Billing
Rafay’s billing and cost modules enable service providers with the ability to perform billing for their customers. This is based on usage of Compute, Memory, Storage, and any other billable resources. The billing module provides usage time of consumed resources which can be integrated with Provider's billing application.
Billing Metadata¶
When the service provider creates a compute or service profile (i.e. a SKU), they can configure the following billing aspects for display, price estimation and integration with billing software:
Pricing and Metering Units¶
Providers may provide different pricing and metering units (e.g., $1/hr, $5/day, $100/month).
Billable Parameters¶
Providers can charge resources independently. For example, customizable resources like storage by marking them as Billable Parameters (e.g., $0.5/GB/day).
Billing Labels¶
Providers can also add variables/labels like Contract ID/Client ID/Service ID as Billing Metadata to enable integration with their Billing application.
Reservations¶
Providers can also support the concept of reservations for their customers. This allows the customer to commit to paying for a baseline set of resources and the provider guarantees
Billing Workflow¶
The workflow for billing involves the following steps:
Step 1: Add Billing Metadata:¶
Providers will add Billing Metadata to each SKU they publish and can share it for all or individual customers. Providers can add labels like Contract ID/Client ID/Service ID, Billable Custom Resources and attach reservations.
Step 2: Price Estimation¶
The billing metadata from above will be used to present an estimated price before an instance is launched using the SKU.
Step 3: Instance Monitoring¶
Once the instance has been launched by the user, the Rafay platform will track and monitor the running time for each instance of the SKU.
Step 4: Billing Integrations¶
Service Providers will integrate their billing applications with Rafay's APIs for Billing and Usage to drive their invoice generation etc. They can also use these APIs to retrieve usage time and billing metadata (see above).
Billing APIs¶
Service Providers are expected to leverage Rafay’s Billing APIs to retrieve the following details into their customer billing applications.
- Aggregated Running time for each instance along with Billing Metadata for given Start Date and End Date.
- Aggregated Running time for each SKU along with Billing Metadata for given Start Date and End Date.
- Detailed hourly usage report of instances along with Billing Metadata for given Start Date and End Date.
Info
A detailed report will also be available for end customer admins.