FinOps is a concept that is becoming common and has more significant weight in every organization, especially with the strengthening of the trend of moving to cloud computing. The more the organization invests greater resources in cloud-based solutions, the greater the need to carry out a FinOps strategy, with the aim of optimally managing cloud expenses, while looking holistically and taking into account the business needs of all the factors in the organization: information systems, product, marketing, service and sales and more.
The centralization of the management of the cloud system in the organization allows building a better and more up-to-date picture regarding the utilization of the technological resources, therefore also strengthening the managerial ability to make dynamic decisions that meet the exact needs of the organization. The direct financing company turned to us to achieve exactly that: to generate savings in cloud computing costs and at the same time to put order in cost management with a holistic and cyclical view, while continuously monitoring the activity.
The joint project was initiated and led by Ronit Petar, VP of Technologies, and Einat Tal, the OCIO, and in collaboration with our team of experts, we approached the challenge in three key stages:
The Inform phase: In this phase, the existing situation is mapped, while creating a transparent and comprehensive picture of the set of cloud costs within the organization. In this framework, it was required to identify and mark the most significant costs, which are called the “immediate suspect”… those costs whose relative weight in the total expenses is the highest and therefore also the main influence on the current budget. Indeed, in the project in question, together with the professional team, we identified all cloud expenses in the organization with direct funding, while defining the highest and most significant expenses.
The Optimize phase: a phase in which the findings that arise in the previous phase are analyzed in depth, at the same time the super-architecture is examined, trying to understand where optimization can be carried out while focusing in an attempt to become more efficient in the short term, without changing architecture and code, mainly changes to the configuration in the cloud, while formulating recommendations in a careful manner And its weight, when it is the value of the savings that stands before the eyes. The goal at this stage is to generate Quick Wins for the organization, with a relatively small investment of effort, and indeed we were happy to help the company generate savings of about 30% of cloud costs in relatively simple steps. For example, cloud resources that are no longer in use, updating the pricing models of the cloud providers to new and more efficient versions, purchasing long-term plans where possible, or receiving discounts just by referring to resellers to understand the existing pricing model (Za, discounts without making a single change in the existing infrastructure). Another influential factor, one that is very much worth considering, is the internal organizational awareness that has led many people to initiate savings and reduction measures on their own where possible.
The Operate phase: The goal in this phase: to define the FinOps methodology and the associated work processes, without reinventing the wheel as there is an accepted and regular methodology. Therefore there is no need to reinvent, but it is important to adapt the moves to the needs and constraints of the specific organization. For example, it is necessary to identify who the relevant personas are, as it is important to take into account the decision-making process within the FinOps strategy. The same advertisements vary and differ from one organization to another, and in the case of direct financing, 4 central personas relevant to the operation were defined, for each the exact definition of the job, what percentage of the position they are required for the benefit of the FinOps activity, etc.
Based on the three stages and after defining the specific personas, we set out to build the work plan: what is allowed and not allowed to be done, defining controls, and management tools that are connected to the cloud services and provide up-to-date and available data regarding the scope of actual use as well as additional business insights. Since direct financing has a presence in all three clouds (a result, among other things, of the purchases of products that have already operated on their backs), this is a significant administrative and infrastructural challenge, therefore the integration of management tools and monitoring of cloud activity has created significant business value for the organization.
Werner Vogels (Werner Vogels), the CTO of cloud services at Amazon, addressed the issue of FinOps at the recent re:invent conference and said : 1. In managing the cloud architecture: the cost element is one of the most significant and important that needs to be checked, more than other characteristics, and today There is a growing awareness of this. The holy grail in this aspect is to enable the organization to link directly between the scope of the investment in cloud computing, and the profit line. 2. In his opinion, every function in the organization should understand in FinOps, that everyone has a connection and influence, technical or product, on the scope of consumption and the resources they require, but all of them have consequences for the cloud infrastructure in the organization.
In the joint work with direct funding, the process focused on how the operation is managed on a regular basis at the level of the budget, monitoring, planning, conducting regular meetings with the pinops managers in the organization, filling the gaps, statuses and also how to instill it deeper into the organization. The result: direct funding were very satisfied with the process and the products achieved, mainly in light of the fact that they were amazed by the savings created, and also some non-technological people, understood the gap and the opportunity that was created, precisely in an organization that historically focused on On Premise.
In other words, the joint process had a broad impact on the very understanding of the organization regarding the degree of savings that can be achieved. Now our team of experts continues to accompany direct financing in the implementation of the savings methodology.
On this occasion, we would like to express our deep gratitude to the joint work team that gave full trust, invested the resources and seriousness required to achieve quick results, and showed openness, honesty and courage in the desire to streamline and improve.
