Resource allocation

How CSC service use is measured and monitored

Resource allocation

Billing units

Many CSC services use billing units (BU) to measure and monitor service usage. A billing unit is a unit that we use to distribute our service resources to all users, irrespective of whether they have purchased our services, or use them on a free-of-charge basis. Those using our services on a free-of-charge basis will not be charged for BUs used.

Using most CSC services requires a CSC project created in the My CSC portal. Billing units are then allocated to and tracked per project. You can estimate the BU consumption of the services you plan on using with the billing unit calculator at the bottom of this page. Actual billing unit usage can be reviewed in My CSC. Please note that different services consume billing units at different rates. For more information, please see our user guide Docs CSC:

CSC projects that fall under free-of-charge use can apply for billing units. Such requests are handled by a dedicated resource allocation group at CSC. Commercial CSC projects need to purchase billing unit packages from us.

Quotas

Some CSC services have set quotas, which limit service usage per project. Quotas can apply, for example, to the amount of data that can be stored in a certain disk area. Some quotas can be modified while others cannot be changed. Read more about service-specific quotas.

Applying for more BUs and increasing quotas

Please note that the process described below applies only for free-of-charge use cases. Commercial users requiring more resources should contact CSC Service Desk directly.

When you use our services free-of-charge, you may find that the amount of resources provided by default do not cover your needs. In this case you can apply for more as follows.

Billing units

You can apply for more billing units in the My CSC portal. Detailed instructions are available in Docs CSC.

  • Small BU requests are processed immediately.
  • Processing medium requests can take a few days.
  • Large resource requests are processed by a dedicated resource allocation group at CSC, which makes decisions on set dates every three weeks. Make sure to keep track of application deadlines and fill the application thoroughly.

Large resource application deadlines

  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Monday, January 27th, 2025, 10 am
  • Monday, February 17th, 2025, 10 am
  • Monday, March 10th, 2025, 10 am
  • Monday, March 31st, 2025, 10 am
  • Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025, 10 am
  • ​Monday, May 12th, 2025, 10 am
How to apply

Quotas

You can request quota changes for many services via My CSC as well, but some requests need to be sent to CSC Service Desk. More detailed information about applying for resources (BUs and quota), as well as the deadlines for large resource requests can be found on the Applying for resources page.

When your resource needs are extremely large

If your resource needs are larger than what CSC normally grants, there are other options provided by different organizations. Please see the Extremely large resources page for more information.

Billing unit calculator

Use the calculator below to estimate the amount of billing units the services you plan on using will consume.