Overview
What Is Cloud Cost Optimization and FinOps?
A way to see, control and continually improve cloud spending, shared between technology, finance and business teams.
The Need
- Cloud bills that grow faster than the value they deliver
- Little visibility of who spends what, and why
- Idle or oversized resources that nobody owns
The Approach
- Make cloud costs visible and attributable to teams
- Remove waste and right-size resources to real demand
- Build FinOps practices so cost decisions become routine
Assumptions and Dependencies
- Access to billing and usage data
- Consistent tagging or account structure, or a plan to create it
- Owners in each team who can act on the findings
Challenges
Challenges This Solution Helps Address
The cost problems that most often lead organizations to look at FinOps.
Solution Fit
Is This Solution Right for Your Organization?
Signs that FinOps is likely to help, and what to check before you start.
Business Owners
- IT and cloud platform leaders
- Finance and procurement teams
- Product or business unit owners responsible for budgets
Typical Triggers
- A cloud bill well above plan
- Budgeting or renewal season
- A migration that has moved more workloads to the cloud
Environment
- Public cloud, in one or more providers
- Hybrid environments where cloud is a growing share of spend
Fit and Dependencies
- Works best when teams can change their own resources
- Results depend on access to billing data and on acting on recommendations
What It Includes
What the Solution Includes
The main elements and the role each plays. The exact scope is agreed for each engagement.
How It Works
How It Works
A repeatable cycle, so savings last rather than fading after a one-off clean-up.
Assess
Review billing and usage data, tagging, account structure and current cost practices.
Design
Agree the allocation model, reporting, budgets and the owners of each cost area.
Deploy and Integrate
Set up cost reporting and alerts, and apply agreed right-sizing and clean-up changes.
Validate
Check that changes hold performance, and compare spend with the agreed baseline.
Operate and Improve
Review costs regularly and act on new findings, where ongoing support is agreed.
Use Cases
Use Cases This Solution Supports
The scenarios this solution addresses. Start with the one closest to your situation.
Services
Services to Help You Implement and Operate It
The Signisys service that delivers this solution.
Technology
Platforms and Technologies
The technology areas involved. Specific platforms and partner status are confirmed per engagement.
Implementation
Planning a Successful Implementation
Points to review early, so the work is scoped accurately.
- Access to billing, usage and account data
- Tagging and account structure, and how costs should be allocated
- Performance and availability requirements before resources are resized
- Existing commitments, contracts and licensing terms
- Who owns each cost area, and how decisions will be made
- Engagement model and ongoing support
Measuring Success
How to Measure Success
Example measures, not results achieved by Signisys. Agree a baseline, and keep targets separate from measured results.
Spend Variance
The difference between planned and actual cloud spending.
Idle Resources
The share of resources running with little or no use.
Utilization
How much of the provisioned capacity is actually used.
Cost per Workload
The cost of running each application or service.
Our Approach
How We Deliver This Solution
How Signisys works, from the first assessment to handover and beyond.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about cloud cost optimization and FinOps.
What business problem does this solution address?
Cloud spending that is hard to see, predict and control, usually because costs have no clear owner and resources are not matched to real demand.
How does the solution work?
It makes costs visible and attributable, removes waste, right-sizes resources and builds regular cost reviews between technology, finance and business teams.
Which environments can it support?
Public cloud, in one or more providers, and hybrid environments where cloud is part of the spend.
What prerequisites should we assess?
Access to billing and usage data, your tagging and account structure, performance requirements and any existing commitments or contracts.
Which services are available to implement it?
Cloud Services and Platform Engineering, which covers assessment, implementation and ongoing optimization where agreed.
How do we know it is working?
Agree a baseline for measures such as spend variance, idle resources, utilization and cost per workload, and track them over time.
Is FinOps Right for You?
Share your objectives and current environment with Signisys to discuss the approach, requirements and next steps.