Virtual tags let you apply your own key:value tags to cloud resources, so you can group and filter costs and resources by the categories that matter to you. Because you define and maintain them yourself, you get tagging autonomy as a FinOps practitioner, without relying on engineering teams to apply and maintain cloud tags for your organizational metadata.

How virtual tags work

A virtual tag has a key and one or more values. The key is the category, for example AWS Region Group, and the values are the buckets within it, for example EU and US. You do not assign values to resources by hand. Instead, each value is defined by a set of rules, and CerteroX applies that value to every resource the rules match. This keeps your tags current as resources come and go.

Creating a tag key and its values

Open Virtual Tags from the main menu. The screen lists your existing tag keys.

• Select Add new key to create a key and give it a name.

• Within a key, add one or more values. Each value is where you define the rules that decide which resources receive it.

• Use the edit and delete controls on a key or value to maintain them over time.

Defining value rules

Each value is populated by one or more conditions that test resource attributes, such as the data source, resource type, region, or a resource name or identifier.

• Conditions at the top level are combined with AND, so a resource must satisfy all of them to receive the value.

• A range of comparison operators is available, so you can match on exact values, prefixes, and similar tests. The example in the AWS Region Group key assigns a value to AWS resources based on their region string prefix.

• For more involved logic, group sets of conditions and combine them with AND and OR to build complex membership rules.

• A preview at the bottom of the rule builder explains the value and its rules in plain language, so you can confirm the logic does what you intend before you save.

Rule priority and a catch-all value

Because value rules can overlap, a single resource may match more than one value. CerteroX resolves this by priority.

• Values are processed in order, and a resource takes the value from the highest rule it matches. Use the ordering arrows to move a value up or down and set its priority.

• To capture everything no other value matched, add a value whose rule includes all resources. This acts as a catch-all, often named something like Other, so you are left with no untagged resources for that key.

Using virtual tags in reporting

Once defined, your virtual tags become grouping and filtering options across the reporting.

• On the Resources cost reporting screen, filter by a virtual tag key and value. Because a value can span several underlying attributes, you can, for example, bring several AWS regions together under one value and filter on them all at once.

• Switch the breakdown type to Virtual Tags to explore your tags visually. The interactive ring chart starts on your tag keys. Select a key to scope the chart to that key and reveal its values. Resources that no value rule captured appear as (untagged).

• A legend toggle switches the totals between cost and resource count.

• The table beneath the chart lists keys and their values. Use the Actions icon on a row to reset the Resources screen to the resources with that key and value, or to the untagged resources, which is a quick way to find and close tagging gaps.

Creating a tag with the Chat Assistant

You can also create a virtual tag by asking the Chat Assistant in plain language, instead of building it on this screen. See Chat Assistant (AI) for details. The assistant can create a new virtual tag, but you still edit and delete tags here.