Custom Dimension Analysis

Purpose

This skill analyzes cloud costs through the lens of organization-specific custom dimensions (User:Defined:*) created via CloudZero's CostFormation, enabling business-aligned cost visibility, accurate attribution, and effective showback/chargeback.

When to Use

• •"Show me costs by [team/product/feature]"
• •"What do our teams spend on cloud?"
• •"Break down costs by business unit"
• •"Analyze spending by application"
• •"Which product costs the most?"
• •Showback and chargeback reporting
• •Business-aligned cost discussions
• •Product P&L analysis
• •Team budget tracking
• •Keywords: team, product, feature, business unit, application, custom, showback, chargeback, by [custom dimension name]

Prerequisites

This skill builds on the understand-cloudzero-organization skill.

Before applying this procedure:

• •If you haven't already in this session, load the understand-cloudzero-organization skill and follow its instructions
• •Reference the cached organization context (don't reload unnecessarily)
• •This is especially critical for custom dimension analysis as org context defines what custom dimensions exist and their business meanings

How This Skill Works

Step 1: Discover Custom Dimensions

Identify all custom dimensions available:

get_available_dimensions(filter="User:Defined")

This returns organization-specific dimensions like:

• •User:Defined:Team
• •User:Defined:Product
• •User:Defined:Feature
• •User:Defined:Environment
• •User:Defined:CostCenter
• •User:Defined:BusinessUnit
• •User:Defined:Application
• •[Others specific to organization]

Step 2: Identify Relevant Dimension

Based on user request and org context, select the appropriate dimension:

# If user asks about "teams"
get_dimension_values(dimension="User:Defined:Team")

# If user asks about "products"
get_dimension_values(dimension="User:Defined:Product")

Review values to understand:

• •What values exist
• •How many distinct values
• •Naming conventions used

Step 3: High-Level Cost Breakdown

Query costs by the primary custom dimension:

get_cost_data(
    group_by=["User:Defined:Team"],
    cost_type="real_cost",
    limit=50
)

From this:

• •Calculate total spend per dimension value
• •Calculate percentage of total for each
• •Identify top and bottom spenders
• •Calculate distribution statistics

Step 4: Trend Analysis by Custom Dimension

Understand how each dimension value's costs trend over time:

get_cost_data(
    group_by=["User:Defined:Team"],
    granularity="daily",
    cost_type="real_cost",
    limit=15
)

For each dimension value:

• •Calculate growth rate
• •Identify trend direction
• •Spot anomalies or spikes
• •Compare trends across values

Step 5: Cloud Service Breakdown

For each custom dimension value, understand what services they use:

get_cost_data(
    group_by=["User:Defined:Team", "CZ:Service"],
    cost_type="real_cost",
    limit=100
)

This reveals:

• •Service mix per team/product
• •Differences in architecture or technology choices
• •Services contributing most to each dimension value's cost
• •Optimization opportunities specific to dimension values

Step 6: Infrastructure Distribution

Understand how dimension values map to infrastructure:

By Account:

get_cost_data(
    group_by=["User:Defined:Team", "CZ:Account"],
    limit=100
)

By Region:

get_cost_data(
    group_by=["User:Defined:Team", "CZ:Region"],
    limit=100
)

By Environment (if separate from custom dimension):

get_cost_data(
    group_by=["User:Defined:Team", "CZ:Tag:Environment"],
    limit=100
)

Step 7: Multi-Dimensional Custom Analysis

Combine multiple custom dimensions for deeper insights:

get_cost_data(
    group_by=["User:Defined:BusinessUnit", "User:Defined:Product", "User:Defined:Team"],
    limit=100
)

This shows hierarchical cost relationships:

• •Business Unit → Products → Teams
• •Or other organizational structures

Step 8: Unallocated Cost Analysis

Identify costs not assigned to custom dimensions:

# Compare total costs to costs with custom dimension
total_cost = get_cost_data()
allocated_cost = get_cost_data(group_by=["User:Defined:Team"])

unallocated = total_cost - sum(allocated_cost)
unallocated_percentage = (unallocated / total_cost) * 100

Find what's unallocated:

# For accounts, see which have high unallocated costs
get_cost_data(
    group_by=["CZ:Account", "User:Defined:Team"],
    limit=100
)

# For services, see which are commonly unallocated
get_cost_data(
    group_by=["CZ:Service", "User:Defined:Team"],
    limit=100
)

Step 9: Comparative Analysis

Compare dimension values against each other:

Efficiency Comparison:

• •Which teams/products are most cost-efficient?
• •What do efficient teams do differently?
• •Can best practices be shared?

Size Comparison:

• •Relative spending levels
• •Budget vs. actual comparisons (if budget data in org context)
• •Growth rate comparisons

Service Mix Comparison:

• •Do similar teams use similar services?
• •Why do some teams spend more on specific services?
• •Architectural differences between teams/products

Output Format

Provide comprehensive custom dimension analysis:

1. Executive Summary

• •Primary custom dimension analyzed: [Dimension name]
• •Total costs: $X,XXX
• •Number of dimension values: X
• •Top spender: [Value] at $X,XXX (XX%)
• •Allocation coverage: XX% (XX% unallocated)
• •Key insight

2. Cost Distribution by Custom Dimension

[Dimension Name] Cost Breakdown:

Distribution Analysis:

• •Top 3 represent: XX% of total spend
• •Most even/uneven distribution: [Analysis]
• •Largest: [Value] at $X,XXX
• •Smallest: [Value] at $X,XXX
• •Concentration: [High/Medium/Low]

3. Growth and Trend Analysis

[Dimension Value] Trends:

Fastest Growing: [Value] at +XX% Largest Decline: [Value] at -XX% Most Stable: [Value] with minimal variation

4. Service Mix by Dimension Value

For each major dimension value:

[Dimension Value A] - Total: $X,XXX

Key Services:

• •Primary service: [Service] at $X,XXX
• •Secondary service: [Service] at $X,XXX
• •Unique/notable services: [List]

Architecture Profile:

• •Service mix: [Compute-heavy / Storage-heavy / Database-heavy / Balanced]
• •Cloud provider preference: [AWS/GCP/Azure or multi-cloud]
• •Specialization: [Any notable patterns]

5. Infrastructure Distribution

By Account:

By Region:

Patterns:

• •Multi-region distribution: [Analysis]
• •Account isolation strategy: [Analysis]
• •Regional preferences: [Analysis]

6. Comparative Analysis

Efficiency Metrics:

*If available: per user, per transaction, per feature, etc.

Most Efficient: [Value] achieves [outcome] at [cost] Least Efficient: [Value] spends XX% more for similar outcomes

Best Practices from Efficient [Dimension Values]:

1. •[Practice 1 observed]
2. •[Practice 2 observed]
3. •[Service or architecture choice]

7. Unallocated Cost Analysis

Allocation Coverage:

• •Allocated to [dimension]: $X,XXX (XX%)
• •Unallocated: $X,XXX (XX%)

Unallocated Cost Breakdown:

By Account:

• •Account A: $X,XXX unallocated
• •Account B: $X,XXX unallocated

Root Causes of Unallocated Costs:

1. •[Shared infrastructure not attributed]
2. •[Resources without proper tags/rules]
3. •[Service-level costs hard to allocate]

Impact:

• •Affects showback/chargeback accuracy
• •[X teams/products] have incomplete cost picture
• •Recommendations for improvement: [List]

8. Hierarchical Analysis (if multiple custom dimensions)

If analyzing multiple levels (e.g., Business Unit → Product → Team):

Business Unit: [BU A]

• •Total: $X,XXX (XX% of org)
• •Products:
  • •Product 1: $X,XXX
    • •Teams:
      • •Team A: $X,XXX
      • •Team B: $X,XXX
  • •Product 2: $X,XXX
    • •Teams:
      • •Team C: $X,XXX

Insights:

• •Largest business unit: [BU] at $X,XXX
• •Most expensive product: [Product] at $X,XXX
• •Most expensive team: [Team] at $X,XXX
• •Cost concentration at [level]

9. Showback/Chargeback Report

[Dimension Value] Cost Report

For each dimension value, provide a detailed breakdown suitable for showback:

Team/Product: [Value A] Period: [Date Range] Total Cost: $X,XXX

Service Breakdown:

• •Compute (EC2, Lambda, etc.): $X,XXX
• •Storage (S3, EBS, etc.): $X,XXX
• •Database (RDS, DynamoDB, etc.): $X,XXX
• •Networking: $X,XXX
• •Other: $X,XXX

By Environment:

• •Production: $X,XXX (XX%)
• •Staging: $X,XXX (XX%)
• •Development: $X,XXX (XX%)

Top 5 Resources:

1. •
2. •
3. •

Compared to Last Period:

• •Change: +/- $XXX (+/- XX%)
• •Primary driver: [Explanation]

10. Actionable Recommendations

For High-Spending [Dimension Values]:

1. •

   [Value A] ($X,XXX/month):

   • •Primary opportunity: [Specific recommendation]
   • •Potential savings: $X,XXX
   • •Service to optimize: [Service]
   • •Action: [Specific steps]
2. •

   [Value B] ($X,XXX/month):

   • •[Recommendations]

For Growing [Dimension Values]:

1. •[Value C] (+XX% growth):
   • •Validate growth is expected given business activity
   • •Monitor: [Specific metrics]
   • •Consider: [Reserved Instances, architecture changes, etc.]

For Unallocated Costs:

1. •Create CostFormation rules for [specific resources]
2. •Improve tagging for [accounts/services]
3. •Define allocation for shared services

For Showback/Chargeback:

1. •Distribute reports to [dimension value] owners
2. •Set up monthly review cadence
3. •Establish cost accountability
4. •Consider budget alerts per [dimension value]

Knowledge Sharing:

1. •Share best practices from efficient [dimension values]
2. •Document standard architectures
3. •Cross-team optimization workshops

11. Custom Dimension Quality

Dimension Definition Quality:

• •Coverage: XX% of costs allocated
• •Accuracy: [Assessment based on org context]
• •Granularity: [Appropriate / Too broad / Too granular]
• •Maintainability: [Easy / Complex]

Improvement Opportunities:

1. •[Refine allocation rules for X]
2. •[Add missing dimension values]
3. •[Improve coverage for Y]

Skill-Specific Best Practices

1. •Understand business context - Custom dimensions have business meaning
2. •Calculate allocation coverage - Know what % of costs are attributed
3. •Compare dimension values - Look for efficiency patterns
4. •Provide showback-ready output - Format suitable for finance/business teams
5. •Explain service mix - Help business users understand technical costs
6. •Normalize when possible - Per-user, per-transaction costs
7. •Track trends - Growth/decline patterns matter for planning

For general cost analysis best practices, see ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/best-practices.md

Common Custom Dimension Patterns

Pattern 1: Team-Based Analysis

Goal: Understand which teams spend how much

Approach:

• •Rank teams by spending
• •Analyze service mix per team
• •Compare efficiency across teams
• •Identify growing vs. stable teams
• •Share optimization wins

Pattern 2: Product P&L

Goal: Attribute cloud costs to products for P&L

Approach:

• •Full cost breakdown per product
• •Include allocated shared costs
• •Trend over time with revenue if available
• •Calculate unit economics (cost per user, per transaction)
• •Identify optimization opportunities

Pattern 3: Environment Cost Management

Goal: Ensure non-prod environments are appropriately sized

Approach:

• •Compare prod vs. staging vs. dev costs
• •Calculate ratios (staging should be X% of prod)
• •Identify oversized non-prod resources
• •Recommend rightsizing

Pattern 4: Business Unit Showback

Goal: Provide cost transparency to business units

Approach:

• •Hierarchical breakdown (BU → Product → Team)
• •Service breakdown in business terms
• •Period-over-period comparison
• •Budget vs. actual (if available)
• •Recommendations tailored to business audience

Pattern 5: Feature Cost Tracking

Goal: Understand cost of specific features

Approach:

• •Identify infrastructure per feature
• •Calculate feature costs
• •Compare to feature usage/revenue
• •Inform product prioritization
• •Calculate ROI per feature

Advanced Techniques

Multi-Dimensional Custom Analysis

Combine multiple custom dimensions:

get_cost_data(
    group_by=["User:Defined:BusinessUnit", "User:Defined:Product"],
    limit=100
)

Creates matrix showing how products roll up to business units.

Shared Cost Allocation

When costs are shared (e.g., shared data platform):

1. •Identify shared costs
2. •Define allocation methodology (by usage, by headcount, by revenue)
3. •Apply allocation
4. •Show allocated + direct costs per dimension

Variance Analysis

Compare actual to expected/budgeted:

Variance = Actual Cost - Expected Cost
Variance % = (Variance / Expected Cost) * 100

Highlight dimension values over/under budget.

Cost Optimization Scoring

For each dimension value:

Optimization Score = (
  (Tag Coverage % × 0.3) +
  (RI/SP Coverage % × 0.3) +
  (Rightsizing Adoption % × 0.2) +
  (Growth Control % × 0.2)
)

Rank dimension values by optimization maturity.

Tips for Effective Analysis

1. •Speak business language - Translate technical costs to business terms
2. •Make it actionable - Every insight should suggest an action
3. •Context is everything - Use org context to interpret results
4. •Benchmark internally - Compare dimension values to each other
5. •Show allocation gaps - Be transparent about unallocated costs
6. •Tell a story - Don't just list numbers, explain what they mean
7. •Enable accountability - Clear attribution enables cost ownership
8. •Link to outcomes - Connect costs to business metrics when possible

See Also

• •understand-cloudzero-organization skill - Load organization context first
• •${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/best-practices.md - Universal cost analysis best practices
• •${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/cloudzero-tools-reference.md - Complete tool documentation
• •${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/error-handling.md - Troubleshooting and common errors
• •${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/dimensions-reference.md - Dimension types and FQDIDs
• •${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/cost-types-reference.md - When to use each cost type