Appearance
Administration
DataNature Platform & Operations covers how the platform is deployed, isolated, scaled, and released.
DataNature Platform & Operations · containerized · sovereign
- Kubernetes deployment — containerised runtime running the whole stack on any cloud or on-prem.
- Multi-tenant isolation — secure separation between environments and user groups.
- DataNature Lake (optional) — managed S3-compatible object storage for lakehouse data.
- DataNature DevOps (optional) — CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure-as-Code for platform releases.
- Scaling & HA — elastic, resilient operation with zero vendor lock-in.
Cost and Billing
DataNature is prepaid and consumption-based. A tenant buys credits up front; the platform meters live resource usage every minute, converts it to a cost in USD, and burns that cost from the credit balance. When the balance runs out, the workspace is paused (not deleted) — buying more credits resumes it.
Key concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| DNU | DataNature Unit — the normalized compute blend of vCPU and RAM. The display and metering unit for compute. |
| Credit | The prepaid purchase unit. 1 credit ≈ 14 days of continuous workspace runtime for the purchased package. |
| USD ($) | The billing system-of-record for all balances. Nepali gateways charge the NPR equivalent at checkout. |
| Burn | Debiting the credit balance for metered usage. An hourly "universal burn" settles usage for every tenant holding a positive balance. |
| Runway | How long the current balance will last at the recent burn rate (balance ÷ burn-per-day). |
| Trial | A 14-day free window, no card required. Compute is metered but not charged; storage is not billed during the trial. |
| Shadow metering | Sampling both metering backends each tick and archiving them tagged src:<backend> for reconciliation (on in production). Prometheus is the billing source; metrics-server is the fallback. Never affects bills. |
What is billable
Usage is metered per tenant and grouped into workload categories. Compute-based tools bill on the vCPU/RAM blend; storage bills only on provisioned capacity.
| Category | What it covers | Billing basis |
|---|---|---|
| query | Interactive SQL and the query editor | vCPU/RAM blend |
| bi | Dashboards and reporting | vCPU/RAM blend |
| compute | Notebooks and distributed processing | vCPU/RAM blend |
| pipeline | Ingestion, orchestration, and transformation | vCPU/RAM blend |
| ai_ml | AI assistants and ML workloads | vCPU/RAM blend |
| storage | PVC storage line | storage-GB only (DNU = 0) |
| platform | Shared / managed services | vCPU/RAM blend |
Infrastructure tools are never billed, and storage is not billed during the free trial.
Pricing rates
Compute is priced on the vCPU/RAM blend; storage is priced on provisioned capacity.
| Rate | Value |
|---|---|
| Compute — vCPU | $3.81 per vCPU per month |
| Compute — RAM | $1.85 per RAM-GB per month |
| Storage | $0.066 per storage-GB per month |
| Credit basis | 1 credit = 14 days of continuous runtime |
Storage-category tools bill only on capacity, and there is no cloud pass-through cost.
Credit packages
Customers buy credits against packages. Each package reserves a baseline compute/storage footprint and has an autoscaling ceiling. Starter is the base workspace; Voir and Atlas are add-ons.
| Package | Per-credit price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $37.99 / credit | Data engineering, orchestration, SQL query editor, BI, notebooks, storage explorer |
| + Voir | +$7.99 / credit | AI assistant and conversational analytics |
| + Atlas | +$6.99 / credit | Data catalog, lineage, and governance |
| Everything | $52.97 / credit | Sum of the reserved package credit prices |
1 credit = 14 days of continuous runtime, so a month of continuous run is roughly 2.14 credits.
Free trial
- Every new workspace starts on a 14-day free trial — no payment method required.
- Compute is metered during the trial but not charged; storage is not billed while the trial is active.
- The workspace warns the account owner at D-7, D-3, and D-1 before the trial ends.
Lifecycle after the trial
When the trial ends and the tenant is not on credits, the workspace moves through these stages:
| Stage | Trigger | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Active (trial) | Signup | 14-day free trial; tools running; storage not billed. |
| On credits | Positive balance past the trial | Workspace stays active; usage is burned from the ledger every hour. |
| Trial expired (grace) | Trial ended and not on credits | All tools disabled; PVCs preserved; a 15-day grace window opens. |
| Suspended | Grace ended, or credits exhausted | vCluster scaled to 0; workspace paused. |
| Terminating → Wiped | Suspended past expiry | Workspace wiped; tenant status = expired. |
| Restored | Credit purchase or admin grant | Disabled tools restored; runway resumes; workspace un-paused automatically. |
Buying credits
Open the Credits panel on the Usage & Billing tab, choose a package, set a quantity, and pick a payment method. The panel shows the total in USD (and the equivalent DNU / days), plus one button per enabled gateway.
Payment gateways
| Gateway | Currency | Region / notes |
|---|---|---|
| ConnectIPS | NPR | Nepal; merchant certificate required. |
| Stripe | USD | International; charges USD directly (system-of-record). |
Currency conversion (NPR ⇄ USD) — USD is the priced and banked amount. For Nepali-gateway checkouts the USD total is converted to NPR at the live NRB rate at pay time. Static USD prices do not track daily FX; only checkout conversion uses the live rate.
Payment methods (card on file) — Account owners can store a card via Stripe so invoices or credit top-ups can be charged without re-entering card details. Local gateways do not store a card; each payment is a fresh redirect.
Credit ledger — balance, burn, runway
The credit balance is the signed sum of every ledger entry. The Credits panel shows the balance in USD, the approximate credits and days of runway remaining, and the recent burn rate.
| Ledger entry | Sign | Written when |
|---|---|---|
| grant | + | An administrator issues a promotional credit grant. |
| purchase | + | Credits are bought via a local gateway or Stripe. |
| consumption | − | The hourly universal burn, or an invoice settlement, debits usage. |
| revoke | − | An administrator revokes an outstanding grant. |
Monthly statements
DataNature generates a monthly statement per tenant. Under the prepaid model, usage is already burned from credits during the month, so a statement is a record of usage rather than a separate bill and typically shows a zero amount due. Statements exclude any usage already settled by the credit burn, so nothing is charged twice.
Administrator tasks
Platform administrators manage billing for all tenants from the admin console billing page.
- Per-Tenant Billing table — aggregate usage per tenant (vCPU, RAM, tools, $/hr, hours, CU, cost, credits, status) with a grand total.
- Generate Invoices — build the monthly statements for all tenants.
- Charge All — attempt to charge outstanding balances for tenants with a card on file.
- Credit Grant — issue a USD credit grant with a reason, view grant history (revocable), and read the full ledger.