In the previous <a href="https://www.mmcloud.io/blog/surfzone-using-memory-machine-cloud-to-prevent-clo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--ds-link, #0052CC); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SurfZone blog</a>, we talked about some real-world examples of cloud budget overruns and their painful consequences. We also mentioned the limitations of existing solutions and how SurfZone can overcome them by providing timely enforcement while saving interim progress.In this blog, we describe the user journeys of both the Cloud Admin and the Cloud User. <h3>Typical user journey</h3>A typical high-level user journey takes 3 steps -<ol><li data-list="ordered">Cloud Admin defines quota group</li><li data-list="ordered">Cloud Admin applies quota group to Cloud User and Cloud Users' submitted jobs will automatically be enforced by the policy of the given quota group.</li><li data-list="ordered">Cloud Admin and Cloud User get notifications when Cloud User's consumption reaches the quota limit or any quota-related actions occur.</li></ol><img src="https://baywatch-api.memverge.com/media/upload/202310/231023012347452899.jpeg"> Now let’s take a closer look at each of the steps along with Memory MachineTM Cloud OpCenter Web GUI.Step 1 - Cloud Admin or Principal Investigator defines a quota group (see Figure 1.1) as follows, and views list of created quota groups (see Figure 1.2).<ol><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-1">What is the quota type you would like to monitor (for example, cost)? What is the quota limit?</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-1">What is the usage threshold for notification?</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-1">What action should be taken when the usage exceeds the quota? Would it be</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-2">Cancel the job, or</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-2">Suspend the job (where you can enable auto resume)</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-1">What action should be taken when additional quota is applied (for example, auto-resume)?</li></ol><img src="https://baywatch-api.memverge.com/media/upload/202310/231019182008359212.png">Figure 1.1. Cloud Admin adds/edits SurfZone&nbsp;<img src="https://baywatch-api.memverge.com/media/upload/202310/231019182028234291.png">Figure 1.2. Cloud Admin views the list of SurfZone&nbsp;Step 2 - Cloud Admin applies the quota group to a Cloud User (see Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2) - the Cloud User's jobs are automatically subject to the enforcement mechanisms defined by the quota group (see Figure 2.3).<img src="https://baywatch-api.memverge.com/media/upload/202310/231019182141403006.png">Figure 2.1. Cloud Admin applies SurfZone to Cloud User&nbsp;<img src="https://baywatch-api.memverge.com/media/upload/202310/231019182152185529.png">Figure 2.2. Cloud Admin views the list of Cloud User including quota and usage&nbsp;<img src="https://baywatch-api.memverge.com/media/upload/202310/231019182400294309.png">Figure 2.3. Cloud Admin views the list of Job including their status&nbsp;Step 3 - Cloud Admin (or Principal Investigator) and Cloud User get notifications when user's consumption reaches the quota limit or any quota-related actions occur.<img src="https://baywatch-api.memverge.com/media/upload/202310/231019182429989309.png">Figure 3.1. Cloud Admin gets notifications on users whose quota usage above the configured threshold <img src="https://baywatch-api.memverge.com/media/upload/202310/231019182439198049.png">Figure 3.2. Cloud User views his/her own quota and usage&nbsp;<h3> </h3><h3>What’s next?</h3>What are your thoughts on this feature?If you would like to be on the waitlist to preview this feature, leave your contact information in the comments below.<a href="https://www.mmcloud.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: var(--ds-link, #0052CC); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Memory Machine Cloud by MemVerge</a>

<h3>Who should read this blog? </h3>If you are a Cloud Admin or a Principal Investigator and you are concerned about your team inadvertently exceeding their cloud budget, reading this blog is worth your time (3-minutes).Real-world examples of cloud budget overrunsHere are real-world exampl﻿es of cloud budget overruns...and the painful consequences.In a <a href="http://www.rj-robbins.com/recommended/videos/airi-2021/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">presentation</a> on cloud computing in grant-funded research environments, Robert J. Robbins explains how the success of projects can be jeopardized by unexpected (and accidental) expenses. Here are examples.<ol><li data-list="bullet">An expense of $20,000 incurred because a researcher forgot to shut down an AWS instance after completing an analysis - the instance continued to run at $7 an hour for months.</li><li data-list="bullet">An expense of $72,000 incurred because of exponential auto-scaling caused by inserting small tests into product code - the company said they almost went bankrupt.</li></ol> Why aren’t there solutions for this serious problem?Limitations of existing solutionsThere are solutions that monitor cloud cost and can stop running instances, but there are two critical limitations.<ol><li data-list="bullet">Not timely - AWS Budgets, for example, can track cost and usage, but updates typically occur at 8–12 hour intervals. The cloud budget overrun may happen before the next update.</li><li data-list="bullet">Interim progress lost - even if you are alerted when the cloud budget is exceeded and you stop all running instances, interim progress made by unfinished jobs is lost. This means not only the money but the time has been spent and wasted.</li></ol> Is there a single solution to overcome both of these two critical limitations?SurfZone: Memory Machine Cloud's solutionMemory Machine Cloud's SurfZone overcomes both limitations.<ol><li data-list="bullet">Timely - SurfZone provides real-time enforcement for a user's cloud spend (default update interval is one hour but can be configured to a shorter or longer interval).</li><li data-list="bullet">Interim progress saved - When a user reaches the cloud budget limit, SurfZone checkpoints the current application state and puts the application into sleep mode. The application automatically resumes when additional budget is applied.</li></ol> Typical user journeyA typical user journey resembles the following.<ol><li data-list="ordered">Cloud Admin or Principal Investigator defines a quota (budget) group as follows.</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-1">What is the quota type you would like to monitor (for example, cost)?</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-1">What action should be taken when the usage exceeds the quota (for example, suspend or terminate the job)?</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-indent-1">What action should be taken when additional quota is applied (for example, auto-resume)?</li><li data-list="ordered">Cloud Admin or Principal Investigator applies the quota group to a user - the user's jobs are automatically subject to the enforcement mechanisms defined by the quota group.</li><li data-list="ordered">Cloud Admin (or Principal Investigator) and user get notifications when user's spending reaches the quota limit or any quota-related actions occur.</li></ol> What’s next?In a subsequent blog, we’ll take a deeper dive into the user interface that supports SurfZone.What do you think of this feature? Does it work for you or your organization? If you would like to preview this feature, leave your contact information in the comments below.<a href="https://www.mmcloud.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: var(--ds-surface-raised,white); color: var(--ds-link, #0052CC);"><img src="https://www.mmcloud.io/favicon.ico">Memory Machine Cloud by MemVerge</a>