What is FinOps
FinOps (Financial Operations, Cloud FinOps) — cultural practice of managing cloud spending. Answer to "we spent $500k on AWS and don't know why". FinOps Foundation (2019, Linux Foundation) — standards organisation. Three phases: Inform (tagging, dashboards), Optimize (RIs, savings plans, right-sizing), Operate (automation, governance). Teams: FinOps practitioner + Finance + Engineering.
Below: details, example, related terms, FAQ.
Details
- Tagging: every resource has owner + project tags
- Dashboards: by team, project, environment — who spends what
- Savings instruments: AWS Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Committed Use Discounts
- Right-sizing: unused EC2 instances → smaller type
- Spot/preemptible: 60-90% cheaper for batch workloads
Example
AWS cost example:
- Tag: Project=enterno, Env=prod
- EC2 on-demand: $100/month
- EC2 3-year RI: $35/month (-65%)
- Spot (batch jobs): $15/month (-85%)Related Terms
Learn more
Frequently Asked Questions
FinOps — role or practice?
Usually practice, but in large companies — dedicated role. Practitioner knows cloud pricing + engineering + finance.
Tooling?
AWS Cost Explorer + Cost Anomaly Detection (free). Vendors: CloudHealth (VMware), Apptio Cloudability, nOps. Open-source: OpenCost (Kubernetes), Kubecost.
Savings ROI?
Typical: 20-40% reduction in the first year. Value higher for larger spend (>$10k/mo justifies).