The BMC Helix Cloud Cost trial product is a free version of the product that you can use for experimenting purposes. The free trial is available for 14 days. 

Prerequisites

• If you have not already done so, register for the 14-day free trial. 
• Ensure that your computer meets the minimum system requirements
  • Only required if using downloaded/on-premise connectors
    • Java OpenJDK 11.0.2
    • 10 MB disk space, for logging
• Google Chrome browser
• To connect BMC Helix Cloud Cost to your Cloud Service Provider (CSP) account, whether on AWS, or Azure, you will need the admin keys for the account.  If you do not have those keys, contact your Cloud Operations Administrator to provide you with the necessary credentials (keys).

Quick Start

4 simple steps to quickly begin realizing value by managing cloud usage and costs.

1. CONNECT to public cloud accounts
2. COLLECT cost and usage data
3. ASSESS data
4. OPTIMIZE resources

Connect to public cloud accounts

After login and from the Dashboard, go to Tools > Connectors

1. Click the button Add a Connector in the upper right (add up to 5 connectors in the trial)
2. Select the AWS or Azure Cloud Connectors and click Continue
3. Enter a name for your connector instance
4. Enter the account credentials, which vary by platform (e.g., AWS, Azure)
5. Select Collection Mode:  On Demand or Scheduled
6. Select monitor costs for AWS or Azure
   1. If AWS, select Manage & Monitor AWS Costs, and Monitor utilization of AWS Resources
   2. If Azure, select Billing & Usage
      
      

Now that you’ve connected BMC Helix Cloud Cost to your cloud account, you won’t need to do this again, unless of course you wish to connect more accounts or different cloud platform(s).

Collect Cost and Usage Data

To run an on-demand scans, go to Tools > Connectors > Manage Connector

Locate the appropriate connector and click Evaluate Now

NOTE:  BMC Helix Cloud Cost also supports automated, scheduled scans.

For more information about on-demand scanning and which connectors support this feature, see Managing-connectors.

Assess data

After your data collection completes, you are ready to assess the cloud costs and usage.

Navigate to the Dashboard

View cloud costs by Account or Service for specified time period

Add resource pools and budgets that align with your business

For more information, see Managing resource pools.

Optimize resources

If AWS connector is configured and account has EC2 VMs, optimization recommendations may be provided

Select recommendations to view details

Act on or ignore recommendations