Core Concepts

A clear understanding of these concepts will help you navigate Pelanor and get the most from its cost-optimization features.

Vendor-Specific vs. Vendor-Agnostic Terminology

Pelanor lets you analyse cost data from two complementary angles:

Perspective	When to Use	Examples
Vendor-specific	Query or group by each cloud provider’s native fields.	AWS Product Name Azure Billing Profile Kubernetes Namespace ECS Service Databricks Task Name
Vendor-agnostic	Apply FOCUS-aligned, cross-cloud terminology that works the same in AWS, Azure, and GCP.	Usage Category · Service Name · Entity Type

Properties vs. Metrics

Concept	Purpose	Typical Uses	Examples
Properties	Descriptive metadata collected from Pelanor integrations.	Group data (e.g. by vendor or service) Filter results (e.g. by Account ID or tag value) Add context columns in tables	Service Name Entity Category Snowflake Table
Metrics	Numeric measurements—Cost is the primary one.	Display in charts or tables alongside Cost Build queries such as “Cost > $500”	Cost CPU Utilization Data Transferred

Pelanor auto-collects metrics from its platform and service integrations. You can further extend the metrics list by pushing Custom Metrics into Pelanor.

Layer	Definition	Examples
Resources	Items that appear directly in billing exports.	ARN (AWS) · Global Name (GCP) · Region · Account
Entities	Logical groupings or subdivisions of resources.	Node groups of VMs Kubernetes namespaces Databases separate from their host clusters

Layer

Definition

Examples

Resources

Items that appear directly in billing exports.

ARN (AWS) · Global Name (GCP) · Region · Account

Entities

Logical groupings or subdivisions of resources.

Node groups of VMs
Kubernetes namespaces
Databases separate from their host clusters

Dimensions & Segments

Dimensions provide business-aligned views of cost data—think “cost per X” (Tenant, Business Unit, Feature, etc.).
Each dimension contains multiple Segments, which define individual values and their selection rules.

After creation, dimensions appear under Custom Dimensions in the property tree and are available for grouping and filtering everywhere in Pelanor.

Ways to Create Dimensions

Method	Best For
Manual	A small, mostly static list (e.g. Departments)
Tag-based (“Batch”)	Leverage existing tags and properties to auto-populate segments (example: you already have a `Tenant` tag with a reasonable coverage percentage)
API	Automating updates or syncing from external systems such as CRMs

For API details, see the Dimensions & Segments section of the Pelanor API reference.

Getting Started

Features

Settings & Administration

Platform Integrations

Service Integrations

Vendor-Specific vs. Vendor-Agnostic Terminology

Properties vs. Metrics

Resources vs. Entities

Dimensions & Segments

Ways to Create Dimensions

​Vendor-Specific vs. Vendor-Agnostic Terminology

​Properties vs. Metrics

​Resources vs. Entities

​Dimensions & Segments

​Ways to Create Dimensions

Vendor-Specific vs. Vendor-Agnostic Terminology

Properties vs. Metrics

Resources vs. Entities

Dimensions & Segments

Ways to Create Dimensions