In partnership with

FinOps Engineering
FinOps as Code (Fac): The way for engineers to take action

Companies spend a lot of money on cloud services. Many have teams that try to control these costs. But they often struggle to save money. FinOps as code (FaC) can help. It puts cost-saving rules directly into the software that engineers use.

FaC has several benefits:

1. It finds ways to save money automatically.

2. It shows engineers how much their work costs right away.

3. It reduces the need for big clean-up projects.

4. It helps plan cloud resource use better.

5. It finds forgotten parts of the system that are still costing money.

To use FaC, companies need:

1. Special tools to enforce rules

2. A system to organize different types of rules

3. The actual rules written as code

4. A plan to help everyone understand and use the new system

By using FaC, companies could save up to $120 billion on cloud costs. It makes managing cloud expenses more of a science and less of a guessing game.

FaC helps companies use cloud services more wisely and save money without making more work for their engineers.

Read the complete report by McKinsey

In partnership with SmartClouds
How to Lead FinOps with Content

The FinOps Tool Market is saturated, let’s face that.

Companies are getting difficult to distinguish.

Is it happening to yours?

If you want to differentiate your brand, you need to do content in a different way.

SEO articles in your page are OK, but decision makers won’t read them.

Webinar solving FinOps problems are more interesting.

And we can help you make a great one.

AI
FinOps for AI: Explained

The new guide by FinOps Foundation explains how GenAI introduces new challenges for FinOps teams, including managing specialized services, GPU instance optimization, and data ingestion requirements.

Many aspects of managing AI services are similar to other cloud services:

• The basic cost equation still applies.

• Cloud-based AI costs appear in regular billing data.

• Tagging and labeling can be used for allocation.

Many AI components are eligible for commitment discounts. However, AI services have unique characteristics:

• Pricing can be inconsistent and change rapidly.

• New SKUs are created regularly, often without native tagging.

• Service names and types may be unfamiliar to FinOps teams.

• Tokens are used as a unit of measurement, which can be complex.

• There's often a scarcity of AI infrastructure resources.

Multiple pricing models are used for AI services, including on-demand, reserved instances, provisioned capacity, and subscription-based models.

Measuring AI's business impact is crucial but challenging. They present a framework focusing on six strategic priorities: cost efficiency, resilience, user experience, productivity, sustainability, and business growth.

Select the most suitable AI model for each specific context to avoid unnecessary costs.

GreenOps
Why GreenOps Will Succeed Where FinOps Will Fail

Cloud and AI are driving huge growth in IT spending, but also creating challenges with cost control and sustainability.

The article argues that GreenOps, which combines financial, environmental and operational goals, is a more effective approach. Key reasons GreenOps can succeed where FinOps fails:

• Takes a more holistic view beyond just costs

• Involves stakeholders from across the organization

• Uses standardized sustainability metrics

• Focuses on long-term value creation

• Drives cultural change around accountability

However, GreenOps alone is not enough. The article advocates combining it with enterprise architecture and transformational leadership principles to drive true organizational transformation around sustainability.

While challenges exist in adopting these practices, the potential benefits are significant - both financially and environmentally.

FinOps
What Makes a Good ESR? Balancing Cost Savings and Elasticity in Cloud

Effective Savings Rate (ESR) compares on-demand cloud costs to contracted cloud costs, showing how well commitment discounts like Reserved Instances and Savings Plans are working.

But a high ESR isn't always the goal. Cloud elasticity is important too. This means resources can scale up or down based on need. A good cloud strategy balances ESR and elasticity. It's not just about maximizing savings, but using the cloud in a flexible way.

For example, a low elasticity environment might have a high ESR but waste resources. A high elasticity environment might have a lower ESR but save more money overall by only using resources when needed. The key is to use cloud resources based on actual demand, not just to lock in capacity. This approach makes the most of cloud flexibility compared to traditional data centers.

Kudos to Nilofar to making this amazing piece!

AWS
New AWS SaaS Marketplace Rules Will Impact Your Commitments

AWS has made changes to their Marketplace rules. Starting May 1, 2025, only software products fully hosted on AWS will count towards customer spending commitments.

This is a big shift from before. Previously, products only needed a part of their system on AWS to qualify. Here's what this means:

For customers:

• They now need to check if their software vendors run completely on AWS.

• It's harder to track which purchases count towards their spending goals.

For software companies:

• They face moffects companies using multiple cloud providers.

AWS says this is normal in the industry. However, it seems to mostly help AWS, not customers or partners. This change raises questions about AWS's focus on customers. It might push software companies to use only AWS, which could limit choices for customers in the long run.

🎖️ Mention of Honour
🇪🇸 Webinar: FinOps in DevOps Lifecycle

Because DevOps is also a (very important) part of efficiency.

Discover the secrets to a smooth integration of FinOps into your DevOps pipeline. Join industry experts at this online event and discover how to maximize efficiency and savings in the cloud without slowing down development.

• Thursday, 27 February 2025

• 18:30h - 19:30h

• Language: Spanish

• Online via Zoom

Join the Free Event

Meet the Experts

• Fernando Benito: CEO & Co-Founder ACKstorm.

• Roger Moreno: Cloud Administrator at ACKstorm & FinOps Certified Practitioner.

• Viktor Farcic: Developer Advocate at Upbound. Author of “DevOps Toolkit Series”.

• Victor Garcia: Founder of FinOps Weekly

🏆 Quick Wins

Announcements

Amazon GuardDuty Malware Protection for S3 announces price reduction → Read

Cost Optimization Hub supports more EC2 Auto Scaling group recommendations - AWS → Read

Announcing custom payment schedules for AWS Marketplace Channel Partner private offers → Read

DoiT Acquires PerfectScale → Read

Articles & Podcasts

Re: naming things → Read

Cloud FinOps Market Size, Share and Global Market Forecast to 2029 → Read

🎙️ PODCAST
How to Optimize AWS Costs with Rick Ochs (AWS Compute Optimizer)

The Insider trying to save your money in AWS, interviewed by the team of FinOps Weekly about how to optimize AWS Service costs.

Professional Spotlight
Tom Cross

FinOps Optimization Pilot

It was great to talk with Tom in FinOps XE Barcelona! He’s been a reference in FinOps, and does an incredible work in Aer Lingus and the community.

Check the Professional of this Week

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