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Frequently Asked Questions

Onboarding​

Should I deploy the Vega roles prior to the first onboarding meeting?

Vega recommends NOT deploying roles prior to onboarding. To successfully deploy the templates, you will need to collect your organization’s unique "ExternalID" parameter from Vega before deploying. This ID is linked to your Vega Portal and for new customers it is generated during initial onboarding. You are welcome to audit the deployment templates in advance, but deploying without the ExternalID parameter will require re-deploying templates later.

Where can detailed onboarding documents be found?

Detailed documentation is available here on the docs site: https://docs.vegacloud.io/docs/providers/overview

How can we get training or a deeper dive on using the Vega platform?

The Vega team can provide a training session or walkthrough of the platform features and functionality.

I don't understand how any of this works. What's the easiest way to set this up?

Vega's customer success team is here to help! Vega will walk your teams through making the configuration changes needed, answer any questions you might have, and get you up in running in under 30 minutes on average.

Where can I find the AWS CloudFormation Templates?

All of the latest templates can be found on this documentation site here or on the Vega GitHub.

I would like to limit permissions around certain resources. Will Vega still function?

Most likely, yes. However please reach out to your Vega representative to confirm whether there will be any impact to the details in the Vega reports, recommendations, or automation.

What are the pre-requisites for cloud billing configuration that are commonly overlooked?
  • Ensure the Cost and Usage Report (CUR) is set up, configured with hourly collection, set to overwrite existing report, and being exported in Parquet format.
  • Ensure the cost allocation tags are enabled.
    • Can I provide this information to Vega securely?

    Yes. If you have access to the Vega portal, there is a utility to send and receive files securely to your Vega team. If you do not have access to the Vega portal yet, please contact your Vega Customer Success Manager for a secure sharing link.

    I'm lost, can Vega assist?

    Absolutely! Vega Customer Success will walk you and your team through the process interactively. Reach out to your Account Team or Customer Success Manager to kick off the process.

    How does Vega handle multiple cloud providers?

    Vega treats all clouds as a single environment, normalizing data so you don’t have to switch contexts or views.

    What if my cloud tags are incomplete or incorrect?

    Vega auto-allocates costs using AI-driven resource matching based on naming patterns, with reports highlighting where manual corrections are needed.

    Can I create my own dashboards?

    Yes! Use the Dashboard Author to build custom dashboards using data from multiple clouds, services, and KPIs.

    How are enterprise costs and discounts applied?

    Vega automatically includes enterprise rates, reserved instance discounts, and savings plans. Shared costs, credits, and refunds can be allocated using custom rules.

    Is my data secure?

    Yes! Vega’s platform uses enterprise-grade security with SSO, MFA, RBAC, and row-level security for fine-grained access control. See the Vega Trust Center for more details.

    What compliance certifications does Vega Cloud hold?

    Vega Cloud holds the following certifications:

    How does Vega Cloud protect my data?

    Your data is encrypted both in transit and at rest, and logical data segregation ensures isolation from other tenants. We employ advanced access control measures to limit data access.

    What permissions does Vega require to deploy?

    Vega only requires read-only permissions for most deployments (Inform and Optimize SKUs). For Operate SKUs, permissions to start and stop resources are necessary. Customers retain full control over what permissions they grant Vega. Learn more in our public repository.

    Where is customer data stored?

    Customer metadata processed by Vega Cloud is stored within secure, geographically redundant data centers. Vega ensures compliance with local regulations such as GDPR by processing data within relevant jurisdictions.

    What happens in the event of a security incident?

    Vega Cloud follows a formal Incident Response Plan that includes detection, containment, and resolution processes. Customers are notified promptly if any incidents affect their environments, ensuring transparency and accountability.

    Are there any plans to add new capabilities or features to the Vega platform?

    The Vega team is continuously working to enhance the platform based on customer feedback. If there are specific features you would like to see, you can discuss those with the Vega team.

    Inform​

    Why does my spend in Vega differ from what the cloud service provider's (CSP) native tools show?

    There are a few potential reasons why your spend in Vega may not match what the CSP is showing:

    • Net Fiscal vs. Net Cash: Ensure you are comparing the Vega Net Cash numbers to the CSP cash number. Net Fiscal includes amortization and Vega amortizes out not just the upfront cost / discount of the RI/SP like AWS does but also the support associated with it.
    • Timing Differences: There can be timing differences in when usage data is reported in Vega versus Cost Explorer, especially for end-of-month data.
    • Billing Configuration Differences: The way certain billing components like support fees are broken out in Vega versus Cost Explorer can contribute to variances.
    • Data Mapping Issues: If there are any issues with how usage data is mapped between AWS and Vega, that could lead to mismatches.
    • Reserved Instance/Savings Plan Accounting: The way RI and SP usage/savings are accounted for in Vega versus what is shown in the CSP can cause discrepancies. Vega tries to show the actual usage and discounts applied, while the CSP may show the full on-demand cost.
    • Credit: Vega allows your company to reallocate or hide credits that would cause a mismatch to the CSP amount.
    • MSP Special Handling: If you fall under a Managed Service Provider (MSP), there are billing rules that may be applied to discounts, RIs/SPs, or credits that would not appear in the CSP console.

    Our recommendation is to work closely with the Vega team to understand the specific reasons for the discrepancies in your case.

    What is a recommended coverage rate?

    Recommended coverage rate targets can depend on your business quite a bit. Vega typically recommends coverage for most in the 80-90% range.

    Can I see my utilization over different time periods?

    Yes! Use the controls to adjust the Date Granularity and >Usage Day parameters to adjust your time window.

    Why are my unutilized CUDs so high this month?

    Your utilization amount will decrease as the month goes on, so if you see a value for a month that has elapsed, this indicates under-utilization. During the current, active month, you will see this amount higher as your utilization "burns down" against the commitment.

    Is Spot utilization excluded from committed use recommendations?

    Yes.

    Why does my monthly spend look high when we are only a few days into the month?

    Vega forecasts out the rest of the month.

    Why can't I see my AWS CloudTrail resources?

    In AWS, most core resources do have resource IDs, but some services and components lack native resource-level identifiers such as CloudTrail, Config and Budgets. With that in mind, the best way to get the maximum value out of the resource detail tab is to first filter in Cost Navigator down to what you are researching. For example, filtering to the Product Detail Category of "EC2 Usage", and then after you have filtered in Cost Navigator to what you want to see, then click into the resource detail tab to see the resource IDs that are provided by AWS.

    How do I break down costs per account, region, teams, or tags?

    In Cost Navigator, select the Group By dropdown in the filters and select what you would like to group by.

    What is Deployment Age?

    Deployment Age is a segmentation metric that classifies resources based on how long they’ve been active, using billing and metric data. It allows users to group resources into time periods such as less than 3 months, 3-6 months, or 12 months and older.

    Why is Deployment Age important?

    Deployment Age provides insights into the lifecycle of resources, helping users understand cost impacts of new, maturing, and long-running resources. It enables targeted optimization strategies for each stage.

    How do I use Deployment Age in forecasts?

    Use the filters in the controls section to segment forecasts by deployment age, allowing for deeper analysis of spend trends and lifecycle impacts.

    What do the growth percentages mean?

    Growth percentages reflect expected changes in cloud spending. Users can rely on historical averages or input custom growth rates to tailor the forecast.

    What does the model lookback period do?

    The model lookback period determines how far back the system analyzes financial data to calculate growth trends. Options include 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month periods.

    How can I evaluate if my savings rates are effective?

    A savings rate above 30% is generally considered strong. If your Total Savings Rate is below 10%, investigate whether you're leveraging available negotiated terms and committed-use savings programs. For example, ensure reservations or savings plans align with your workloads.

    What does the “Negotiated Savings Rate” tell me?

    It indicates the percentage of savings achieved through custom enterprise agreements or private pricing terms. If this rate is low, revisit your agreements to ensure you're maximizing discounts, or consider renegotiating terms with your cloud provider.

    Why is “Current Generation Adoption” important?

    It shows how many virtual machines are running on the latest instance types. Low adoption rates may indicate missed opportunities to improve performance and cost efficiency, as newer instance types often deliver better value.

    How can the “Specialty Types” metric help with failover planning?

    Specialty instances may not have the same availability across regions. Monitoring their usage helps ensure you have suitable failover options and reduces risk during regional outages.

    What should I do if I see a sudden spike in Daily Spend Analysis?

    Investigate workloads for unexpected scaling events, misconfigurations, or unplanned data transfers. Use the filters on the dashboard to drill into the source of the increase for targeted action.

    How can I use “Trending Savings by Month” for budgeting?

    This feature provides historical savings data that can guide future budget allocations. For instance, a consistent increase in committed-use savings may signal opportunities to expand or adjust these programs to reduce costs further.

    Can I track spend across business units or teams?

    Yes. The “Spend by Business Group” visualization helps allocate costs by team or department, enabling accountability and improved resource planning.

    What if my savings rates don’t match expectations?

    If your savings rates are lower than expected, verify that negotiated terms are correctly applied and that workloads are aligned with reserved commitments. Misconfigurations or incorrect discount application by the cloud provider can often lead to discrepancies.

    Can I create custom KPIs for my organization?

    Yes. Use the Dashboard Authoring feature to build custom KPIs tailored to your organization's goals, such as adding metrics specific to your business units or adjusting targets for savings or usage.

    Anomalies​

    Does Vega do anything to reduce "noise" from the events so that we can focus on anomalies that matter?

    Yes. In addition to the Flag filters that can be toggled active or inactive above, Vega filters out what would be considered "normal" events. Normal events include amounts less than or equal to 10%, or events that do not result in negative impacts to cost (CUD Purchases, Marketplace Purchases, Private Discounts, Credits, Taxes and Support Fee).

    Does Vega send alert Notifications based on these anomalies?

    Yes. Vega will alert users of Anomalies on a daily basis. Vega is mindful on providing anomaly notifications that are focused and impactful to avoid "alert fatigue" which can cause important events to go unnoticed.

    How frequently does Vega poll data for generating anomaly alerts?

    Vega polls your data providers hourly for usage metrics and merges this data with your provider bills at the cadence they release cost data.

    Can Anomalies be accessed via the API?

    Yes, users with API access will be able to query for Anomaly events for resources based on their roles and permissions configured in the Vega platform.

    Optimize​

    How do I find my idle resources?

    Select Optimize on the left of the screen, click Recommendations. Idle resources will be on the tabs that start with "Idle".

    Can the Vega team provide recommendations on cloud cost optimization strategies beyond what is automated within the Platform

    Yes, each customer had access to a dedicated FinOps analyst who can provide additional recommendations and guidance on cloud cost optimization, architecture changes and other cost-saving measures.

    Operate​

    What Resource Types can Vega start and stop?

    • AWS

      • EC2 Instances (Elastic Compute Cloud)
      • RDS Instances (Relational Database Service): Includes PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, MariaDB, Microsoft SQL
      • RDS Clusters: Includes Aurora PostgreSQL, Aurora MySQL, single-zone clusters
      • Redshift Clusters
      • EC2 Spot Instances: Spot Instances can be started or stopped if they meet the following criteria:
        • They are EBS-backed
        • The spot instance is of request type 'persistent' (not 'one-time')
        • They are not part of an auto-scaling group

    • Azure

      • Virtual Machines

    • GCP

      • Instances
      • SQL-Instances

    You will see the platform state switch to the intended state shortly after the action is taken. However, Vega does not verify the state in GCP for SQL-Instances, so it is recommended to use appropriate delays between priority groups to ensure this resource gets started before any other resources that depend on it.

    What are the limitations of stopping your AWS DB instance?

    The following are some limitations to stopping and starting an AWS DB instance due to AWS API restrictions:

    • You can't stop an RDS for SQL Server DB instance in a multi-AZ deployment.
    • You can't stop a DB instance that has a read replica, or that is a read replica.
    • You can't modify a stopped DB instance.
    • You can't delete an option group that is associated with a stopped DB instance.
    • You can't delete a DB parameter group that is associated with a stopped DB instance.
    • In a Multi-AZ deployment, the primary and secondary Availability Zones might be switched after you start the DB instance.
    Can I Start or Stop individual resources?

    Yes, resources can be started or stopped in 'Resources' from the 'Actions' column.

    My resource is not turning on or off, what should I do?
    • Check to make sure your cloud account in Settings > Provider Accounts is enabled. If the Provider Account is disabled, Vega will not take any actions against that account.
    • Ensure the credentials for your provider are correct. You can check these in Settings > Provider Accounts. If the credentials are incorrect, Vega will not be able to take any actions against the account.
    • Verify the permissions are correct. Make sure the role/service account has the necessary permissions to start and stop the resources. You can check the permissions in the cloud provider's console.
    • Check the resource in the cloud provider's console to see if the resource is in a state that might prevent it from being started or stopped. Databases or other cloud resources may end up in a state that does not allow them to be started or stopped (e.g., a database is under maintenance, there is no recent snapshot, etc.).
    • If all of the above are accounted for, please reach out to support@vegacloud.io for further assistance.