criteria set in the Cost & Usage Explorer, and the value defined.

For example, you can choose to group your data according to service or region, or according to a set granularity of daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly.

Each goal is also defined by its value. For Cost type displays, the value is amount, while for Usage type displays, the value is usage units (hours / requests / etc) based on the measuring unit relevant for the data presented. Rate type displays (cost divided by usage units) are also supported (refer to the article on Rates). 

Note that each Goal applies the filtering criteria it was created with. You can edit this granularity as required (see the following sections).

How to access Goals

To access Goals, in the Cost & Usage Explorer click the View Options button, and then select Show Goal. In the displayed list of Goals, click on the Goal you want to display.

If you haven't yet created a Goal, you can create your first Goal via the Save & Export Options button (as described in the following section).

Note that only one Goal can be selected for display at any one time. For example, if you are monitoring monthly stats grouped according to region, each region should have a single Goal. There can actually be several Goals in the same graph criteria (perhaps to watch the actual vs. planned spend of a specific team), which would be grouped by different labels and tags, but each Goal will be displayed separately in the Cost & Usage Explorer. 

How to create and edit Goals

To create a Goal:

1. Filter and group your data in the Cost & Usage Explorer according to your requirements. For more information, see this article. 
2. Click the Save & Export Options button, and then select Save as Goal > Create new.
   
3. In the Create Goal dialog, define the Goal name and Goal description (optional), and set your Goal (its actual numerical value). You must also set the relevant Time range.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Confirm to create the Goal. The Goal is displayed in the Cost & Usage Explorer graph.

To edit a Goal:

1. Click the View Options button, then select Show Goals and click on the relevant Goal you want to edit.
2. In the displayed Goal panel for the selected Goal, hover over the pencil icon and click Edit Goal.
   
   The Edit Goal dialog is displayed.
3. Edit the Goal as required (refer to the instructions on how to create the Goal).
4. Click Confirm.

To delete a Goal:

In the Edit Goal dialog, click and then click Delete Goal.