Google Cloud PCA Chapter 8 Billing Concepts and Account Types, Billing Account Management, Cost

Google Cloud - PCA - Chapter 8: Billing Concepts and Account Types, Billing Account Management, Cost Analysis and Visualizations, Budgets and Cost Control, Real World Billing Examples - April 28
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Meeting Purpose

To provide a comprehensive overview of billing in Google Cloud Platform (GCP), covering concepts, management tools, and best practices.

Key Takeaways

- GCP billing is usage-based, organized through billing accounts that can be linked to multiple projects
- Two primary billing models: self-serve (ideal for small teams) and invoice billing (for enterprises)
- GCP offers powerful tools for cost analysis, including BigQuery exports and Data Studio visualizations
- Budgets and alerts are crucial for cost control, with options for automation through PubSub and Cloud Functions

Topics

Billing Concepts and Account Types

- Usage-based billing: GCP tracks resource usage per second, byte, and request
- Billing account: Top-level financial construct linking money to workloads
- Two billing types:
1. Self-serve: Immediate, credit/debit card or bank account, ideal for small teams
2. Invoice billing: For enterprises, formal invoices, manual payments, requires approval

Billing Account Structure and Management

- Projects must be linked to a billing account; one account can support multiple projects
- Subaccounts: Allow hierarchical billing for multiple departments/clients
- Billing cadence: Threshold-based or monthly charging
- Billing dashboard: Central hub for financial operations in GCP
- Features: Credits remaining, linked projects, consumption breakdown
- Sidebar tools: Budgeting, payment methods, account settings

Cost Analysis and Visualization

- Billing export: Sends detailed data to BigQuery or Cloud Storage
- BigQuery integration: Enables advanced SQL queries for granular analysis
- Google Data Studio: Creates interactive dashboards and reports
- Automation potential: Use BigQuery ML, Dataflow, and Vertex AI for predictive modeling

Budgets and Cost Control

- Set spending limits and alert thresholds (e.g., 50%, 75%, 90%)
- Scope budgets at billing account, project, or label level
- Automation: Use PubSub to trigger Cloud Functions for alerts
- Options to include/exclude credits in budget calculations

Real-world Billing Workflow Example

1. Create separate billing accounts for dev and prod environments
2. Export billing data to BigQuery for detailed analysis
3. Define budgets with appropriate thresholds for each environment
4. Automate alerts using PubSub and Cloud Functions
5. Visualize spending data in Data Studio for stakeholder insights

Next Steps

- Set up a billing account and link projects
- Enable billing export to BigQuery for in-depth analysis
- Create budgets with appropriate alert thresholds
- Implement automation for budget alerts using PubSub
- Design and build a Data Studio dashboard for financial visibility

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