Introduction to Usage Reporting

This article serves as an introduction to the Azure reports that are available for an Organization in Nebula

Overview of Nebula Azure Usage

Nebula’s Usage functions are designed to re-rate Azure Usage according to the NTT Ltd. Transactional Model, which is designed to calculate “retail” pricing for Azure usage based on the current prices used by the Azure “Pay-As-You-Go” offers:

• Pay-As-You-Go (AZR-0003P)
• Pay-As-You-Go Dev/Test (AZR-0023P)

The Azure Subscriptions allocated by Nebula are governed by an underlying Enterprise Agreement (EA) that uses a different pricing offer with a different price list and pricing methodology. At a high-level, these differences include:

• The “Pay-As-You-Go” offer uses unit prices with 6 decimal place accuracy, while the Enterprise Agreement price list uses only two decimal places
• Some Azure Meters in the “Pay-As-You-Go” offer use “tiered pricing” with lower unit prices for higher usage tiers, while EA uses a single rate for all usage
• The “Pay-As-You-Go” offer uses a simpler usage aggregation and rounding approach than EA methodology

The default USD pricing in the Azure Pricing Calculator is the “Pay-As-You-Go” pricing used as the basis on the NTT Ltd. Transactional Model. However, the costs displayed when using Azure Cost Management functions for Nebula-provisioned Azure Subscriptions use the EA pricing.

Nebula’s reporting functions are designed to evaluate all Subscription usage associated with a given Nebula Organization for a calendar month and calculate the equivalent Pay-As-You-Go offer pricing for that usage. This pricing is then used as the basis for pricing under the NTT Ltd. Transactional Model. This means that if the Nebula Organization has multiple Subscriptions, the system will combine the usage for all of them and rate based on the total, allowing the Organization to take advantage of any tiered pricing based on volume. However, this means the reporting and any downstream billing also combines the Subscriptions. Subscriptions should be placed in separate Organizations if the reporting and downstream billing needs to be separated.

Azure does not finalize Azure usage for a given calendar month until the end of the third day after the calendar month (i.e. at the end of the third day of the following month). Once the usage is finalized, Nebula pulls the usage from Azure and calculates Organization-level Pay-As-You-Go pricing and makes its reports available by the fifth day of the following calendar month. For example, the reporting for December 2020 is available by January 5, 2021.

More details on the specific methodology used by Nebula is available at Nebula Usage Calculation Methodology.

Available Azure EA Usage Reports

1. Azure Monthly Costs Report – This report includes Azure usage data for all Organizations of a given Provisioning Entity for a given Calendar Month and is designed for wholesale and retail billing purposes. For each Organization, the report includes the aggregated Quantities and “Pay-As-You” pricing for each Azure meter for all of the Organization’s Subscriptions during the month. If the Azure Meter uses Tiered Pricing and the Organization’s usage exceeds the initial tier, a separate row is provided for each usage identifying the calculation. Usage from all Subscriptions under a given Organization is aggregated together, though if there is a mix of normal and “Dev/Test” Subscriptions, those are aggregated separately since they use different pricing offers.
2. Detailed Azure Usage Report – This report is available for a given Organization for a given Calendar Month. It provides a more granular report that identifies the specific quantity and usage contributed by each Azure asset on a daily basis, including the effective Pay-As-You-Go Price of that usage. The report format is identical to the Usage Details v2 available in Azure Cost Management in the Azure Portal as described in Get Enterprise Agreement Reservation Costs and Usage. However, with this Nebula report, the effectivePrice and Cost columns of the report have been recalculated to reflect the “Pay-As-You-Go” offer pricing used by the NTT Ltd. Transactional Model.
3. Organization Summary Report – This report is similar to the Detailed Usage Report but differs in that it provides a less granular view which is summarized to the total “retail” cost and CID “wholesale” costs all combined on a single row for each Organization.
4. Subscription Summary Report – This report provides users with a ‘per subscription’ summary showing all the usage for a particular calendar month for that subscription.
5. Azure PAYG Price List Report – This report provides the PAYG price published by Microsoft for each Azure Meter for a given month. The report can also be run for a specific Azure meter for a given month. These are the rates used by Nebula in generating the usage reports listed above per the NTT Ltd. Transactional Model.
6. Azure Adjustments Report – Microsoft occasionally makes adjustments to usage reported in previous months. The Adjustments report provides details on these adjustments and the associated Subscriptions and Nebula Organizations to which they apply.
7. Azure System Adjustments Usage Details Report – For SYSTEM identified Azure adjustments reported in the Azure Adjustments Report, this report provides data equivalent to the Detailed Azure Usage Report for the entire affected month for any impacted Azure Meters and Nebula Organizations.
8. TPID Subscription Report – This report summarizes all Azure Subscription associated with Nebula Organizations that have a defined TPID Id as described in How do I View and Manage Organizations?
9. SCE Summary Report – This report summarizes Azure EA usage by the Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE) in which the usage occurred. The report is based on the underlying Enterprise Agreement costs rather than the Pay-As-You-Go offer used by all the other reports. It is used primarily by Accounts Payable to reconcile Microsoft invoices under the Enterprise Agreement.

Other Available Usage Reports

1. Secure Connect Report – This report includes Secure Connect Tenant usage data for all Organizations of a given Provisioning Entity for a given Calendar Month and is designed for wholesale and retail billing purposes. For each Secure Connect Tenant, the report includes the aggregated Quantities and retail pricing charges based on each Secure Connect pricing element, including any applicable discounts or credits based on a free trial period. Note that unlike Azure, Organizations with multiple Secure Connect Tenants do not have their usage aggregated together for rating purposes.
2. Secure Connect Detailed Usage Report – This report is available for a given Organization for a given Calendar Month. It provides a more granular report that identifies the specific quantity and usage contributed by each Secure Connect asset on a daily basis.
3. Services Uptake Report – This report identifies all Nebula Organizations that have Cloud Core Services functionality enabled, including Secure Connect services.
4. Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Invoice Report – This report summarizes the invoice data for Microsoft CSP usage for a given Provisioning Entity.

Note: In order to preserve Japanese characters in a CSV file, you must take additional steps. Please see:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/microsoft-excel-wont-show-japanese-characters-77317.html