Domain 2 · Quantify Business Value
Cost a workload before it ships.
Planning and Estimating is FinOps shifted left. CloudMonitor gives architects SKU-level pricing, commit-aware modelling, and ARB-ready cost sheets — so the answer to "what will it cost?" lands in the design review, not the post-mortem.
The problem
Designs that surprise the bill.
Architects estimate by analogy.
"It'll be about the same as the last one" is the most common estimate in the building. It is also the most expensive one.
Commitments aren't modelled.
Estimates use list price. The reservation that already covers 60% of the SKU never enters the calculation.
Surprises hit production.
The first time anyone sees the real number is the first invoice. Now finance is the one asking the questions, and the answers are expensive.
How CloudMonitor answers
Estimates the bill will recognise.
SKU-level estimator.
Build the workload meter by meter — compute, storage, network, marketplace — against current Azure list. The estimate matches the line items on the invoice.
Commit-aware pricing.
Existing reservations and savings plans are factored into the estimate. The effective rate the new workload will see — not list price theatre.
ARB-ready cost sheets.
Exportable cost sheets sized for an architecture review board. One page, assumptions surfaced, sensitivity ranges included.
Shifted into design review.
Cost feedback in the same flow as the architecture decision. Walk-phase practices expect this, not "we'll cost it later".
Outcomes
Numbers the ARB will sign off.
SKU
Meter-level estimates, not averages
Commit
Discount-aware effective rates
Pre-build
Costed before code commits
Cost a sample design in the demo tenant.
Walk through the estimator with a seeded reservation pool and an ARB-style cost sheet.