Apptio Cloudability

Cloudability is the cloud financial management product within IBM Apptio's technology business management suite, sitting alongside IBM Apptio for IT financial management, IBM Kubecost for Kubernetes costs and IBM Targetprocess for portfolio management.

Being part of a wider technology business management suite rather than a standalone cloud cost tool is the distinguishing characteristic, and it changes who should consider it. A cloud cost tool answers what the organisation spends on cloud. Apptio's premise is that cloud spend is one line in a technology budget that also includes data centres, software licences, staff and projects, and the question a chief information officer actually has to answer is what the whole thing costs and what it delivers. An organisation that only wants cloud visibility is buying more platform than it needs; one presenting technology cost to a finance committee is not.

Three Cloudability variants are published. The core product handles cloud financial management. Cloudability Savings Automation acts on identified savings rather than reporting them, which is where most FinOps programmes stall, since finding waste is straightforward and getting somebody with the authority and the appetite to remove it is not. Cloudability MSP serves managed service providers who need to allocate and bill cloud costs across multiple customers rather than internal teams.

IBM Kubecost addresses Kubernetes costs specifically, reflecting that container cost allocation is a distinct problem from cloud cost allocation and needs its own tooling.

Solutions published span IT financial management, cloud financial management, strategic portfolio management, financial intelligence and public sector IT. A substantial community exists, with Apptio user groups, education services, professional services and Kubernetes guides published. Pricing is not published.