Why
Cloud marketplace purchases bypass traditional procurement and accumulate silently on the cloud bill. Without an inventory, organisations end up with duplicate subscriptions (two teams buying the same tool), abandoned licenses (nobody uses it but auto-renewal continues), and no visibility into total SaaS spend through cloud channels.
What
Inventory all SaaS subscriptions and marketplace purchases made through cloud billing. Each subscription gets an identified owner, renewal date, and documented business justification.
How
Extract Marketplace Line Items
| Provider | Where to Find |
|---|---|
| AWS | CUR: filter product_product_name for Marketplace items. Or AWS Marketplace → Manage subscriptions |
| Azure | Cost Management: filter by PublisherType = Marketplace. Or Azure Marketplace → Manage |
| GCP | BigQuery billing export: filter service.description for Marketplace entries |
Build the Inventory
For each subscription: product name, vendor, monthly cost, owner (who requested it), renewal date, auto-renew status, business justification, usage status (active / underused / unused).
Identify Quick Wins
Common findings: duplicate subscriptions across teams, unused trial subscriptions still billing, subscriptions where a cloud-native alternative exists at lower cost.
Deliverable Checklist
- Marketplace line items extracted per provider
- Inventory built with owner, renewal date, and justification
- Duplicates and unused subscriptions identified
- Auto-renew settings reviewed
- Quarterly review cadence set