Cost Centers

Learn how to mark different segments of your network that are used for the same purpose, or in the same context.

Use in Real-Time Performance and Security Zero Trust to quickly identify business risk caused by bottlenecks or downtime or inappropriate traffic.

Use in Long-Term Billing to identify logical billing elements.

NOTE: Only those elements that are tagged in Network Segmentation are aggregated to the long-term views.

Cost Centers

Overview
Cost centers, just like Accounts are used in defining segments of your network. A cost center will mark different segments of your network that are used for the same purpose, or in the same context. A cost center, therefore, may be associated with more than one Network segment.

See: Network IP Ranges

A cost center is defined by two properties:
  • Cost Center ID
  • Cost Center Name
Configuring a Cost Center
To configure Cost Centers, you must enter the Cost Center Configuration Screen.

In this screen you can:
  • Add new cost centers
  • Search for existing cost centers
  • Modify existing cost centers
  • View information about cost centers in use
  • Generate traffic analysis reports for specific cost centers
To enter the Cost Center Configuration Screen:
  1. Expand the Configuration menu.
  2. Select Configuration > Business Groups > Cost Center. The Cost Center Configuration Screen appears in the display section.
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    The Cost Center Table
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    The Cost Center Table displays the following for each cost center:
    • Cost Center ID
    • Cost Center Name
    • Networks – the number of Network IP Ranges associated with this cost center
    • Sum of IP’s in Range – the number of possible IP’s in these ranges
    • Report Production Buttons
Adding a Cost Center

You may add as many cost centers as you need to properly segment your network. However, once an cost center is added, it cannot be removed.

To add a new cost center:
  1. After entering Cost Center Configuration, click the Add button.
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  2. Enter a Cost Center Name. The Cost Center ID is automatically entered.
  3. Click Confirm. The new cost center is added to the table.
Modifying a Cost Center

You may change an cost center’s name but not its ID. This is because the ID, at this stage, might be associated in the database with Network segments.

To modify an cost center:
  1. From the Cost Centers table, select an existing cost center by highlighting the appropriate row in the table.
  2. Click Modify. The Cost Center’s details will appear in the edit boxes.
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  3. Modify the Cost Center Name.
  4. Click Confirm. The cost center’s details are updated in the table.
Search for Existing Cost Centers
You may want the Cost Centers Table to display only a specified group of cost centers according to selected characteristics.

To search for existing cost centers:
  1. Above the Cost Centers table, click Search. The following is displayed:
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  2. Specify one or more search parameters. Do not forget to assign each search parameter with a logical operator.
  3. Click Confirm. The table is populated with all the cost centers which match the query parameters.
Producing Reports for a Specific Account

You may want to produce a traffic analysis report for a specific account, or a baseline report for all accounts. To produce a report for a specific account, click one of the Report Production buttons on the right-most column of that account’s row in the table.

Choose one of the following:
  • Image produce a report baselining the last week of traffic usage from this Cost Center (Source by Weekday).
  • Image produce a report showing the last month of traffic usage from this Cost Center (Source by Dest. IP).
  • Image produce a report showing the last hour of traffic usage from this Cost Center (Source by Server Port).
See: Cost Center Reports
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