In partnership with

It's probably the #1 experience on the work & networking level for any FinOps Practitioner right now. Here I am to summarize what happened from the public perspective:

• FinOps is growing in non-cloud Sectors: SaaS, Datacenters, ITAM

• FOCUS to include SaaS, and Datacenters information in Future Releases

• An interesting Case Study we’ve come to know

• Keynotes on how Companies apply FinOps & GreenOps

• My Top Sessions from the event

• How Can You Control Your Cloud Costs

• Special Mention to the FinOps Community & some memes

Action Items: Read today’s newsletter. That’s it, easy homework.

Kudos to the Finops Foundation for the organization of this event.

Collaborate with FinOps Weekly

Keynotes
FinOps is Growing: Here’s Where and How

The FinOps XE Conference in Barcelona brought together experts in financial operations for cloud computing. Here are the key points from the opening day:

• FinOps is growing fast:

  • Over 30,000 professionals are now certified worldwide.

  • Almost all Fortune 50 are there (only 1 missing)

  • +150 Companies overall (We´ve got +250 on FinOps Weekly, so the potential is even higher)

• The field is expanding beyond just public cloud services. Many companies are applying FinOps to software-as-a-service (SaaS) and licensing costs too.

• Experts stressed the importance of including cost data early in decision-making. This helps improve the value and profitability of products.

• FinOps principles are being applied to manage the rising costs of AI solutions.

• The duality prevails: AI for FinOps vs FinOps for AI is going to be a hot topic in the coming years.

• Sustainability is becoming a bigger topic. FinOps teams are well-positioned to track and report on environmental metrics. Due to the current situation, may be even more important if you are in Europe.

• The conference introduced updates to FOCUS with the 1.1 version and a hint by Udam about the next versions. The shift to advance to core cost generators out of the cloud (SaaS, Licensing is clear)

Overall, the sector is FOCUSing on the non-cloud generators mostly, while still handling cloud cost harmonization and sustainability. And yeah, AI is going to be the thing for FinOps in the short term.

Here’s a great summary by Martijn that helped me make this summary

In partnership with Vantage
Ripple Cuts Cloud Costs by 40% with Kubernetes Rightsizing

Vantage helped Ripple save 40% on cloud spend with Kubernetes rightsizing. With Vantage, Ripple gains detailed insights into cloud usage and costs, enabling their engineering teams to make precise adjustments, cut waste, and optimize workloads efficiently.

Read the story to see why Ripple has remained a loyal Vantage customer, with benefits like:

• Kubernetes monitoring: Eliminate pod waste with reporting and efficiency metrics

• Real-time insights: Enable engineers to track their costs as they occur

• Accurate budgeting: Avoid surprises with multiple levels of alerts

• Smarter forecasting: Automatic, data-driven planning for future growth

Read the full customer story here

FOCUS
FOCUS to focus 😆 on SaaS, Datacenter metrics

FOCUS 1.1, the latest version of the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification, is now available as we mentioned in Update Your FOCUS. This update helps people who manage cloud costs do better analysis across different cloud providers.

What's new in FOCUS 1.1:

1. New ways to track and optimize capacity reservations

2. Better visibility into commitment discount usage

3. More detailed service categories for deeper cost analysis

4. Additional data about SKUs (stock-keeping units) for cloud services

These changes allow users to:

• Compare costs between different cloud environments more easily

• Make smarter decisions about using cloud resources

• Understand exactly what they're paying for

What Udam (FOCUS Lead) said in the keynote about the future of FOCUS:

If you work with cloud costs, now is a good time to start using FOCUS data. You can download FOCUS datasets from major cloud providers and take training courses to learn how to use them.

We have seen that a lot of organizations, both public and private are using FOCUS to streamline the communication between multiple cost generators. This standard is one of the core contributions from the Foundation to the FinOps community.

P.S. It’d be fun to count how many times I’ve mentioned FOCUS in this newsletter 😋 

Check the complete info

Sessions
Breakout Sessions to Watch from FinOps XE

I’m just going to do a list (unordered) of sessions you should watch once available on the FinOps Foundation YouTube Channel and watch them once uploaded:

• Stay Informed: Achieving Cost Efficiency with AWS Cloud Financial Management Solutions with Rick Ochs & Anne Johnston

• The Ultimate Business Value Indicator for Senior Leaders by Anderson Oliveira

• FinOps and FOCUS™ Best Practices at STMicroelectronics by Pierre-Emmanuel Nuiry

• Multi-Cloud Showback & Chargeback as a Driver for Action by Narciso Cerezo

• Automating Anomaly Investigation with AI by Benjamin van der Maas & Jan Peeters

• Moving from Cloud Cost Police to Cloud Cost Orchestrator by Krisztian Borbely

I’m going to put additional ones in the “Quick Wins” section so you can also have them in your future watchlists.

Check the Complete Agenda

Together with Vantage
Take Control of Your Cloud Costs

Vantage gives finance and engineering teams precise visibility into cloud costs, from high-level trends to resource-specific details. With unique features like AWS network traffic cost attribution, Kubernetes rightsizing, and virtual tagging, Vantage is the one-stop shop for all your FinOps needs.

Beyond basic reporting, Vantage enables teams to manage budgets, automate savings, and set custom alerts, making cost management seamless across 15+ native integrations—including AWS, Azure, GCP, Datadog, Snowflake, and more. Discover why top companies rely on Vantage to turn cloud cost management into a strategic advantage.

🎖️ Mention of Honour
FinOps Community

The FinOps Community is growing at an amazing pace, and it’s full of heartwarming, open people with multiple backgrounds who have insightful thoughts on the topic.

The discussions were extremely interesting during the lunch times, where you could have a calm exchange with some of your colleagues.

Moreover, the parties were awesome and had time to meet & know each on a more fun personal level.

Thanks to Dima for this picture, I love it. It translates the energy that Anderson provides to the stage, the faces of people talking and learning from each other, and the eagerness to learn more about FinOps.

🏆 Quick Wins

Announcements

• Vantage launches GitHub cost support - track Actions, Shared Storage, and Copilot seats all in one place.

• AWS Split cost allocation data for Amazon EKS now supports metrics from CloudWatch Container Insights

• Amazon DynamoDB reduces prices for on-demand throughput and global tables

• Flexible billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot, Pricing updates for annual subscriptions & Teams Phone

Articles & Podcasts

• Step-by-step guide on How to Become a Certified FinOps Analyst.

• FinOps XE Recap Event with FinOps Weekly & Practitioners

To Watch Sessions

• Growing FinOps Self-Sufficiency in Development Teams by Ekaterina Zemlyakova

• Implementing FOCUS for Cloud Cost Exchange between European Union Institutions by Neven Drljević & Julian Radu

• Integrating GenAI with Infrastructure as Code by Rich Young & Madoc Batters

• The Cloud Costs of Roasting Your Chicken by Kristina Kondrashevich & Gang Luo

Meme of the Edition