Cloud computing has changed the business landscape. It enables better innovation, more flexibility, and an attractive pricing model for businesses of all sizes. Not to mention, it has kept businesses going from a remote work perspective during the pandemic. However, if organizations are not careful, its easy go over budget and suddenly find their cloud spend is spiraling out of control.

What’s more, centralized IT purchasing, as we know it, is gone. In the world of SaaS solutions, departments and teams within an organization have the ability to add and remove licenses without RFPs, POs, or interacting with purchasing departments. And the cloud marketplace further complicates this picture when it comes time for organizations to manage their bills from multiple cloud vendors. This means budgeting and cost tracking across an organization’s cloud spend is nowhere near as easy as it should be.

The key to managing cloud spend: FinOps

MessageOps recently published a white paper that provides an instructive guide to cloud financial management AKA FinOps. In this post, we will discuss key points from the white paper, including what is FinOps, why organizations should implement FinOps, and the benefits of teaming up with a cloud partner to provide the added value, IP, and expertise needed to ensure they are 100% in control of their cloud spend. It’s time to get hold of cloud spend once and for all. The right cloud partner can make all the difference, and Sirius is here to help.

An introduction to FinOps

Cloud migration is at the heart of every digital transformation project. And going forward, organizations will find it hard to remain operational without moving key infrastructure to the cloud. But how you go about migrating to the cloud, and manage and optimize it over time is even more important than simply getting there.

The cloud, like digital transformation in general, is not a destination or an item to tick off a bucket list. It’s a journey (i.e., an ongoing process) that is moving bit by bit towards the best digital version of the organization’s operational self.

Managing cloud spend is crucial

A key part of any migration is cloud cost management. If an organization moves to the cloud without the right planning, it will soon discover it’s not receiving the cost benefits that were promised. If it takes the shock of an enormous and unexpected bill to figure out your cloud set-up isn’t optimized, then—unfortunately—it’s already too late.

This is where FinOps comes in. FinOps is the financial management of cloud spend. Essentially, it’s a set of principles and practices that helps ensure you aren’t surprised by nightmare bills. And FinOps teams are increasingly becoming a fixture at leading organizations.

People often ask: when is the best time to start FinOps? And the answer is: before you move anything to the cloud. For most businesses—most likely all businesses at this stage—this step was missed years ago, which is why the second-best time to start FinOps is now.

In fact, FinOps is perhaps most needed by organizations that are already far down their cloud journey, because those with a high cloud spend and complex multi-cloud environments are most in need of cloud financial management. So too are large organizations with large numbers of users, teams, and workloads. But FinOps is a highly valuable model for all organizations in a world where success is dependent on digital technology.

Monitor costs, spot trends, create and manage budgets with custom alerts based on your Microsoft 365, Azure, and AWS cloud spend. Learn More.

FinOps: a definition

Let’s touch base with The FinOps Foundation for an official definition, who describes FinOps as “The practice of bringing financial accountability to the variable spend model of cloud, enabling distributed teams to make business trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality.” In our words, FinOps is the strategy, management, and ongoing execution of everything that goes into ensuring your cloud is cost-effective. This ideally means sitting down at the very beginning of any cloud project and working out how to control cloud spend in order to receive optimal return on your investment. Or, it means taking a strategic look at current cloud set-ups and systematically implementing a series of principles and practices to better manage and optimize them. Now to the main principles of FinOps.

A Closer look at FinOps (building a team and finding the right cloud partner that offers extra)

Next, we’ll focus on the key principles of FinOps, and the importance of following the Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) as a guide on how organizations should set up cloud IT. We will also dive into how to establish a skilled and diverse team to leave FinOps, and the key people that should be involved. Then we will take a look at the Sirius approach to FinOps and what we offer as a cloud partner.

  • FinOps Principles
  • Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)
  • How to Build a Team of FinOps Superstars
    • Who needs to be involved?
    • Outside help can be a game-changer
    • Cloud partners vs. cloud providers

Read the full White Paper: Take Control of Cloud Spend with the Power of FinOps

Take control of cloud spend with MessageOps

The cloud is at the center of everything an organization does. Therefore, it makes sense to make the management and optimization of cloud spend a priority. FinOps is arguably one of the best set of principles currently available for organizations to make cloud costs work for them. And a reputable cloud partner, like MessageOps, can be invaluable in helping clients take this to the next level, and ensuring their organization gains full control over its cloud spend. MessageOps provides the solutions and services—not to mention the expertise and experience—organizations need to optimize their cloud costs and ensure they realize the full potential of the cloud—without suffering unnecessary costs. The cloud should work for your organization and within your budget, and our Inscape suite provides the cloud management, governance, and optimization tools for ultimate FinOps success. Contact us today to get started.

 

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