Provider-Agnostic Resource & Infrastructure Standard Model
This standard establishes a universal taxonomy for cloud and infrastructure cost data. It defines canonical resource types, pricing dimensions, usage metrics, and data interchange formats applicable across all cloud service providers.
Provider-Agnostic Resource & Infrastructure Standard Model
PRISM
Scope
This standard specifies the requirements for a provider-agnostic model for classifying, measuring, and reporting cloud infrastructure costs and usage data.
It is applicable to organizations that procure, manage, or optimize cloud infrastructure services from one or more providers, including public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid deployments.
This standard does not cover application-level cost modeling, software licensing costs, or personnel costs associated with cloud operations.
Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document.
IFO4-FOCUS-2.0:2026, FinOps Open Cost & Usage Specification
IFO4-ULS-1.0:2026, Universal Labeling Standard
ISO/IEC 17788:2014, Cloud computing - Overview and vocabulary
ISO/IEC 19941:2017, Cloud computing - Interoperability and portability
Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
resource type
A canonical classification of infrastructure services that abstracts provider-specific naming into a universal category. EXAMPLE: Compute Instance, Managed Database, Object Storage.
pricing dimension
A measurable attribute that influences the cost of a resource. EXAMPLE: Region, instance family, operating system, tenancy model.
usage metric
A quantitative measurement of resource consumption over a defined time period. EXAMPLE: CPU hours, data transferred in gigabytes, API requests.
cost record
A single line item representing a charge for resource usage within a billing period, conforming to the PRISM schema.
provider mapping
A documented correspondence between a cloud provider's proprietary resource type and the PRISM canonical resource type.
Resource type taxonomy
Organizations implementing this standard SHALL classify all cloud resources according to the PRISM resource type taxonomy defined in this clause.
The taxonomy consists of three levels: Category, Type, and Subtype.
Compute resources
Compute resources SHALL be classified into the following types:
a) Virtual Machine - general-purpose compute instances with configurable CPU, memory, and storage;
b) Container - containerized workload execution environments including managed Kubernetes;
c) Serverless Function - event-driven compute with per-invocation billing;
d) Bare Metal - dedicated physical server resources;
e) GPU Instance - accelerated compute instances with attached GPU resources.
Storage resources
Storage resources SHALL be classified into the following types:
a) Block Storage - persistent block-level storage volumes;
b) Object Storage - scalable object-based storage with HTTP access;
c) File Storage - managed file system storage with NFS/SMB access;
d) Archive Storage - low-cost, high-latency storage for infrequently accessed data.
Network resources
Network resources SHALL be classified into the following types:
a) Data Transfer - ingress and egress data movement charges;
b) Load Balancer - traffic distribution and health checking services;
c) VPN/Interconnect - private network connectivity services;
d) DNS - domain name resolution services;
e) CDN - content delivery network services.
Database resources
Database resources SHALL be classified into the following types:
a) Relational Database - managed SQL database services;
b) NoSQL Database - managed non-relational database services;
c) Cache - in-memory caching services;
d) Data Warehouse - analytical query processing services.
Pricing dimensions
Each resource type SHALL have an associated set of pricing dimensions that influence cost calculations.
Pricing dimensions SHALL be classified as either required or optional for each resource type.
Implementations SHOULD preserve all provider-specific pricing dimensions in addition to the PRISM canonical dimensions.
Universal pricing dimensions
The following pricing dimensions SHALL be supported for all resource types:
a) Region - the geographic deployment location;
b) Billing Account - the account or subscription to which charges are attributed;
c) Pricing Model - on-demand, reserved, spot, or committed use;
d) Currency - the billing currency (ISO 4217 code).
Compute-specific dimensions
Compute resources SHALL additionally support:
a) Instance Family - the hardware generation and optimization profile;
b) vCPU Count - the number of virtual CPUs;
c) Memory (GiB) - the amount of allocated memory;
d) Operating System - the base operating system;
e) Tenancy - shared, dedicated, or host.
Usage metrics and measurement
Usage metrics SHALL be reported using SI units where applicable.
Time-based metrics SHALL use hours as the base unit.
Data volume metrics SHALL use gigabytes (GB) as the base unit, defined as 10^9 bytes.
Organizations MAY report additional provider-specific metrics alongside the PRISM canonical metrics.
Data interchange format
Cost records conforming to this standard SHALL be represented in the PRISM interchange format as specified in Annex A.
The interchange format SHALL support both JSON and CSV representations.
Implementations SHALL include all required fields as defined in Table 1 of Annex A.
Annex A (normative) - Data interchange schema
This annex defines the required and optional fields for PRISM cost records.
Table A.1 specifies the column definitions, data types, and cardinality for each field in the PRISM interchange format.
Implementations SHALL validate cost records against this schema before interchange.
Annex B (informative) - Provider mapping examples
This annex provides informative examples of how major cloud provider resource types map to PRISM canonical types.
Table B.1 shows mappings for Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Table B.2 shows mappings for Microsoft Azure.
Table B.3 shows mappings for Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
NOTE: These mappings are provided for guidance only and may change as providers update their service catalogs.
Bibliography
[1] FinOps Foundation, "FinOps Framework," 2025.
[2] NIST SP 800-145, "The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing."
[3] ISO/IEC 22123-1:2023, "Cloud computing - Concepts and terminology."
[4] Cloud Security Alliance, "Cloud Controls Matrix v4.0."
[5] IFO4 Technical Report TR-001:2026, "Cloud Cost Data Quality Requirements."