Financial Cost
Txture breaks down financial costs into the following categories:
Each of these four cost categories is represented by at least one direct (local to the asset) and a total (direct + associated) property. Finally, Txture summarizes each of the four categories per asset into the Grand Total Cost.
Runtime Cost
Runtime Cost refers to the costs for operating a device or service per month. Examples for assets which typically incur runtime cost:
- Virtual Machines (e.g. AWS EC2, Google Compute Engine, Azure Virtual Machines, etc.)
- Managed Services (e.g. AWS RDS, Google Cloud SQL, Azure Database, etc.)
- ... and many others
The Runtime Cost is further broken down into Direct Runtime Cost and Total Runtime Cost.
Direct Runtime Cost
Direct Runtime Cost only includes the Runtime Cost which is incurred directly by this asset.
Direct Runtime Cost is measured in USD per Month.
For logical assets (e.g. applications, organizational units, business capabilities) this value is often zero in practice. It is usually used only on infrastructure elements.
Total Runtime Cost
The Total Runtime Cost includes the Direct Runtime Cost of the asset, plus the associated Total Runtime Cost of all children. The Total Runtime Cost reflects the total cost incurred from running this asset plus any assets it (directly or indirectly) depends on.
Total Runtime Cost is measured in USD per Month.
In the example above, the Total Runtime Cost of App is computed as follows:
| Cost Name | Fraction | Effective Cost Value |
|---|---|---|
| App Direct Cost | 100% | $ 0.0 |
| VM Total Runtime Cost | 100% | $ 300.0 |
| DB Total Runtime Cost | 100% | $ 500.0 |
| Total Runtime Costs | $ 800.0 |
If the VM asset or the DB asset have another application depending on them,
the cost would be split accordingly:
In this example, the Total Runtime Cost of App 1 is computed as follows:
| Cost Name | Fraction | Effective Cost Value |
|---|---|---|
| App 1 Direct Cost | 100% | $ 0.0 |
| VM Total Runtime Cost | 50% | $ 150.0 |
| DB Total Runtime Cost | 100% | $ 500.0 |
| Total Runtime Costs | $ 650.0 |
In this case, we've performed an even split in the cost for VM between
App 1 and App 2. This is the default behavior. It is also possible to
influence this split by
assigning Distribution Weights.
License Cost
License Cost refers to the cost for licensing a product. Some typical examples for License Cost are:
- Microsoft Windows licenses for Physical Machines or Virtual Machines
- Oracle Database licenses
- Software-As-A-Service licenses
The License Cost is further broken down into Direct License Cost and Total License Cost.
Direct License Cost
The Direct License Cost includes all license costs which are incurred directly by this asset.
Direct License Cost is measured in USD per Month.
For logical assets (e.g. organizational units, business capabilities) this value is often zero in practice. It is usually used only on infrastructure elements and applications.
Total License Cost
The Total License Cost includes the Direct License Cost of the asset, plus the associated Total License Cost of any children. The Total License Cost reflects the cost incurred from licensing this asset plus any assets it depends on.
Total License Cost is measured in USD per Month.
In the example above, we have:
- A
VMwhich incurs $10 license cost for its operating system. This is its Direct License Cost. Since it has no children, this is also equal to its Total License Cost. - A
DBwhich incurs $500 license cost for its software. This is its Direct License Cost. Since it has no children, this is also equal to its Total License Cost. - An
App 1which makes use of these two elements. It has $100 license cost on its own.
The Total License Cost of the App 1 is computed as follows:
| Cost Name | Fraction | Effective Cost Value |
|---|---|---|
| App 1 Direct License Cost | 100% | $ 100.0 |
| VM Total License Cost | 100% | $ 10.0 |
| DB Total License Cost | 100% | $ 500.0 |
| Total License Costs | $ 610.0 |
If the DB asset has another application asset depending on it, the calculation
changes:
In this case, the cost of App 1 is computed as follows:
| Cost Name | Fraction | Effective Cost Value |
|---|---|---|
| App 1 Direct License Cost | 100% | $ 100.0 |
| VM Total License Cost | 100% | $ 10.0 |
| DB Total License Cost | 50% | $ 250.0 |
| Total License Costs | $ 360.0 |
In this case, we've performed an even split in the cost for DB between
App 1 and App 2. This is the default behavior. It is also possible to
influence this split by
assigning Distribution Weights.
CAPEX Cost
CAPEX Cost (short for Capital Expenditure) is useful for modeling one-time purchase costs which then get depreciated over time. An example for a typical use case would be the purchase of a physical server for an on-premise datacenter which is intended to be used for the next 3 years.
CAPEX Cost is broken down as follows:
- The Purchase Cost specifies the initial one-time buying price of the asset.
- The Depreciation Period specifies the time period in which the asset will be used.
- The Direct CAPEX Cost specifies the monthly fraction of the purchase cost during the depreciation period.
- The Total CAPEX cost specifies the Direct CAPEX Cost plus the associated Total CAPEX Cost from any assets it depends on.
Given the Purchase Cost and the Depreciation Period, Txture computes the Direct CAPEX Cost of an asset as follows:
- If the current date is outside the Depreciation Period, the Direct CAPEX Cost is zero.
- If the Depreciation Period is shorter than 1 month, the entire Purchase Cost is forwarded to the Direct CAPEX Cost.
- Otherwise, divide the Purchase Cost by the number of months in the depreciation period and forward the result to the Direct CAPEX Cost.
Direct CAPEX Cost is a computed output property
Please note that the Direct CAPEX Cost (unlike related properties, such as * Direct Runtime Cost* or Direct License Cost) is a computed output property which should not be filled manually. Instead, specify the Purchase Cost and the Depreciation Period.
Depreciation Period Handling
Txture automatically checks the Depreciation Period of all assets in the repository once per day. If the current date is not within the Depreciation Period of an asset, its Direct CAPEX Cost will be set to zero.
The calculation of the Total CAPEX Cost is subject to cost splitting if an asset is utilized by more than one parent. This mechanism is identical to the cost splitting for License Cost and Runtime Cost and can be fine-tuned via Distribution Weights.
Custom Financial Costs
In addition to the predefined cost categories, Txture supports a dedicated category for custom costs. These costs can be used to account for any expenses which are not covered by the other cost categories, such as personnel costs, maintenance costs and more.
Custom Costs are modeled using regular properties. Add the desired properties in
the Structure Editor and
ensure that they are tagged with the semantic tag Direct Custom Cost. An
arbitrary number of these properties
may exist per Asset Type. Every individual Direct Custom Cost property must be
measured in USD per Month.
When using custom costs, it is often desirable to have a per-asset summary of
the custom costs as a
property. Add a property in the Structure Editor, and tag it with the semantic
tag Total Custom Cost.
The Direct Custom Costs of the asset (plus its associated Total Custom Costs
from child assets) will be
written into that property. This is also illustrated in the following example:
The property names in the example above only serve illustrative purposes. These properties can be named arbitrarily, as long as they are tagged correctly with the corresponding semantic tags, as shown in the example.
Different Asset Types can have different Custom Cost properties
Different Asset Types may have different Custom Cost properties. There is no need to use the same set of custom cost properties on every Asset Type. Please keep in mind that all custom cost properties will be aggregated into the single Total Custom Cost property, which should be the same across all Asset Types.
The calculation of the Total Custom Cost is subject to cost splitting if an asset is utilized by more than one parent. This mechanism is identical to the cost splitting for License Cost and Runtime Cost and can be fine-tuned via Distribution Weights.
Grand Total Cost
The Grand Total Cost of an asset is measured in USD per Month and is the sum
of:
- Its Total Runtime Cost
- Its Total License Cost
- Its Total CAPEX Cost
- Its Total Custom Cost
Please note that all of these sub-totals already include associated costs from the child assets.