Startup Helps IT Bill For VM UseStartup Helps IT Bill For VM Use

Apptio's newest service tackles chargebacks for server virtualization.Apptio is a startup that helps IT manage costs, monitor the use of hardware, software and applications, and track service levels. This week the company is announcing a new service to help administrators and IT executives monitor costs associated with server virtualization, both to help the business decide whether it's meeting ROI goals and to track VM usage for chargebacks to lines of business.

Chargebacks were more simple when IT provisioned servers dedicated to specific business units or applications. Virtualization disrupts that model because a single server can, for example, run VMs for the billing department and the marketing team. VM mobility complicates the picture because a virtualized application can hop from one physical server to another.

Apptio's new application, Server Virtualization Cost Transparency, pulls information from a variety of sources, including financial systems, asset management software, service desks, VM management solutions and more to provide detailed information on VM resource use, including CPU and disk usage. IT can take this data and calculate accurate bills.

Apptio is a SaaS provider. The company provides its customers with software that sits behind the corporate firewall. The software pulls logs and other data from the systems listed above and ships it up to Apptio for processing. Customers access the application from a Web browser.

With the service starting at $6,000 per month, IT will have good reason to wring as much as it can from the business units it supports.