In partnership with

Kubernetes
Startup Drastic Decision to Reduce Kubernetes Expenses by $3.9M

In a case study of cloud repatriation, Yellowbrick Data has demonstrated how moving from public cloud to private infrastructure can yield substantial cost savings.

The company successfully reduced its annual cloud expenses from $6 million to approximately $2.1 million by transitioning their development and testing environments from AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to their own Kubernetes-based infrastructure. Key Highlights:

• Created "EC3" private cloud using repurposed customer-returned hardware

• Deployed 200+ servers providing 8,000 vCPUs and 2 petabytes of storage

• Monthly operating costs dropped to $50K (vs. estimated $375K in AWS)

• Implementation required just two engineers over six months

The private cloud implementation leverages:

• MinIO for object storage

• LINSTOR for persistent block storage

• InfiniBand networking

• RedHat OpenShift integration

Read the complete case study

P.S Please reply to this email with your thoughts about this repatriation trend.

In partnership with CloudZero
5 FinOps Slides Every Board Will Love

Struggling to demonstrate cloud ROI? We've got you covered.

Our new board slides template is designed to help you:

• Highlight your team's impact with actionable insights

• Simplify complex data for easy board discussions

• Showcase essential cloud cost metrics

Make your next board meeting smooth, impactful, and stress-free.

AWS
re:Invent Cost Optimization Highlights We Missed

1. Amazon Bedrock's Smart Cost Controls

• New Intelligent Prompt Routing can reduce costs by up to 30% by automatically directing queries to the most cost-effective AI models based on complexity

• Prompt caching feature promises up to 90% cost reduction and 85% lower latency by eliminating redundant processing

2. FSx for OpenZFS Intelligent-Tiering

• Introduces S3-like pricing model for file storage with automatic data movement across three tiers

• Offers up to 85% lower costs compared to SSD storage & features instant data access regardless of tier location. Zero upfront costs or commitments required

3. SageMaker Scale-to-Zero

• Enables complete elimination of compute costs during idle periods

• Automatically scales based on actual usage patterns. Particularly valuable for organizations with variable ML inference needs

4. EC2 Auto Scaling Enhancements

• New Target Tracking policies offer faster response to demand changes

• Self-tunes based on application-specific patterns. Reduces over-provisioning while maintaining performance. Particularly effective for applications with volatile demand patterns

GCP
Deutsche Börse Group reference Architecture in GCP

By successfully building a system that can handle the demanding 24/7 nature of digital assets, Deutsche Börse has essentially created a blueprint for the future of all trading systems.

Key Innovations

• Cloud-native architecture enabling 24/7 operations

• Internet-based API access (a departure from traditional leased-line connectivity)

• Built-in flexibility for rapid market deployment

• Enhanced security through Cloud Armor for DDoS protection

Kudos to Stephen Old for sharing. Read the Complete Case Study

Finance
The Annual Operating Plan for FP&A Professionals

Ruchi Kasliwal presents a compelling vision for how Generative AI is revolutionizing the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) process. She offers perspective on changing what has traditionally been a complex, time-consuming exercise into a more dynamic and efficient strategic tool. Highlights:

• GenAI can streamline the often fragmented data collection process, automatically aggregating information from various systems while generating valuable insights from historical data.

• A particularly interesting aspect is how AI can analyze both historical performance and external market data to provide more precise projections and enable sophisticated scenario planning.

• AI can bridge the common gap between stakeholder inputs and business objectives, offering innovative solutions for presenting complex financial data through intuitive dashboards.

A must-read for finance professionals and business leaders interested in leveraging AI to create more agile and strategic planning processes.

👷‍♂️ FinOps Job Offer

Build the next FinOps product with The Duckbill Group

The Duckbill Group is throwing our hat into the ring by building a new FinOps product and we're looking for another engineer for the team. The role is on-site in San Francisco (we'll help with relocation!).

Come help us build something amazing.

Organizations
How to Size and Structure FinOps Teams for Different Maturity Stages

Shannon Kuehn provides a comprehensive guide to scaling FinOps teams across different maturity stages.

The article breaks down the journey into three distinct phases - Crawl, Walk, and Run - offering practical insights for organizations at any point in their cloud financial management evolution.

Crawl Stage (1-3 team members):

• Focus on fundamentals with basic visibility and accountability

• Essential roles include FinOps Practitioner and Cloud Financial Analyst

• Emphasis on establishing tagging strategies and basic reporting

Walk Stage (3-6 team members):

• Introduces specialized roles like FinOps Lead and Cloud Operations Engineer

• Implements chargeback/showback models

• Develops forecasting capabilities and optimization strategies

Run Stage (6+ team members):

• Features advanced roles including FinOps Director and Data Scientists

• Emphasizes automation and cultural integration

• Focuses on scaling and innovation in cost management

Read more

🎖️ Mention of Honour
+240 FinOps in our Webinar: THANKS!

The community made HISTORY

• 244 Registrants

• 103 Exclusive Viewers

• 74 Simultaneous Viewers

This showcases the power of independent creator communities.

It was an amazing experience for me as a creator.

So many gems dropped by our speakers.

Interactive sessions with 12 questions.

And we are just getting started.

Thanks to Erik Norman Aviv Revach Damian Munafo for making it possible.

P.S. You'll receive the recording and the slides in the follow up email for registrants tomorrow.

🏆 Quick Wins

Announcements

AWS Marketplace introduces 8 decimal place precision for usage pricing - AWS → Read

Finout Announces $40M Series C → Read

Articles & Podcasts

Do you really need FinOps Tools? → Read

FinOps and GreenOps: Unlocking Efficiency in Banking and Financial Institutions → Read

🎙️ PODCAST
New FinOps Podcast In Town

FinOps Weekly is providing you more content formats. Learn the top insights from professionals of the industry about how to (REALLY) do FinOps 

Professional Spotlight
Steph Gooch

AWS Community & Content Leader

One of my inspirations to create content in the FinOps ecosystem. All brands should learn how Steph does content for a provider, really. She and her team make really a difference for AWS perception within FinOps.

Check the Professional of this Week

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