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I’m so happy that today we have two Case Studies opening the newsletter! Companies are finally sharing how they are doing FinOps. Yeah, again some Kubernetes, the enemy of cloud cost efficiency.

What happened this week:

• Orca Security saving a ton by Optimizing our Enemy Tool

• Blackhawk Network Case Study on Reducing Cloud Costs

• Microsoft Giving some FinOps updates at Ignite

• Mention of Honour: Achieving All Finops Certs

• Professional Spotlight with the FinOps Machine of AWS

• Quick Wins with tons of updates from the community and providers

Action Items: Read today’s newsletter, and join our Telegram Community

Collaborate with FinOps Weekly

Kubernetes Optimization
How Orca Security Saved Tons of Money by … Optimizing Kubernetes Workloads

Kubernetes requiring cost optimization … what a surprise …

Orca Security found a way to save big on their cloud costs. They were using Kubernetes but noticed half of their resources were not being used well. Or not used at all.

To fix this, here’s what they did:

1. They used a tool to make sure their programs only asked for the computer power they really needed.

2. They used Karpenter to pick the right size computers for their needs.

3. They switched to a different type of computer chip that was cheaper but still worked well.

4. They made a new system to group their programs by size, like small, medium, and large. This helped give each program just the right amount of resources.

These changes took four months to complete. In the end, they were able to use 75% of their resources instead of just 50%. This saved Orca Security a lot of money on their cloud bills. And in the meantime, cutting Kubernetes costs by more than half.

The project was successful because different teams in the company worked together to solve the problem. This highlights the collaboration required to make any FinOps project succeed.

Read the Complete Information here

In partnership with PointFive
How Blackhawk Network Solved Its Cloud Cost Problems

When Blackhawk Network (BHN) struggled to get engineers involved in cloud cost optimization, they turned to PointFive. Here’s what changed:

• Engineers gained true ownership through individual-level cost attribution

• Teams received actionable insights they could actually implement, not just basic alerts

• Detailed workflows and impact forecasting made optimization decisions clear

• Custom dashboards replaced confusing spreadsheets and legacy tools

“The in-depth analyses and detailed recommendations led to immediate engineering buy-in,” reports BHN. Instead of another reporting tool, PointFive delivered what engineers needed: context, actionable data, and clear paths to optimization.

Want to transform how your engineers think about FinOps? Visit booth #2166 at re:Invent to see how PointFive turns cloud cost optimization from a finance challenge into an engineering opportunity.

Microsoft
Microsoft FinOps Had it All Reserved for Ignite

Microsoft announced several new features for Cost Management at the Ignite conference:

Exports to Microsoft Fabric: Users can now export cost and price data directly to Microsoft Fabric’s OneLake storage. This saves time by eliminating the need to manually ingest data from a storage account.

New Azure OpenAI cost analysis tools: A new “Azure OpenAI” view makes it easy to analyze costs for different OpenAI models and time periods.

Azure Copilot in Cost Analysis: Copilot can now answer cost-related questions directly in the Cost Analysis tool using natural language.

Finally, some updates other than AWS!!

Together with Turbo360
Practical Strategies to Streamline Azure Cost Management

Did you know over 20% of organizations struggle to understand their cloud costs? If you’re not actively optimizing your Azure spending, you’re likely overspending.

Here’s the big question: How can you effectively optimize costs on Azure?

We’ve gathered expert-backed strategies from real-world Azure scenarios to help you take control of your cloud budget.

Start saving smarter today—your bottom line will thank you!

FinOps
Making FinOps Matter

Many find it hard to get FinOps projects started. Here are 6 tips to make FinOps work:

1. Find out who will gain from spending less on the cloud. These people can help push for FinOps.

2. Show data on wasted spending. This proves why FinOps is needed.

3. Focus on doing things better, not just cheaper. Show how FinOps can help the business grow.

4. Join early talks about new projects. This lets you plan ahead for cost control.

5. Use examples and numbers to show how FinOps helps. Make a strong case for it.

6. Be the FinOps leader if no one else is. Create a plan and share it with bosses.

These steps can help get people on board with FinOps and start saving money.

Read the complete information

Azure
Maximize Defender Cloud savings by minimizing waste

Microsoft has a new discount program for Defender for Cloud. They call it Defender for Cloud Commit Units (DCUs). It works like this:

• You buy DCUs upfront at a discount

• You can use these DCUs to pay for any Defender for Cloud services

• The more DCUs you buy, the bigger your discount

• Discounts range from 10% to 22%

Sounds great, right? But there are some things to watch out for: You need to forecast your Defender usage accurately. Moreover, buying too many DCUs can actually reduce your savings. Also, your existing Azure discount doesn’t stack with DCU discounts.

This reduces the risk of wasting money on unused DCUs. The bottom line: DCUs can save you money, but you need to do the math carefully. Here’s a Calculator to help you with that

Read the Complete Information

🎖️ Mention of Honour
Achieving All FinOps Certifications

Bejamin Van der Mas recently completed all FinOps certifications. He shared their experiences with each one:

1. The FinOps Certified Practitioner was their first certification. It helped him connect with others in the field and speak a common language.

2. The FinOps Certified Professional gave them a complete set of tools to manage cloud costs. The writer often goes back to review the material, finding it very useful.

3. The FOCUS Analyst certification is newer. It’s great for data analysts in FinOps. It helps with understanding complex data sets and could become an industry standard.

4. The FinOps Certified Engineer was different. It’s made for engineers, not FinOps practitioners.

These certifications have helped Benjamin see FinOps from different angles and improve their skills in managing cloud costs.

🏆 Quick Wins

Announcements

Enhanced Pricing Calculator now supports discounts and purchase commitments

AWS has released Data Exports for FOCUS 1.0

Analyzing your AWS Cost Explorer data with Amazon Q Developer: Now Generally Available

Split cost allocation data for Amazon EKS now supports metrics from Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights

The CUDOS Dashboard has received several important updates in version 5.5

Events & Webinars

Webinar: Discover how to innovate Cloud FinOps and achieve business value in cost allocation*

re:Invent 2023 – FinOps Implementation Guide for Cloud Costs

Articles & Podcasts

Cloud units are a new way to measure cloud value, but are they the best solution for every business?

Create your personalized cost estimate with the enhanced AWS Pricing Calculator

How to do FinOps in a 100,000+ Employee Company with Narciso Cerezo (BBVA)

*Sponsored

Professional Spotlight
Arthur Clares

The Microsoft FinOps Toolkit Guy!

Had the pleasure to meet Arthur in FinOps XE, and it was amazing to chat with him. Kind in person, he makes a lot of effort to spread the work on the Microsoft FinOps Toolkit.

Check the Professional of this Week

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