Configuring Cloud Cost Management

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring Cloud Cost Management

    Cloud Cost Management enables ServiceNow customers to gain comprehensive visibility into their total cloud consumption, reduce expenses, and optimize cloud platform operations. Proper configuration is essential to leverage these capabilities effectively.

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    Configuration Process

    The configuration involves several key steps designed to integrate and set up Cloud Cost Management within your ServiceNow environment:

    • Install Cloud Cost Management: Obtain and install the Cloud Cost Management application from the ServiceNow Store.
    • Install Cloud Cost Management Infra Stack: Optionally install this application (available from version 8.1 onward) to enhance infrastructure capabilities; note that once activated, it cannot be deactivated.
    • Assign Roles: Allocate appropriate Cloud Cost Management roles to user groups and individual users based on their responsibilities and activities to ensure secure and effective access.
    • Install and Configure MID Servers: Deploy MID Servers to enable data movement between the Discovery application and cloud platforms. Configure these servers to communicate with your AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud accounts to access configuration item (CI) data.
    • Discover Cloud Resources: Use the Cloud Discovery application or Service Graph Connectors to identify service accounts, credentials, and MID Servers scanning your cloud resources.
    • Schedule and Manage Data Jobs: Set up jobs to download billing, usage, and price sheet data from AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud platforms to provide accurate cost information to Cloud Cost Management.
    • Configure Cloud Cost Management Features: Enable features such as rightsizing resources, managing reservation or savings plans, identifying unused or unassigned resources, and defining business hours to optimize cloud usage and cost control.

    Practical Benefits

    By following these configuration steps, ServiceNow customers can expect to:

    • Obtain detailed insights into cloud consumption across multiple platforms.
    • Identify cost-saving opportunities through resource rightsizing and unused resource detection.
    • Manage cloud reservations and savings plans to optimize expenditures.
    • Improve operational efficiency by aligning cloud resource usage with business hours and assignments.

    This structured approach empowers organizations to proactively manage cloud costs and optimize their cloud environments effectively using ServiceNow’s Cloud Cost Management capabilities.

    Plan and configure Cloud Cost Management to gain visibility into your total cloud consumption, reduce costs, and optimize the operations of your cloud platforms.

    Configuration overview

    Here's an overview of the process for configuring Cloud Cost Management.

    Table 1. Configure Cloud Cost Management
    Step Action Resource

    Install Cloud Cost Management

    		 Get the Cloud Cost Management application from the ServiceNow Store. Install Cloud Cost Management

    Install Cloud Cost Management Infra Stack

    		 Get the Cloud Cost Management Infra Stack application from the ServiceNow Store.
    Important:
    The Cloud Cost Management Infra Stack application is available with Cloud Cost Management version 8.1 and later. Installing the Cloud Cost Management Infra Stack application is optional. However, if you have activated this application, you can't deactivate it later.
    		 Install Cloud Cost Management Infra Stack

    Assign roles

    		 Assign Cloud Cost Management roles to user groups and to individual users based on user activities and responsibilities. Cloud Cost Management roles

    Install MID Servers

    		 Install the MID Servers to enable the movement of data between the Discovery application and your cloud platform. Installing the MID Server with manual or guided setup

    Configure MID Servers

    		 Configure the MID Servers for enabling the Discovery application to communicate with your cloud provider accounts.

    Discover your cloud resources

    		 Discover the service accounts, the credentials for accessing the accounts, and the MID Servers that scan the resources using one of the mentioned approaches.

    Schedule and manage jobs to download billing data for Cloud Cost Management

    		 Provide the Cloud Cost Management application access to the billing and usage data of the used cloud platforms.

    Schedule and manage jobs to download price sheets for Cloud Cost Management

    		 Enable Cloud Cost Management to download and store price sheet data of the used cloud platforms.

    Configure the Cloud Cost Management features

    		 Configure the Cloud Cost Management features to rightsize, identify, assign, manage, and analyze usage data of your cloud resources.

    Use Cloud Cost Management

    		 Gain visibility into your total cloud consumption, reduce costs, and optimize operations of your cloud platforms. Using Cloud Cost Management