FinOps General Lifecycle

FinOps general lifecycle

The FinOps process [2]

Monitor – Create visibility into cloud deployment and cost structure. Using various tools, technologies, and tags, FinOps engineers and data scientists can accurately allocate cost to different cost generators. These can be divided by organizational unit, by workload, or by any other parameter that makes business sense, including any relevant business metric.

Optimize – Apply multiple cloud cost optimization strategies to run the same use cases and workloads for a lower cost. Each cloud provider has multiple technology service offerings and multiple paths for cloud cost optimization. This creates many degrees of freedom for creating cost optimization strategies. Strategies include but are not limited to:

Using different technologies to achieve the same goal (i.e., switching between managed and unmanaged offerings).
Reserving computational power in advance and using different payment methods, such as all upfront or partial upfront.
Using availability-based computing resources, also known as spots, preemptible, or low priority VMs, at lower prices.
Resizing resources to match the actual usage and demand.
Redesigning your system to use more cost-effective services.

Operate – The goal is to make sure that on a daily basis the strategies devised and implemented in the optimization phase are actually working and taking effect. This means making sure the operational model follows the strategy and that adjustments are made to manage the budget and usage.

Repeat – Ensure that the FinOps process is iterative and repetitive. As the usage and workload change to facilitate business needs, the process should be altered to accommodate the changes, often finding the smart compromise between business needs and budgetary restrictions.