After watching part one and part two of our FinOps Automation Series, hopefully you’re chomping at the bit to adopt your first automation solution. In part three below, our experts — Erik Peterson (CTO and Founder of CloudZero), Alan Hand (Founder and CEO of Xosphere), Steven O’Dwyer (Senior FinOps Specialist at ProsperOps), and Mike Fuller (CTO of the FinOps Foundation) — are going to walk you through what you need to know before you take any concrete steps.

The first installment of our FinOps Automation Tips and Best Practices series focused on what FinOps is and why automating it can be a game-changer for your business. Now we’re back for part two, which will guide you on how to choose your optimal outcome and select the best automation options to suit your needs. Enjoy the full video for an in-depth explanation, or see the brief summary below if you’re just here for the highlights.

We get it. FinOps can be challenging to understand, implement, and optimize, whether you’ve done it before or are just getting started. Everybody needs help from time to time. If this describes you right now, then check out the following FinOps services companies to get started. But first, a quick background.

If you’ve spent any time poking around our blog, you’ve noticed one thing: At CloudZero, we are passionate about FinOps. More than that, we’re passionate about bringing the most useful and up-to-date information on FinOps to our customers to help them better navigate their journeys toward cloud cost optimization.

The FinOps Foundation sets out six FinOps principles cloud-based companies should follow to achieve and maintain optimal control over their cloud spending and cost efficiency. On the surface, they seem straightforward enough. The first principle, for example, is that teams should always collaborate in real-time to “continuously improve for efficiency and innovation” when it comes to staying on top of software development cloud costs.

FinOps is a cultural practice that brings financial accountability to the world of cloud computing. It’s a strategic approach that aids organizations in understanding their cloud costs and making informed business decisions. FinOps is a new way of managing costs in an IT environment that is increasingly shifting towards the variable cost model of cloud services. It combines the best of the technical and financial worlds, resulting in an effective model for managing cloud costs.

Navigating the complexities of cloud financial management requires more than just tracking costs – it demands a strategic approach to measure and optimize cloud spend. We have put together our top 7 KPIs, ranging from allocatable cloud spend and average hourly costs to sophisticated forecasting, to effectively gauge your FinOps solution success. Each KPI offers unique insights, helping businesses manage and maximize their cloud investments.

AWS remains the largest cloud service provider (CSP) of the 21st century. It also provides over 240 cloud-based products and services. In some cases, these services help customers like you collect, analyze, and act on data about cloud usage and related costs. In this post, we explore how AWS services support FinOps’ best practices, including the features they offer. If you are looking for even more robust AWS FinOps tools, we will also include third-party platforms.

In November 2023, Broadcom closed its acquisition of VMware in one of the largest technology acquisitions in recent times. In doing so, it ushered in a new era for the entire Tanzu portfolio of products and services, many aspects of which came to fruition through other acquisitions.