1 minute read

Introducing OpenCost

We are excited to share that we’ve partnered with founding contributors Adobe, Armory, AWS, D2iQ, Google, Mindcurv, New Relic and SUSE to launch OpenCost, an open source cost standard for Kubernetes workloads.

Why we built OpenCost

Since Kubecost’s founding in 2019, we’ve consistently heard from our customers, partners, and users that they needed a single cost allocation and monitoring standard that could be applied across all cloud platforms, Kubernetes distributions, and teams. Until now, various Kubernetes platforms each had their own cost tracking systems, with different methodologies for allocating costs and varying terminology. For the many teams running cross-platform environments, this lack of consistency creates unnecessary friction in their Kubernetes adoption journeys. As a recent CNCF survey showed, nearly two thirds of users don’t have accurate cost monitoring in place, worsening the overspend problem among teams scaling their Kubernetes deployments.

We have always been committed to building open products, with Kubecost originating as an open source project. And although we’ve contributed a great deal of source code to OpenCost, the project will not achieve its full potential without further contributions from an engaged and diverse community. We feel it is important that OpenCost is not owned by any single business entity, and that the project continues to evolve and thrive within the broader Kubernetes ecosystem. That’s why we’re committed to building a neutral governance model for OpenCost.

The mission of OpenCost

The mission of OpenCost is to enable teams using Kubernetes to operate with a single model for measuring and managing cost across all of their environments. Working together as a community, we’ll make it easier for teams to deploy Kubernetes anywhere—without the added burden of managing different cost tracking methodologies.

Along with our fellow working group members, we have submitted the project for review as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Sandbox project, and are currently in the sandbox project queue. We look forward to hearing feedback from the CNCF Technical Oversight Committee (TOC), and will continue to share updates on the process as they develop.

Get started by installing OpenCost today, and let us know if you have any suggestions—we’d love to speak with you!

For more information about the launch, visit the OpenCost blog.