How GenAI is Impacting FinOps Today

GenAI is impacting all sectors, and on FinOps it’s double side: Cost & Use.

Here’s what happened this week:

• Azure Cost Management Copilot prompting guidelines for FinOps

• How to Apply FinOps to GenAI

• How Inflation is Affecting Your Cloud Bill

• Resources for your next Presentation on FinOps

• What Japan’s Clean Street can teach us about Cloud Waste

• New Job Offers

It’s been a heavy week, so a lot of value is coming. Brace yourself:

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GenAI
How to apply FinOps to GenAI

A great article by Stephen Old about how to apply FinOps to GenAI:

Cost Implications

• High computational needs: Training can cost millions.

• Ongoing usage costs: Maintenance and API calls add up.

• Storage and power costs: Large datasets require significant storage and energy.

Carbon Implications

• Training consumes a lot of energy: Significant carbon emissions during training.

• Ongoing use: Regular interactions also emit carbon, depending on data center efficiency.

Tips for Effective GenAI Use

1. Clear objectives: Know what questions to answer.

2. Selective data use: Don’t use all data; be specific.

3. Review and iterate: Continually improve models and forecasts.

4. Educate users: Ensure users ask the right questions.

5. Plan capacity: Use resources efficiently, like supercomputers.

Organizations must understand both the financial and environmental costs of GenAI to maximize its benefits responsibly.

Azure & GenAI
Prompts for FinOps Practitioners in Azure using Copilot

An amazing set of prompts for FinOps practitioners, ready to use in your Azure Cost Management section.

Arturo provides a set of prompt ideas that you can already use to leverage AI capabilities in the Azure FinOps section. As with every use of GenAI, bear in mind the cost underneath it. GenAI suggestions are not for free both on your financial costs and your impact in resources. Use them consciously.

Here are the areas where you can get prompts in the article:

1. Identifying Anomalies: Detect unusual spikes or cost increases.

2. Optimizing Commitment Usage: Analyze reserved instances and savings plans. Ensure you get the most from commitments.

3. Cost Savings Recommendations

4. Bill Reconciliations: Detailed analysis of billing information. Helps identify unexpected charges.

Forecasting
GCP Cloud Cost Forecasting using ML & AI

Here's a handy guide on how Pathik Sharma approaches cloud cost forecasting at Google Cloud:

• Define Expected Spend: It's "ML Generated Forecast" + "Forecast Adjustment. Adjust based on future business needs.

• Use "Forecast Adjustment" tools: Simplified templates and Google Sheets integration. Connects with BigQuery and Looker for real-time updates. After that, train Machine Learning models: Use past cost and billing data. Tweak 15+ parameters to fit each workload.

• Calculate variance: Compare against the budget: Check "Actual + Expected spend" vs. Budget. Discuss positive variances with teams for insights. It helps teams adjust spending early.

• Utilize AI: Have natural language conversations with data. Called "Dr. Bullseye Forecaster."

Business
Resources for Impressive FinOps Presentations

Start at the FinOps Foundation Asset Library. It provides essential whitepapers and documentation. Offers predefined slide decks like the "Adopting FinOps Pitch Deck". Great starting point for structuring your presentations.

Visuals make your message clearer and more engaging. Freepik offers a variety of good visuals. Storyset lets you customize illustrations to match your brand.

Maintain a consistent style and color for professionalism. Storyset is excellent for business-themed illustrations. TemplatesGo helps find templates and structures for better storytelling. Focus on solving specific problems. Tailor content to what your audience needs. Repeat key points at the beginning and end to reinforce them.

These tips and resources will help make your FinOps presentations clear, professional, and memorable. Check the article for a complete vision:

Finance
How Inflation Can Affect Your Cloud Bill

Insightful post by Alfonso San Miguel Sánchez on the impact of inflation on cloud resources. Inflation is a core macroeconomic concept that can affect our bill.

• Price Increases: Cloud providers rarely announce price hikes. These increases can go unnoticed.

• Geopolitical Effects: Prices depend on geopolitics like fuel and energy costs. This affects overall cloud pricing.

• Historical Pricing Data: Keeping a history of cloud prices can aid FinOps decisions. APIs like Azure and AWS can help gather this information.

• Industry Discussions: Debates with colleagues highlight the need for visibility on pricing. Visibility helps in making informed financial decisions.

Mention of Honour Special
Deserved for recent discoveries that are inspiring for the FinOps community.

🎖️ Mention of Honour
Lessons from Japan's Streets to Rethink Cloud Waste

Japan's streets are super clean. Surprisingly, there are few trash bins around. Reducing waste in cloud services can be learned from that:

• People carry their trash until they find a bin. This mindset leads to less waste.

• Buying only what you need reduces waste. Japanese convenience stores help by offering small, on-demand items.

• Cleanliness is part of everyday life, not just a rule. People naturally avoid waste, setting an example for cloud efficiency.

• Thinking waste is necessary during development is a mistake. Focus on outcomes and personal responsibility for better practices.

Taking inspiration from Japan, let's rethink cloud efficiency.

Professional Spotlight
Donal Bourke

FinOps For Finance People

One of the emerging creators in FinOps. Donal is running his YouTube channel FinOps Finance creating pills of value, interviewing great FinOps community members, and sharing valuable tips.

Especially valuable for Finance people & beginners trying to get into FinOps

Bonus
🏆️ Quick Wins

For those seeking more content, this section will provide additional resources.

• Event: FinOps Excellence Summit 2024 on July 31st.

• Announcement: AWS adds new to Cost Categories.

• Announcement: Microsoft FinOps Toolkit v0.4 Release

• Report: PerfectScale Status of Kubernetes Efficiency. Already available in our Vault, you can get it by adding referral subscribers to FinOps Weekly.

• Seed Funding: Archera secures $17M Series B funding!

Articles

• How Do FinOps Teams Continue to Add Value in an Optimized Environment by Accenture on FinOps Foundation

• Recent Omnia Research highlights: There’s $1.6bn today on vendor Solutions for FinOps

• Use Looker to optimize Google Kubernetes costs.

• An Introduction to Cloud Value Measurement (2/3)

• Kubecost tops 10 million installs!

• Agent Vs Agent-less Monitoring: A Balanced Perspective: Pizza with Pepperoni or Pinneaple?

Jobs
👩‍🏭 FinOps Job offers

Both Permanent links (i.e. FinOps Job site) and Offers I’ll find across the internet.

Feedback
🗳️ Poll of the Week

That’s all for this week. See you next Sunday!

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