GCP
How to Be 30% More Efficient in GCP?
A team managed to reduce their Google Cloud Platform (GCP) costs by 30% through smart planning and careful changes. Here's how they did it:
First, they set up tools to see exactly where their money was going in the cloud. They used special dashboards to track spending across different parts of their system. They found several areas where they could save money:
They stopped moving data between different regions unnecessarily, which was costing them a lot of money.
They switched from Container Registry to Artifact Registry and kept everything in the same region.
They cleaned up old and unused container images that were taking up space.
They used special lower-cost computers called "spot instances" for work that didn't need to run all the time.
They improved their logging system by only keeping important logs and moving less important ones to cheaper storage.
The team met daily for 30-minute "Cloud Cost Coffee" sessions to share ideas and celebrate savings. Their manager focused on making sure everyone could see the costs and feel good about finding ways to save money.
Together with Ternary
Submit your Cloud Cost Confession
Busted budgets. Forgotten resources. Egress regrets. We’ve all been there.
Now’s your chance to submit an anonymous cost confession and be absolved for your overspending.
No contact info required. If you'd like to enter our raffle for a $500 Amazon gift card, you can optionally include your details. (Terms & conditions apply.)
🎤 Got a cloud cost horror story? We want to hear it.
Top confessions will be featured on the Ternary website and at the Ternary booth during FinOps X 2025.
AWS
AWS Carbon Emissions Data: Automate, Track, Visualize
AWS has made it easier for customers to track their carbon footprint in the cloud. They added a new feature that sends carbon emissions data straight to Amazon S3 storage. The system works like this:
Every month, AWS automatically sends detailed carbon data to your storage
You can see emissions for each AWS account and region
The data goes back 38 months
You can build custom reports and charts to track your progress
There are two ways to set this up:
Manual setup through the AWS console - good for learning step by step
Automated setup using code templates - better for managing multiple organizations
Once set up, you can:
Create visual dashboards to spot trends
See which services use the most carbon
Compare emissions across different regions
Get alerts when new data arrives
FINOPS EVENTS
FinOps Tagging Masterclass
It’s our 1st Anniversary! A huge thank you for being part of the FinOps Weekly family this past year.
To celebrate this milestone and show our appreciation, we’ve partnered with our friends at Flexera to give away three exclusive licenses for the highly-rated Mastering FinOps course!
What it is: A hands-on, live course designed to make you a top-tier FinOps practitioner.
What will you learn in this course? In this course, you’ll master the fundamentals of Naming Conventions and Tagging within a FinOps strategy to better manage and allocate cloud costs across AWS, GCP, Azure, and Kubernetes.
Ends May 15th, 2025 at 23:00 (CEST). Less than a week left!
FINOPS X
FinOps Foundation Launches 2025 FinOps Framework and Welcomes New Premier Members
The FinOps Foundation has released the 2025 version of its FinOps Framework, introducing a Cloud+ approach that expands financial operations beyond public cloud to include SaaS, private cloud, and data center spend.
A key update is the addition of Scopes, which help tailor FinOps practices to various types of technology spend.
Major companies including American Express, NVIDIA, AMD, ServiceNow, and Snowflake have joined as new Premier Members, signaling the growing adoption of FinOps practices in areas like AI, SaaS, and hardware optimization.
These organizations will join the global FinOps community at FinOps X, the Foundation’s annual conference, taking place June 2–5 in San Diego, where they will share best practices and real-world experiences in scaling FinOps within the enterprise.
AWS
Chat with Your AWS Bill
This article explains how to use Amazon Q to understand and manage your AWS bill better through a chat interface.
The system lets you ask simple questions about your AWS costs in plain language. For example, you can ask about your storage costs across regions or get tips on reducing your S3 spending. Setting it up takes just two main steps:
Install and set up the Amazon Q CLI tool. Add some configuration settings to connect to the right servers
The tool is helpful for:
Finding ways to save money
Breaking down complex AWS bills
Understanding spending patterns across different services
Getting cost recommendations based on AWS best practices
📺️ PODCAST
AI for FinOps vs FinOps for AI with Ido Kotler
We talk with Ido Kotler (CPO of Pelanor) about how artificial intelligence is radically transforming financial operations in the Cloud. From smart alerts to autonomous agents, discover why the future of FinOps depends on AI more than you might think.
🎖️ MENTION OF HONOUR
Azure FinOps Step by Step Implementation with FinOps Toolkit
The FinOps toolkit helps organizations manage their cloud costs with standard Power BI reports. But many companies need more than just basic reports. This article explains how to create custom cost analyses using tools like Azure Data Explorer (ADX) and Microsoft Fabric.
It shows how to use a special language called KQL (Kusto Query Language) to analyze data. While it's similar to SQL, KQL is better for handling large amounts of information.
Companies can view their data through different tools:
Microsoft Excel for basic analysis
Power BI for detailed dashboards
Azure Data Explorer for quick visualizations
Azure Workbooks for technical teams
Microsoft Fabric for combining different types of reports
The system lets teams automate their work by:
Setting up automatic alerts for unusual costs
Running cost checks during software updates
Creating automatic reports
Combining cost data with other business information
This helps organizations make smarter decisions about their cloud spending and keep track of costs more effectively.
FINOPS
FinOps Weekly Extra
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NEWS
Announcements
Providers
Amazon ECS added support for Amazon EBS Provisioned Rate for Volume Initialization
Vendors
A new tool called StitcherAI, built by Udam Dewaraja aims to fix how companies handle their cloud spending and management.
🏆 Quick Wins Resources
Evergreen FinOps Resources to apply Today!
FinOps Weekly Youtube Channel
34 FinOps KPIs for SaaS
Beginners Guide To Tagging in FinOps
Million Dollar Lines of Code Checklist
Professional Spotlight
Sherylin Kamga
FinOps for CFOs
Having the pleasure to meet her in Madrid, we had a wonderful discussion about how to move from Finance to FinOps and how to help this role. Always learning, member of Mastering FinOps first cohort, someone to contact if you need FinOps for Finance.
That’s all for this week. See you next Sunday!
Before You Go, Here’s How We Can Collaborate
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