# Production & Non Production Cost

Production and Non-Production cost segmentation allows you to clearly separate business-critical workloads from development, testing, and staging environments.

While this feature is powered by the same backend engine as **Business Hierarchy**, it provides a simplified and standardized way to classify workloads based on environment.

This ensures:

* Clean executive reporting
* Better budget planning
* Accurate savings tracking
* Clear production accountability

***

### Why Environment Segregation Matters

Without clear environment classification:

* Production and test workloads get mixed
* Optimization opportunities are unclear
* Savings tracking becomes distorted
* Finance cannot distinguish operational vs experimental spend

Separating production from non-production enables:

* Accurate margin analysis
* Smarter optimization decisions
* Reduced risk during cost-cutting
* Better forecasting

***

### How It Works

Production & Non-Production classification uses **tag-based rule definitions**.

You define what qualifies as:

* Production
* Non-Production

Based on:

* Tag Key / Value
* Account
* Resource Name
* Service
* Region

The system then categorizes all workloads accordingly.

***

#### Example Classification Logic

If:

* Tag `environment = prod`
* OR Tag `env = production`
* OR Account name contains `live`

Then:

→ Classify as **Production**

If:

* Tag `environment = dev`
* OR Tag `env = staging`
* OR Resource name contains `test`

Then:

→ Classify as **Non-Production**

***

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***

### Supported Rule Conditions

You can define rules using:

* Native Cloud Tags
* Account Name
* Subscription Name
* Project ID
* Resource Name
* Service
* Region
* Usage Type

Rules follow AND logic within a rule block.

Multiple rule blocks can be defined.

***

### How It Is Different from Business Hierarchy

| Feature          | Business Hierarchy              | Production & Non-Production              |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Purpose          | Maps cost to business ownership | Segregates cost by environment type      |
| Depth            | Up to 4 levels                  | Binary classification (Prod vs Non-Prod) |
| Resource Mapping | Leaf-level cost centre          | Rule-based environment grouping          |
| Use Case         | BU / Team / Project reporting   | Operational environment reporting        |

Internally, both use the same allocation engine.\
Production & Non-Production is simply a simplified, purpose-built segmentation layer.

***

### Reporting Capabilities

Once configured, you can:

* View total Production spend
* View total Non-Production spend
* Compare Prod vs Non-Prod trends
* Filter dashboards by environment
* Track savings by environment type
* Monitor policy violations separately

***

### Best Practices

To ensure accurate classification:

* Standardize environment tag keys across teams
* Avoid multiple meanings for the same tag
* Review unmatched resources monthly
* Align environment definition with engineering policy

Recommended tag keys:

* `environment`
* `env`
* `stage`
* `deployment`

***

### Common Multi-Cloud Examples

#### AWS

* `environment = prod`
* `aws:autoscaling:groupName contains live`
* Account name contains `production`

#### Azure

* `Environment = Production`
* Subscription name contains `Prod`
* Resource group contains `Live`

#### GCP

* Label `env = prod`
* Project ID contains `production`

#### OCI

* Tag namespace `Operations.Environment = Prod`

***

### Why This Feature Is Important

Production workloads:

* Directly impact revenue
* Require higher reliability
* Must be optimized carefully

Non-production workloads:

* Can be aggressively optimized
* Can tolerate scheduling policies
* Are ideal for automation-based savings

This separation enables smarter FinOps decisions.

***

### Governance Alignment

Environment classification also enables:

* Production-only alerting
* Non-production shutdown policies
* Environment-specific workflow automation
* Scoped access controls

If you have not configured cost centres yet, refer to:

👉 **Cost Centres & Business Hierarchy**

***

### Summary

Production & Non-Production Cost gives you:

* Clean workload segregation
* Accurate financial visibility
* Better optimization control
* Executive-level clarity

It is simple to configure, but powerful in impact.