FinOps – a little knowledge goes a long way

Hello and welcome back to another iteration of the inaugural Cloud Cost Optimisation blog where we highlight some of the latest news happening in Cloud Costs.

Sustainability: A New Pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework

Sustainability is a hot topic within the world of technology and especially amongst Cloud providers. In keeping with this, AWS introduced sustainability as a new pillar to the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The aim is to aid organisations in reducing energy consumption and increase efficiency by questioning the design, architecture, and implementation of their workloads.

Core to the pillar is seeing sustainability as a shared responsibility, with AWS responsible for sustainability of the Cloud and the customer responsible for sustainability in the Cloud. While AWS has long been working towards a greener cloud, the sustainability pillar aids customers in defining, measuring and achieving their own sustainability targets.

Some of the key activities customers may adopt include:

• Setting sustainability goals and measuring success against these
• Selecting regions based on carbon emissions levels
• Rightsizing workloads to minimise the amount of idle resources
• Reviewing data management policies so storage is not retained longer than necessary
• Adopting the latest services and methods which aid sustainability as they become available

For further information, guidance, and best practices regarding sustainability in the cloud please see below:

• https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/sustainability-pillar-well-architected-framework/
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/sustainability-pillar/sustainability-pillar.html

AWS removes reduction in data transfer costs

AWS recently announced they have removed the data transfer costs from some of their services when data is moved between inter-Availability Zones (AZ) within an AWS region. The services in question are AWS PrivateLink, AWS Transit Gateway & AWS Client VPN. From April 1^st, all three of these services will no longer incur any costs when transferring data across AZ’s.

The added bonus is that no changes need to be made to the existing interfaces to benefit from this news, as the changes will be applied automatically to AWS bills. Any free data transfer usage can be viewed in Cost Explorer or the CUR (Cost & Usage report).e

This change is welcome from AWS as one of their biggest costs to customers is data transfer, especially across AZ’s.

Full press release from AWS below:

AWS Announces Data Transfer Price Reduction for AWS PrivateLink, AWS Transit Gateway, and AWS Client VPN services (amazon.com)

Welcome AWS Billing Conductor!

AWS continues to step up its game when it comes to facilitating FinOps with native tools. Recently introduced, the new AWS Billing Conductor gives us a chance to define customisable pricing and cost visibility across a variety of AWS resources.

Behind the curtains, AWS Billing Conductors allows you to logically group accounts by financial ownership, that are mutually exclusive, and gives you the opportunity to distribute credits, fees, and costs easily. While still leveraging group savings (via consolidate billing), you are now able to analyse profit at a customer specific level much easier.

At GlobalLogic, we applaud this new AWS step on the FinOps direction and are looking forward to working with in maximizing the financial benefits of the Cloud. Read more about Billing Conductor in the link below and get in touch with us to start your FinOps journey!

Link: https://aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/aws-billing-conductor/

FinOps London Meetup

The FinOps Foundation London Meetup, hosted by Codenode on 28^th March 2022, was an informative and engaging event. The evening kicked off with pizza and networking, before some quickfire presentations and lightning talks. Following this, there was the opportunity to ask questions and network with experienced and knowledgeable FinOps experts.

One of the more interesting talks was one that focused on the sustainability working group at the FinOps Foundation. This allows those interested in issues surrounding sustainability to come together to brainstorm and share knowledge and ideas, ensuring best practices are followed and shared as widely as possible. The group appealed to me because it allowed people to contribute their own ideas, but also gain an understanding about what other practitioners are doing to encourage a focus on sustainable FinOps potential at their own companies. Forums like this provide a great opportunity and launchpad for relations to be established, which can then lead to innovative tools such as open-source software that helps measure emissions.

Another interesting part of the evening was the conversation surrounding automation, and how making use of it in the context of FinOps can lead to both cost savings and environmental benefits. Discussions around automation in FinOps highlighted numerous sustainability and cost savings benefits, along with some of the difficulties tied to effective automation. An example given was maintaining and optimising automation in a company with changing Cloud requirements.

Another point of discussion during the Meetup was the growing focus on FinOps as more and more companies find their home in the Cloud. This may find a rise in scholarly prospects. The possibility of new FinOps based modules and courses added to university courses to bring IT cost management could, in turn, lead to a whole new level of study and understanding to the discipline. Currently, many start-ups are “Born in the Cloud” and having a team with some understanding of FinOps gives scope to significant cost saving advantages which other competitors might lack. The increase in general understanding among developers reduces the need for a specialised FinOps team.

A further point discussed was the integration of FinOps within a Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE). This allows for a balance of speed and stability without excessive unnecessary spend. The Meetup brought up thought-provoking points to be considered in the FinOps space and is an excellent opportunity for like-minded individuals to discuss grow their understanding of this ever-growing practice.

Discover upcoming events here: https://www.meetup.com/FinOps-UK/

What next?

If you’re not sure where to start with your own Cost Optimisation journey, we can help.

Our FinOps certified Practitioners can walk you through the areas of where Cost Optimisation can be achieved – the low hanging fruit as well as the often-overlooked intricacies of rate card optimisation. This will give you a better understanding of the FinOps practices you need to benefit from in-year and year-on-year savings.

If you’d rather keep your team working on their projects, let us do the leg work for you.  Although data gathering and the subsequent analysis can be time consuming and detailed, the activity is worthwhile, yielding between 5 and 22% return in the form of cost recoveries and ongoing management of cost. A return that more than covers the cost for the outlay of the program.

With the help of our FinOps certified Practitioners we can integrate into your existing ecosystem and drive positive behaviours to realise cost efficiencies that will keep you ahead of your competition.

If this sounds of interest, reach out here.