Cloud Cost Optimization (CCO) - EU & NA Regions - Cost Allocation Discrepancies

Description: Flexera One - Cloud Cost Optimization (CCO) - EU & NA - Cost Allocation Discrepancies

Timeframe: March 25, 2025, 5:11 AM PDT – March 25, 2025, 12:12 PM PDT

Incident Summary

On March 25, 2025, at 5:11 AM PDT, a subset of customers using the Cloud Cost Optimization (CCO) platform experienced discrepancies in how costs were allocated within their environments. Specifically, certain charges were not being assigned to the appropriate billing centers as expected. The impact was minimal and limited to specific customers using custom allocation logic.

Technical teams investigated and confirmed that the core CCO platform, including data ingestion and allocation services, was operating as intended. Our initial investigation pointed to allocation rules not being generated as expected in a small number of customer instances. This behavior was not observed elsewhere and later resolved on its own without any changes to the platform, suggesting a brief interruption specific to those customer environments only.

Additional reports from other environments were also reviewed during the investigation. These were found to be unrelated, with cost data determined to be valid and consistent with expected behavior. No broader impact was identified. The incident was marked as resolved on March 25, 2025, at 12:12 PM PDT.

The platform and affected customer environments were monitored for an extended period following resolution, and no further anomalies were observed.

Root Cause

Primary Cause:

In a limited number of customer instances, allocation rules did not appear to be generated as expected during the automated policy process. The platform was functioning normally, and no changes were made during the affected period.

Contributing Factors:

• The behavior was isolated to specific customer instances and resolved without intervention.
• Reported cases resolved on their own, limiting the ability to trace the behavior during investigation.
• Other reports reviewed during the investigation were unrelated and reflected valid, expected data.

Remediation Actions

1. Validation of Platform Behavior: Core platform functionality was reviewed and confirmed to be operating correctly throughout the incident.
2. Environment-Level Resolution: Allocation issues observed in affected customer instances were automatically resolved, with no further action required at the platform level.
3. Clarification of Unrelated Reports: Other reports investigated in parallel were closed out after validation of data accuracy.

Future Preventative Measures

The issue was initially treated with high urgency, and proactive communications were shared while broader impact was assessed. As the investigation progressed, the behavior was confirmed to be limited, with reported cases resolving on their own and no recurring symptoms observed.

1. Proactive Example Identification if Repeated: While this appears to be a one-time occurrence, we now have a proactive approach in place to capture clear examples, such as an allocation rule that was expected to apply and a corresponding cost entry that was not allocated as intended. This will support faster, more targeted investigation should similar behavior occur again.
2. Improved Diagnostic Clarity: Internal workflows will be refined to better differentiate between platform-level concerns and isolated behaviors in customer instances, particularly when issues auto-resolve before detailed investigation is possible.