FinOps is a relatively new concept in a cloud computing industry that is actively developing and implementing nowadays to help companies adopt an IT environment in a smart, efficient and transparent way. FinOps is related with a cloud cost optimization approach, but let’s find the difference.
Cloud cost management solutions are built for a few IT guys who run the analysis, get a 50-page report on what they need to optimize or improve and then, theoretically, they need to implement these reports and reduce a cloud bill. But in reality, the IT people can cover only 20–30% of the report themselves and to proceed with the rest they have to collaborate with resource owners explaining to them what needs to be done and why they should do that. And those resource owners are engineers running their jobs, tests, R&D workloads.
FinOps is aimed to involve engineering team to a cost-saving process
FinOps, at the same time, involves the whole FinOps team in the cost-saving process and this team consists of executive engineering leaders, a financial team and engineers who are the main cost generators as they run automation, launch VMs and forget to clean up. Proper FinOps software should generate targeted recommendations to IT guys to cover ‘low-hanging fruit’ cloud cost optimizations and engineers to track and notify about their resources.
Cloud cost management:
- Focused on an IT guy who needs to chase
R&D teams to tag and rightsize resources,
remove unused - Gives a report to help in a short-term, in a
few months issues return - R&D team is disconnected from the
cost-saving process and has no
responsibility
FinOps:
- Focused on the whole FinOps team
including engineers who generate the
majority of costs - Builds a cost-saving long-term process by
engaging and educating the team - IT guys are responsible for building best
practices, engineers – for their own resources and TTLs, OptScale – for educating teams and delivering best practices
Cloud cost management solves immediate problems while FinOps, in addition, builds a process. It doesn’t matter what number you see as a possible saving in your cloud cost management solution if you cannot implement all the recommendations, and it is impossible without a proper process and engaging engineers.
Find out why focus on FinOps matters in your company’s cloud landscape today and start FinOps adoption.
