Special Edition FinOps X 2024 Recap

Welcome to a Special Edition of the FinOps Weekly Newsletter for the FinOps X 2024!

Today we share all the major releases from Cloud Providers and FinOps Foundation

AWS
AWS @ FinOps X – Major Player Debuts with Heavy Releases

James Greenfield, VP of AWS Commerce Platform, highlighted AWS’s commitment to FinOps practices at the 2024 FinOps X conference. AWS showcased new product capabilities designed to enhance FinOps goals, emphasizing the need for trust, flexibility, and user-friendliness in their Cloud Financial Management (CFM) tools.

Cost Optimization Hub

AWS has introduced Data Exports for Cost Optimization Hub, allowing users to receive consolidated cost optimization recommendations in CSV or parquet format directly to Amazon S3.

This feature simplifies the process of reviewing cost-saving opportunities, such as EC2 instance rightsizing and AWS Graviton migration. Users can customize their data export using SQL queries or filters and integrate these datasets into their data pipelines.

The service aims to streamline cost optimization by providing easy-to-ingest data files, replacing the need for paginated APIs. With this update, AWS continues to enhance tools for efficient cloud financial management.

RDS Optimizations

AWS has introduced new recommendations for Amazon RDS MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, aiming to improve cost efficiency and performance. The service now detects idle RDS instances and suggests optimal configurations for instance types and provisioned IOPS.

This update simplifies the process of optimizing database resources, potentially leading to significant cost savings and performance boosts.

Customers like Wabtec and Here Technologies have already benefited from these insights, streamlining their RDS optimization efforts and confidently adopting AWS Graviton instances based on the provided data.

The Compute Optimizer analyzes various metrics to provide tailored recommendations, which are now also integrated into the Cost Optimization Hub for a comprehensive view of savings opportunities across an organization.

FOCUS Project support at AWS Billing

AWS introduces Data Exports for FOCUS 1.0 (Preview), a feature allowing users to export AWS cost and usage data with the FOCUS 1.0 schema.

FOCUS, an open-source billing data specification, simplifies cloud cost reporting and analysis. The export aligns with the AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR), ensuring billed costs match invoiced amounts.

It offers hourly granularity, and resource-level data, and is available for Consolidated Billing in AWS Organizations. The FOCUS export includes 48 columns, with 43 following the FOCUS standard and 5 AWS-specific.

This initiative aids Cloud Financial Management professionals in decision-making and optimizing cloud financial management.

Azure
Azure Empowers Engineers with New FinOps Capabilities and GenAI

Azure released new cloud cost management features. Engineers can now estimate costs before deployment and view detailed cost breakdowns for Kubernetes clusters.

The FinOps assessment tool integrates the Well-architected Framework with Azure Advisor recommendations, enhancing decision-making.

Additionally, saving plans for Container and Spring Apps, along with reservation options for MS Fabric, Defender, and SQL, are now available.

For business and finance teams, Azure offers enhanced data export capabilities, FOCUS Datasets support, and carbon emissions tracking in Microsoft Fabric.

Plus, the innovative GenAI Copilot now assists with Cloud Billing data, streamlining financial operations in the cloud.

Google Cloud
5 GCP Cost Management Innovations @ FinOps X 2024

Google Cloud introduced 5 major enhancements to its FinOps cloud cost management tools at FinOps X 2024, aimed at increasing transparency, efficiency, and sustainability, and providing real-time insights for optimized cloud spending. They focus on visibility, efficiency, and transparency in cloud costs.

Open Cloud Billing Data

1. The new BigQuery view aligns Google Cloud cost data with FOCUS v1.0 Specification.

2. FOCUS Looker view was introduced to visualize and filter billing data.

3. Automated LookML code creation for table management.

Gemini Cloud Assist

1. Enhances FinOps capabilities within Reports.

2. Features on-the-fly cost report creation, key insights, and granular cost trend analysis using Billing BigQuery Exports (BQE).

3. Ensures accuracy, privacy, and easy auditing.

GreenOps: Carbon Footprint Reporting

1. FinOps hub now includes carbon footprint reporting.

2. Measures, reports and reduces carbon emissions while optimizing costs.

3. Identifies emission hotspots and tracks sustainability goals. Increases GreenOps information.

Scenario Modeling for CUDs

1. FinOps hub introduces Scenario Modeling for custom CUDs.

2. Provides insights on usage patterns, filters data noise, and updates recommendations in near real-time.

3. Includes new idle reservation recommendations to optimize costs.

Cost Anomaly Detection

1. Introduces near real-time monitoring for unexpected cost spikes.

2. Allows configuration of alert preferences and cost impact thresholds.

3. Provides downloadable CSVs of anomalies and supports user feedback for AI-driven detection.

FOCUS
FOCUS 1.0 Released on GA

The FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) Version 1.0, a ground-breaking project meant to streamline cloud billing data for FinOps practitioners, was made generally available by the FinOps Foundation during the FinOps X Event in San Diego.

FOCUS offers a standardized format for cloud billing, which simplifies financial processes such as spend allocation, cost analysis, and other related tasks. Backed now by all hyperscalers, its goal is to simplify things and improve the financial administration of cloud resources.

Future upgrades to the specification are expected to bring about changes, as J.R. stated at the keynote that they are now working on version 1.1. The intention is to include SaaS and other consumption billing data in addition to cloud IaaS.

Organizations that implement FOCUS have access to standardized cloud expenditure data, which facilitates more strategic financial operations inside the cloud ecosystem.

Recap
Video Summary by Dan Ortman

Dan Ortman made this awesome Video Recap for everyone who couldn’t attend.

A detailed video recap packed with highlights in 5 minutes.

Please like his post on LinkedIn

That’s all for this week. See you next Sunday!

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