FinOps for a better control of costs in the cloud: keys and benefits

Can a company optimise its cloud costs without gaining visibility and understanding of all the variables that influence pricing? The key to improving cloud financial management is FinOps, a methodology that should be familiar to all companies already in the cloud and those planning to move to it.

Can a cloud project be considered a success if costs have soared? Obviously not, which makes cost management in the cloud an essential issue both for companies that already have their systems in this model and for those that are planning to embark on this journey.

When it comes to controlling costs, which is one of the advantages of cloud computing, it is essential to have visibility and understanding of all the variables that influence them. This, from our perspective, is achieved with FinOps, a methodology we have already introduced in our blog, which consists of applying best practices, standardised processes and training to cost management.

It is a joint effort between IT and business teams that enables cloud architectures to be evaluated, services to be monitored and analysed by cost, infrastructure to be correctly sized and consumption alerts to be created to avoid unnecessary costs. The model therefore facilitates a more transparent vision that results in a more agile decision-making process and optimised management of cloud services, depending on the needs of organisations at any given time.

By achieving cost transparency, the company ends up knowing the cost of developing and delivering the code and services, the cost of protection, execution, updating and operation and, with these details, can optimise the use of the infrastructure.

Steps to better cost control on AWS 

FinOps allows you to control costs in the cloud by following these steps:

  1. Optimise. Regular assessments of provisioned resources should be performed on a regular basis. This can help reduce cloud costs by preventing the accumulation of idle services.
  2. Control. AWS has various tools dedicated to controlling cloud spending, such as Amazon CloudWatch or Amazon Cost Explorer. Both allow you to measure and also identify excessive spending that may occur if you make excessive use of resources. As well as identifying those with a higher volume or performance than necessary.
  3. Adapt. With the AWS pay-as-you-go model, a company can provision only what it needs. This applies to instances as well as storage and applications. It is a matter of identifying, from the previous step, the instances or volumes that can be reduced in size without affecting the performance of business processes.
  4. Adequacy. It is essential to make storage available to avoid oversizing the infrastructure. For example, moving data that has not been used in a month to a less frequent storage environment can result in considerable savings.
  5. Refactor. Remove infrastructure components and programmes that limit performance, so that you can have an efficient cloud architecture.
  6. Automate. A big advantage of AWS is automation. This is especially relevant for companies that are in the process of migrating their workloads to the cloud. With tools dedicated to this work, cost savings in time and also human involvement can be made. As AWS and SAP experts, we have developed AWS Connector for SAP, a solution that allows you to execute migrations in half the time, with the necessary security in a reliable environment.

In short, FinOps is a sure way to save costs in the cloud and many IT leaders and CIOs are already starting to implement it in their day-to-day operations. As experts in this methodology, we can help you find the best route to successfully migrate to the cloud.

If you are interested in optimising your company’s cloud cost control, our experts can advise you free of charge. Contact us.