Alibaba Cloud Account Recharge: Enterprise Multi-project Compliance Management and Money Saving Tips
In the last article, we talked about the various benefits of enterprises going to the cloud through the cooperation of Aliyun channel providers/agents-not only can they get the "fracture price" that official website does not have, but also they can provide one-on-one technical nanny services.
However, as the business of the enterprise gets bigger and bigger, new problems come up again:
Alibaba Cloud account top-up
"Our company has three different project teams. Can we separate the bills?"
"Finance is in charge of money and technology is in charge of servers. How can they not interfere with each other?"
"I want to open an independent account for subsidiaries or partners, but I want to control their budgets in a unified way. What should I do?"
At this time, it is the turn of Aliyun's "agent sub-account" (also known as: agent distribution sub-account/associated sub-account) to show their skills.
Today, we will use the perspective of vernacular and real writing to thoroughly talk about the "opening of Aliyun agent sub-account. Whether you are an enterprise boss, IT manager or finance, after reading this article, you can easily get started and solve it perfectly.
Purchase with an Alibaba Cloud account
Pain points with multi-project compliance management.
1. What is an agent sub-account and what is the difference between it and a regular RAM sub-account?
Before we officially start, we must first clarify a concept. Many people think of Aliyun official website as soon as they hear "sub-account"
RAM (access control) sub-account
.
The core knocks on the blackboard: the two are not the same thing at all!
Common RAM sub-account: It refers to different login credentials (similar to different keys in a home) distributed within a main account. Although the permissions are separated, all resources, bills, and real-name authentication are completely locked in this main account, and real financial and legal isolation cannot be achieved.
agent sub-account: it is an independent alibaba cloud account newly created or associated through the agent background. It has its own independent UID (Alibaba Cloud user ID), independent console, independent real-name authentication, and can even bind different company entities. But its "upstream" is unified under the jurisdiction of the agent and your corporate parent account.
Simply put, the agent's sub-account is like a "subsidiary account" you set up under the parent company ". It is not only a complete and independent Alibaba Cloud account, but also enjoys the unified discount and flexible settlement policy given to you by the agent.
Why should 2. open agent sub-accounts? Three core scenarios
Many businesses are doing
Purchase with an Alibaba Cloud account
At that time, it is often convenient to have one account to take care of all the business. It was not until the later business became complicated that it was found to be a huge quagmire. Opening an agent sub-account can mainly help you solve the following three core pain points:
1. True financial isolation and independent invoicing
If the company has two project groups A and B, or has different subsidiaries. If you mix in one account, the financial reconciliation at the end of the month can drive people crazy-you can't tell which server was bought by which project team and which part of the traffic was consumed by whom.
After opening the sub-account through the agent,
The bill of each sub-account is completely independent.
. How much money project team a spent and how much resources project team B spent were clear to the backstage. More importantly, agents can issue invoices with different heads and amounts for different sub-accounts, perfectly meeting the needs of compliance audits.
2. Authority and security isolation (to prevent misoperation)
Under the single account system, the authority of technical personnel is too large. In case one day a new operation and maintenance company "deletes the library and runs away" or mistakenly deletes the ECS of the core production environment, the whole company's business will be paralyzed.
Using agent sub-accounts, you can completely separate the "development environment", "test environment" and "production environment" and put them in different sub-accounts. Testers have been tossing about in the test sub-account, which will definitely not affect the security of the production sub-account.
3. Uniform discount for large customers
Some large groups have more than a dozen subsidiaries. If they go to the official website to buy indiscriminately, because each purchase is small, they will not get any discount at all.
Through the cooperation of agents, the group headquarters can serve as the "matrix", allowing agents to open more than a dozen sub-accounts under its banner and distribute them to subsidiaries. In this way, the purchase amount of all sub-accounts will be accumulated as the total purchase volume of the group, thus
Allow all subsidiaries to share the lowest wholesale discount
Maximize the interests of the group.
3. Hand-in-Hand Teaching: How to Open Aliyun Agent Sub-account?
Since there are so many benefits, how to operate it? In fact, the process is very simple, and the current agent system is highly automated, mainly divided into "new account opening"
and
"Old number association" two cases.
Scenario A: Create a new sub-account directly through an agent (most recommended)
If you need to work on a new project or company
Purchase with an Alibaba Cloud account
, directly let the agent help you "out of nothing" to create a sub-account is the most worry-free:
Contact your exclusive agent manager: Express your need to open a sub-account and provide the mobile phone number or email address you plan to bind (note: the mobile phone number/email address must not have been registered with Aliyun).
Agents send invitations in the background: Agents will enter your information in their management system, and the system will automatically send an "associated invitation link" to your email or mobile phone ".
Improve account information: You click the link to enter the Alibaba Cloud official website, follow the prompts to set the password, complete the enterprise or individual real-name authentication.
Successful opening: At this time, this new account will automatically become a sub-account under the agent. After you log in, you can directly see the discount that the agent has configured for you, and you can start purchasing the server happily.
Scenario B: Turn an existing independent account into an agent sub-account
If you already have a separately registered Aliyun account in your hand and want to enjoy the discount and management convenience of the agent, you can also "collect":
Untie the original binding relationship: ensure that this old account is not currently associated with other agents, and there are no arrears or unfinished orders in official website.
Provide UID to the agent: Report the UID of this account (viewed in the upper right corner of the Alibaba Cloud console) to the agent manager.
Background initiated filing and
Association: Agent initiates Invitation Association application in the system.
The account owner confirms acceptance: your old account will receive a notice or email from the official website. Log in to the Aliyun background and click "Agree to Associate".
Gorgeous Turn: After confirmation, the account number will be officially converted into the agent's sub-account number, and the original business and data will not be affected at all, but from then on, the agent's preferential channel will be available for renewal and additional purchase.
4. agent sub-account "fund settlement" mode: advance vs cash settlement
When opening a sub-account, the agent usually allows you to choose a fund settlement mode. This is related to your financial process, very important, must be clear:
Settlement model
How does it work?
Who is it suitable for?
Payment/Advance Mode (Credit)
The sub-account does not spend money on its own account. When placing an order, choose "agent to pay" and the agent's fund pool will be deducted uniformly. At the end of the month or the end of the month, the enterprise and the agent will consolidate the reconciliation and settle the monthly payment.
Suitable for medium and large enterprises or group parent companies with formal processes and unified budget control.
Allocation balance/cash settlement mode
The agent recharges the funds/quota to your sub-accounts in advance (for example, account A transfers 50000 and account B transfers 100000). The sub-account will deduct the money from it and find an agent to charge it when it is used up.
Suitable for each project team independent accounting, self-financing team.
5. enterprises must pay attention to avoid the pit and compliance details
Although the agent's sub-account is easy to use, in actual operation, in order to avoid legal and financial disputes, the following points must be paid attention:
1. Ownership of real-name authentication
Some enterprises try to save trouble and let agents help with real-name authentication, or all sub-accounts are hung under the names of agent employees. This is extremely dangerous!
Iron Law: Whoever does business will use his business license for real-name authentication. Although the sub-account is opened through an agent, its legal ownership is determined by real-name authentication. If it is your company's business, you must use your own company entity to Alibaba Cloud for enterprise real-name authentication to ensure asset security.
2. keep your eyes open to prevent the inferior channel of "infinite dolls"
There are some non-compliant "small workshop" agents in the market. They are only the third and fourth generations at the bottom. They open sub-accounts for customers through layers of dolls. Once the upper chain of this account is broken or the big agent runs away, your sub-account may be frozen without warning.
Anti-pit guide: Before purchasing, identify a flagship or senior partner with a certain scale authorized by Alibaba Cloud. Make sure that they have the permission to directly talk to the Alibaba Cloud headquarters. Only in this way can the security of your sub-account be guaranteed at the highest level.
3. Account number handover of resigned employees
Because the sub-account is usually distributed to different project leaders or operation and maintenance. Once a project manager leaves, it must be the first time.
Withdraw the highest administrative permissions of the sub-account (change the bound mobile phone number, email address, reset password)
To prevent former employees from using sub-accounts to maliciously open high-allocation resources, causing property losses to enterprises.
6. Summary
Ali's cloud ecology is very large,
Purchase with an Alibaba Cloud account
It's not just about paying.
Buying a machine is that simple.
Reasonable planning and opening of "sub-accounts" through Alibaba Cloud agents is the only way for enterprise IT management to become mature and compliant. It's a subtle balance of "centralized financial management"
with
The contradiction between "decentralized business operation. Not only did it help finance sort out the bills, help technology isolate the risks, but it also saved the boss a lot of real money.
If your company's Aliyun account is still a mess, you may as well contact your channel service provider today to reorganize the multi-project and multi-subsidiary structure with agent sub-accounts to experience a truly efficient and cost-saving advanced cloud-going posture!
