The Critical Research Stage in FinOps Adoption: Laying the Foundation for Success

The research stage is a crucial step in the journey toward FinOps adoption. It is the phase where you gather the necessary inputs to build a compelling case for implementing FinOps within your organization. To do this effectively, it's essential to have a firm understanding of the current state of your cloud spending, how cloud-related information is shared, and how it influences decision-making across the organization.

Understanding the Current State of Cloud Usage

Researching your organization's current cloud usage involves more than just analyzing bills. It’s about having conversations with key stakeholders to understand usage patterns, data availability, and challenges related to cloud cost management. These discussions will help you establish a baseline of where your organization stands today, providing a clear picture of the pre-FinOps environment and laying the groundwork for why FinOps is necessary.

Comprehensive Cloud Procurement and Usage Insights

To develop a strong FinOps adoption proposal, start by gathering a complete picture of your cloud procurements and usage. If you cannot identify all contracts, ways of purchasing cloud services, or easily access cloud cost and usage data across your organization, you’re likely facing even greater risks due to potential inefficiencies going undetected.

Key tools to explore include:

- AWS Cost and Usage Reports

- Azure Usage and Charges

- GCP Billing Reports and Cost Trends

- OCI Cost and Usage Reports

These tools will provide you with the data needed to identify procurement methods, cost trends, and usage patterns.

Reviewing Cloud Hierarchy and Tagging Data

Visibility into cloud spend is vital for effective FinOps practices. Review your current cloud hierarchy and tagging data to determine whether you have the appropriate level of visibility across the organization. Proper tagging and hierarchy management are critical for breaking down costs and understanding spend allocation across different departments, teams, or projects.

Consider these resources for tagging and hierarchy management:

- AWS Tagging Resources

- Azure Resources and Management Hierarchy

- GCP Creating and Managing Tags

- OCI Tagging Overview

Analyzing Rates, Trends, and Usage Patterns

A deep dive into current rates and spending trends is necessary to identify rate optimization opportunities. Understand your month-over-month spend, track against forecasts and budgets, and identify any discrepancies. Analyzing cloud workload usage patterns will help you spot inefficiencies such as idle resources, opportunities for rightsizing, or potential for implementing power scheduling.

Computing FinOps KPIs and Metrics

Finally, computing FinOps KPIs and other relevant metrics will help solidify your case for adoption. These metrics provide a snapshot of where your organization currently stands and how FinOps can help elevate cloud cost management. Showing tangible benefits and improvements will help garner buy-in from key stakeholders, pushing the FinOps initiative forward.