Cost Service
Per-vehicle cost estimation service for capacity planning and cloud vs on-prem comparison.
Overview
This service estimates the cost of running cloud services per VIN by:
- Querying vehicle activity from ClickHouse (message counts)
- Estimating resource usage based on activity level
- Applying cost rates for cloud vs on-prem hosting
- Storing aggregated cost data for reporting
Cost Estimation Methodology
Resource Estimates Per Active VIN
| Activity Level | Messages/15min | CPU (cores) | Memory (GB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | < 100 | 0.05 | 0.1 |
| Medium | 100-1000 | 0.075 | 0.15 |
| High | > 1000 | 0.10 | 0.2 |
These are estimates based on typical workload patterns, not actual measurements.
Cost Rates (per hour)
| Resource | Cloud (Azure) | On-Prem |
|---|---|---|
| CPU/core | $0.08 | $0.02 |
| Memory/GB | $0.015 | $0.004 |
Cloud Rates (Fudged Higher)
- Based on Azure D-series VM pricing + 20% overhead
- Includes: compute, managed services, networking, support
- Intentionally conservative (higher) to show cloud costs
On-Prem Rates (Fudged Lower)
- Based on 3-year hardware amortization
- Assumes: owned hardware, minimal ops overhead
- Intentionally optimistic (lower) to show on-prem savings
- Does NOT include: datacenter costs, staff, power, cooling
Savings Calculation
Cloud Cost = (CPU_cores × $0.08 + Memory_GB × $0.015) × hours
On-Prem Cost = (CPU_cores × $0.02 + Memory_GB × $0.004) × hours
Savings = Cloud Cost - On-Prem Cost
Savings % = (Savings / Cloud Cost) × 100
Expected savings: ~70-75% with on-prem hosting.
API Endpoints
GET /cost/vin/{vin}
Cost summary for a specific VIN.
GET /cost/fleet
Fleet-wide cost summary with top cost VINs.
GET /cost/summary?period=day|week|month
High-level cost summary for a time period.
GET /cost/comparison
Cloud vs on-prem cost comparison with projected annual savings.
Configuration
| Env Var | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| CLICKHOUSE_HOST | Local CH for storing cost data | localhost |
| REMOTE_CLICKHOUSE_HOST | Dev cluster CH for VIN activity | - |
| COLLECTOR_INTERVAL_MINUTES | How often to collect metrics | 15 |
Limitations
- Resource estimates are approximations, not actual measurements
- Cost rates are simplified and don't reflect all real-world factors
- On-prem costs exclude significant operational overhead
- Designed for business case illustration, not precise billing