To get a new project funded is often hard work. You have to calculate how much it costs to build your virtual infrastructure and how fast you can save money so you can justify the investment. Even after you started the project and you are building the infrastructure you still have to keep an eye on your wallet.  The same goes for virtualizing desktops. We calculate what it costs to create the virtual infrastructure for the virtual desktops.

But what do we do when the infrastructure is in place? We simply put the total cost for maintaining the infrastructure on the IT budget. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to let the ‘user’ pay for the resources he is using, like in the old days with shared computers/mainframes?

VKernel Chargeback is one of those products you can use to bill the user for what they use.

Like an electric meter in your home, VKernel meters VMware ESX Server resources and tells you how much and who is using your ESX Server resources (CPU, Storage, Memory, and Network) by resource pools, department, application, cluster, farm, etc. VKernel also generates invoices (chargeback) to bill your internal or external clients for the actual resources they use

VKernel has proven itself the last couple of years in the field of chargeback and metering on virtual infrastructures.

And now there is VMware vCenter Chargeback, VMware’s own chargeback product.

Get accurate cost measurement, analysis and reporting with VMware vCenter Chargeback, part of the VMware family of management products. Create cost transparency and accountability so business owners and IT can understand the actual cost of the virtual infrastructure required to support business services.

In the future I hope I will be able to compare these two products. Only choosing for vCenter Chargeback because it’s VMware isn’t the right choice I think, so I’ll have to dig deeper.

Chargeback is getting more important by the minute. IT is no longer a deep dark pit you can throw your money in, but it is part of the business strategy. Billing the enduser for the amount of IT resource he or she uses is the next logical step in the growing up of IT.