Effective Scan Efficiency
Definition
This KPI measures architectural precision by comparing the data/partitions scanned for a query against the total volume in the table for data cloud platforms. It identifies where partitioning or clustering strategies have failed. A lower percentage indicates mature architectural design and effective data pruning, while a higher percentage signals inefficient queries that are scanning more data than necessary, driving up compute costs.
Formula, as published
Effective Scan Efficiency = (Units of Data Scanned / Total Units of Data in Table) x 100
- Data sources:
- Table and schema metadata Platform-native performance monitors Workload telemetry
Calculate it
Example values to start with; replace them with yours.
From the FinOps Foundation
More Usage Optimization KPIs
Definition and formula: Effective Scan Efficiency, FinOps KPI library, FinOps Foundation, licensed CC BY 4.0, read 16 Oct 2026. Changed: HTML removed, dashes and British spellings changed, formula split from its data sources and examples. The calculator and the notes are Finitizer’s.
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