UPDATED: OCT 4, 2024
Flexera is pleased to announce that they have updated the Azure EA (Legacy) Bill Connect to ingest Azure cloud spend from Azure Cost Management. This is a mandatory change as Microsoft is deprecating the legacy Azure EA APIs currently in use by Flexera and many other organizations. This release includes a new Flexera One UI and APIs to connect to the Azure EA Cost Management data.
Microsoft is deprecating the legacy Azure Enterprise Agreement (EA) APIs on May 1, 2024. All Flexera customers with the Bill Connect Configurations for Azure Enterprise Agreement are required to migrate to the new Bill Connect Configuration to continue to ingest the Azure cloud spend without interruption.
Impact on users:
- The old Azure EA Bill connect is no longer supported after Jan 31 2024. After this date, users will not be able to update their Azure EA API Key.
- The Bill Source dimension has changed from azure-ea-[enrollment id] to cbi-oi-azure-ea-[enrollment id]
- The Service Names are normalized in Legacy Azure EA data and Cost Management data. Service names with all lower case or upper case are now mixed case. For example microsoft.compute is now Microsoft.Compute. All custom dashboards, bill adjustments, and rule-based dimensions should be updated to reflect this change.
- The Regions dimension now comes directly from Microsoft with no normalization from Flexera
- The amortized view is provided by Azure and is no longer calculated by Flexera. Users will see some changes but are in line with Azure Cost Management views - more details on Azure Amortization
- Microsoft.Reservation is no longer listed under the Service dimension. Use Category Commitments and group by Usage Type
- Microsoft.Marketplace is no longer listed under the Service dimensions. Use Category Marketplace and group by Manufacture and Resource Type
- The Bill Connect UI and API now require a Service Principal Name (SPN) with Enrollment Reader and optional Blog Data Storage Reader permissions and Export locations.
- When connecting to the Cost Management data the default behavior is to import cost data for the current month. For example, if you connect your bill on Sept 10 2023 the new bill data is for Sept 1, 2023, and onward. The previous month's data is not updated.
- The Bill Connect API provides an option to retrieve the previous month's data. For example, if you desire to update the cost data for all of the enrollment period or at the beginning of the year or other reporting period.
The notable features include the following
- All new Flexera One Bill Configuration API.
- Azure Amortized data
- Parity with the Azure Portal Cloud Spend details
- Savings Plans visibility
- New Dimension Purchase Option added. Show spend and usage for on-demand, reservations, savings plans, and spot
- Direct support for the Azure Exported Data for bill ingestion - Microsoft recommended approach for Cost Management Data and also the fastest method for ingesting cloud spend from Microsoft. Must be used for Azure spend that exceeds $30m USD annually
- Direct support for using the Azure Cost Management APIs. Can be used for Azure spend that is less than $30m USD annually
For more details on this update please read the Bill Connection Configurations for Microsoft Azure EA (legacy). Please contact Flexera support or your account manager if you have questions about this change.
