Co-creating VW's cloud cost control solution
One of the world’s leading carmakers chose Nordcloud Klarity as their partner for cloud cost control.
Volkswagen (VW), part of the VW Group, is a German automotive manufacturer.
The Volkswagen Group designs, manufactures and distributes vehicles through many leading brands such as Audi and Porsche, and is one of the largest players in the industry, both in Europe and globally.
The Challenge
VW’s multi-cloud journey was already underway with Microsoft, AWS and Google. On top of this, there was a new product platform on the horizon, as they had begun distributing services using Red Hat OpenShift.
However, there was a challenge involved in adopting the new product platform, as it was proving difficult for VW to allocate costs from the new platform to individual departments.
This meant that cloud costs were only seen at levels either too macro or micro to be useful.
The Need
A primary driver of change at VW was the need to achieve cloud cost control. Knowing the what, where and who of their cloud spend would give them the ability to understand where cloud expenditure was taking place, and where it could be reduced.
As well as cost allocation, VW’s solution needed to accommodate RedHat OpenShift, alongside all of the three existing cloud providers in place. The solution therefore needed to be multi-cloud and flexible enough to accommodate multiple inputs.
In addition, cloud native guidance on how to sustainably reduce cloud waste was a major priority, seen alongside VW’s higher-level sustainability goals.
Enter Nordcloud Klarity.
Nordcloud Klarity’s Solution
Nordcloud Klarity automates cloud cost management and allocation, making continuous cloud cost savings a reality.
Nordcloud Klarity teams worked together with VW developers to co-create a cost control solution, using the fundamental features of Klarity but tailored to meet the specific requirements that VW had.
With their custom Nordcloud Klarity solution, VW has a cloud cost management tool that consolidates information about cloud spend for cost allocation. This gives VW the ability to assign responsibility for specific costs to the relevant business context and identify areas where costs could be reduced.
On top of Klarity providing the data for internal chargebacks, the process is further aided by Klarity’s built-in rightsizing and savings suggestions, which enable waste reduction.
From a sustainability perspective, developers are incentivised to balance performance with waste-reduction through Klarity’s GreenOps feature. This feature shows the carbon footprint of resources, which adds a sustainability dimension – both environmental and economic – to their cloud management activities.
Hector Valverde, Solution Architect
Volkswagen Data:Lab
“Klarity customer support in onboarding is outstanding. It is a role model"
A co-created Klarity solution
Klarity’s developers worked closely with VW’s teams to tailor-make a Klarity solution that helps maximise cloud value, aligning VW’s cloud cost practices with their upcoming projects, needs and goals.
Using an agile, cloud-native approach, VW and Klarity’s teams have shaped a sustainable cost control solution together. Some suggested features from the process have even been added to the Klarity product roadmap, because for the Klarity teams, being agile means integrating valuable learnings into our customer solutions.
Visibility
Klarity highlights spend across departments, and exposes waste
Focus
Resources can be reallocated from areas of high waste
Value
Teams can be confident that they are providing value from their cloud spend
Speed
Automated cost allocation means rapid access to vital data
