Grzegorz Szczygieł
DevOps Engineer, Raiffeisen Tech Poland
Introducing APEX Cost Reporting: Transparent cost management for every team
In large organizations, cloud costs can grow quickly and quietly, especially when teams focus mainly on delivering results and innovation. APEX Cost Reporting is an internal cost transparency and alerting solution built on Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) APEX platform, designed to give teams clear visibility into their cloud spending and help them take timely, data-driven decisions. It supports both technical and non-technical stakeholders by turning complex cost structures into simple, actionable insights used every day across the organization.
What APEX is and why it was created
Image 1, APEX home page view | Source: Raiffeisen Tech internal materials
APEX (Analytics Platform Experience) is RBI Group’s internal data and AI platform, built on Databricks and AWS, and designed as the successor to the previous “RBI Group Advanced Analytics Data Lake and Workspace.” It unifies data processing, analytics, and machine learning workflows into a single platform, enabling better collaboration and scalability across multiple countries and business units.
Previously, RBI used an AWS-based data lake platform that was difficult to manage and lacked data sharing and governance capabilities at scale. The transition to APEX on Databricks provided a centralized, secure, and more efficient data platform but required enhanced cost visibility due to shared usage. APEX Cost Reporting was developed to meet this need.
The Challenge: hidden cloud costs in complex environments
Cloud environments empower fast innovation but can cause spending to escalate unexpectedly without adequate visibility. Large companies often have numerous projects running simultaneously on shared cloud resources, leading to complex, hard-to-track expenses that slow budgeting and optimization efforts.
Before APEX Cost Reporting, cost analysis required manual effort across various tools and accounts, complicating budget control and resource planning. This gap created the risk of overspending, missed optimization opportunities, and difficult cross-team communication about cloud usage.
How APEX Cost Reporting solves this
APEX Cost Reporting consolidates direct and indirect cloud costs (including Databricks compute units, AWS infrastructure, security monitoring, and support) into a single, user-friendly Power BI dashboard, updated daily. The dashboard offers:
- Clear overview of total spending per business area and individual projects,
- Trend analyses for monthly and daily costs to spot changes early,
- Drill-down capabilities for identifying specific cost drivers, such as compute clusters or data storage,
- Automated alerting to notify project leads promptly when costs significantly exceed historical trends.
Image 2, APEX Cost Reporting – full transparency of cloud costs | Source: Raiffeisen Tech internal materials
This service is supported by the APEX Service Management Team, which offers cost analysis, configuration recommendations, and proactive collaboration with teams to optimize usage.
Image 3, APEX overview page view | Source: Raiffeisen Tech internal materials
Benefits in everyday use
Cost transparency enables more accurate budgeting, early identification of overspending, and informed decision-making at all levels. Teams can evaluate resource needs against business value and adjust configurations to improve efficiency without disruption.
The collaborative approach includes notifications to project leads, guided investigations, and joint optimization discussions, creating shared ownership and responsibility for cloud costs.
Image 4, Why Teams Use APEX Cost Reporting | Source: Raiffeisen Tech internal materials
Simple explanation of technical terms
Databricks SQL Warehouse is a managed analytics engine enabling scalable data queries without complex infrastructure management. Cost drivers refer to the main technical components consuming cloud resources, such as compute workloads and storage, which together with indirect support and security costs make up the total spend shown in the dashboard.
Alerting to prevent surprises
Automated email alerts notify project leads when monthly or daily costs surpass predefined, customizable thresholds, helping teams react before costs grow unchecked. These alerts progressively repeat until teams take corrective action or the billing period ends.
Image 5, Automated email alerts notify example | Source: Raiffeisen Tech internal materials
Real Impact: cost optimization example
For example, the Human Resources team received an alert due to a sudden cost rise. The APEX Service Management Team and project leads conducted a review, adjusted compute parameters, and successfully reduced costs over subsequent months while continuing to meet project goals. Similar positive results have been seen across Compliance, Risk, Retail, and other departments.
User feedback
The APEX cost dashboard gives users a clear picture of their spending. It helps identify what drives costs, track trends, and find ways to optimize. By making costs transparent, teams can avoid overspending and keep expenses aligned with their goals. It also provides visibility into how the platform is used, so they can understand and stay in control
Our users highly value the APEX cost dashboard, which provides a unified daily reporting and alerting system that consolidates AWS and Databricks expenses. It delivers detailed insights that empower end users to manage their budgets effectively, identify cost drivers, monitor spending trends, and uncover optimization opportunities. With a clear understanding of their costs, teams can prevent overspending and ensure that expenditures align with their objectives
... by the way, this cost report is one of the best reports in the company, I use it nearly every day, so if you have developed it, really good work...
Conclusion
Transparent cost management is crucial for effective cloud FinOps in large enterprises. APEX Cost Reporting delivers this through unified dashboards, smart alerting, and proactive team collaboration—making it an essential part of RBI’s cloud data governance and operational excellence.