In one of our blogs last April we published an article on How FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) can help improve Cloud Cost Optimization. Where FOCUS can help with the optimization, it can also help with embracing a FinOps Culture within the organization. In this article, we dive deeper into this side of FOCUS where it can be instrumental for embedding and embracing the FinOps Culture.

Understanding FOCUS and its importance

FOCUS is designed to provide a common language for cloud cost and usage data across various providers and tools. This standardization is crucial for organizations adopting multi-cloud strategies or seeking to optimize their cloud spending across different platforms. The primary goal of FOCUS is to simplify and streamline cloud cost management across multiple environments, including on-premises, SaaS, and cloud providers.

By standardizing data formats, FOCUS facilitates easier integration and comprehension of cloud costs, enabling more effective decision-making and strategy development. This improved understanding allows teams to provide more informed input on important financial planning tools, such as Rolling Commitment Plans. We have written an article about that.

We wrote an article about how to start with a rolling commitment plan: Smart Strategies for cloud start with a Rolling Commitment Plan. This article is great for delving deeper into smart strategies to perform rate optimization.

The standardization provided by FOCUS is particularly valuable in today’s complex cloud ecosystems, where organizations often utilize multiple providers and services. By creating a unified format for cost and usage data, FOCUS enables organizations to gain a holistic view of their cloud spending, identify optimization opportunities, and make data-driven decisions across their entire cloud portfolio.

How can FOCUS help teams to work together?

In the FinOps framework, accountability and shared responsibility are crucial for embedding a FinOps culture within an organization. FOCUS plays a vital role in this process by bringing teams together and aligning them on these key principles, thereby contributing significantly to the successful implementation of FinOps across the organizational culture.

FOCUS enhances collaboration between teams, particularly finance and engineering, by providing a common data format. This improved communication facilitates sharing valuable insights and innovative strategies for optimizing cloud rates and resources. As a result, teams can more easily connect and work together, fostering a sense of shared responsibility and encouraging individuals to take ownership of their cloud resources. This collaborative environment, enabled by FOCUS, is essential for driving the FinOps culture forward and ensuring its long-term success within the organization.

Streamlining Tool Integration

FOCUS simplifies the integration of various FinOps tools and platforms. By adhering to a common specification, organizations can more easily adopt and switch between different cost management tools without worrying about data compatibility issues. This flexibility encourages the exploration and implementation of the most effective FinOps practices.

For example, FOCUS can help streamline data ingestion for a self-built PowerBI solution where different parameters are shown in a dashboard. This dashboard can give information, so the decision-makers have the possibility to a FinOps strategy over a (hybrid) multi-cloud approach. Also, such a dashboard helps with cross-team collaboration.

Implementing FOCUS to Embrace FinOps Culture

When FOCUS is the tool, the FinOps Culture is the toolbox. FOCUS gives more depth, measures, and possibilities to create a more sustainable and mature FinOps Culture! There are three steps (there aren’t in any specific order, so you can mix it up;-)) that FOCUS can help – as a tool – embrace the FinOps Culture.

Step 1: Education, Awareness, and Cross-Functional Training

The first step in using FOCUS to embrace FinOps culture is to educate all relevant stakeholders about its benefits and implementation. This means that not only finance and engineering teams will be educated but also (senior) management, and product owners. This education won’t cover just the technical aspects, but how it also aligns with the different FinOps Principles.

It dives deeper into the nitty gritty details of what kind of metrics different personas need and how it revolves around the broader IT Strategy of the organization. I’ve already mentioned some strategies to measure the impact of FinOps Culture within the organization where FOCUS can be an enabler and catalysator for the impact. You can read it here: Measuring the Impact of FinOps Culture Change

Step 2: Data Standardization and Tool Integration

The benefits of Data Standardization are immense. When looking at cloud cost and usage data before FOCUS there was a need for building, transforming, and correlating large datasets within a datalake. For example, each cloud provider has its term for compute, such as EC2, Virtual Machines, Compute Engine, OCI Compute, etc. With FOCUS, this will be unified under a single term.

FOCUS leverages standardization and follows the same path with all kinds of metrics. That means that some heavy lifting is already done, and the data engineers can use their valuable time to create meaningful insights on the cost and usage data.

In the end, it’s important to ingest this standardized data set into a tool that can work with it.

• AWS has QuickSight with their different Cloud Intelligence Dashboards.

• Azure can leverage the FinOps Hubs Toolkit

• GCP has the FinOps Hub.

Every tool has its strengths and weaknesses, but in the end, I believe that use what works for the organization and the (long-term) goals that have been set. At TechNative we always say: Use what you’ve got, leverage what you have, and iterate fast so you have the right insights to perform in the best possible way!

Step 3: Establishing FinOps Processes

To develop and implement FinOps processes that utilize FOCUS data is important. This drives the FinOps culture further and improves cross-team collaboration. Teams need to be made aware of the dashboarding and the insights it can deliver. This can be done through regular cost reviews, optimization strategies, and decision-making frameworks that utilize standardized cost and usage information.

Some examples:

• Regular cost reviews This can be done once in two weeks at the team level. You can carve a 15-minute timeslot in your team meeting to walk through the associated costs of the team and if it still covers the FinOps principles stated at the start.

• Optimization Strategies These can be shared through the central FinOps Team towards the champions. This enhances team collaboration and cross-departmental activities in getting multiple business units aligned on the strategy.

• Decision-Making Frameworks Everyone knows Security by Design, most of the team it’s even embedded when starting a workload in the cloud. I offer FinOps by Design. This helps the team to get a FinOps Lens before they go to the cloud and creates a step for the decision-makers on what the impact is on the cloud bill, rates, and resources when going or migrating to the cloud.

Benefits of Embracing FOCUS in FinOps Culture

The benefits of FOCUS are clear. Where a standardized format enables key stakeholders to make more informed decisions, gives engineering and finance teams the information needed to collaborate, and improves the overall cloud resources with more granular resource optimization and allocation when needed. This data-driven approach can become the catalyst to embed FinOps Culture within organizations and improve operational efficiency.

One of the primary advantages is improved decision-making. With standardized and easily accessible cost data, organizations can make more informed choices about cloud resource allocation and optimization. This data-driven approach forms a cornerstone of the FinOps culture, enabling teams to base their decisions on accurate, real-time information rather than guesswork or outdated metrics. FOCUS also enables enhanced cost forecasting by providing a consistent format for historical usage data. This improved forecasting capability allows organizations to better plan and budget for future cloud expenses, reducing the likelihood of unexpected costs and enabling more strategic financial planning. The ability to accurately predict future cloud spending is crucial for maintaining financial stability and aligning cloud usage with business objectives.

Furthermore, FOCUS increases efficiency in cost management by streamlining the process of collecting and analyzing cost data. This reduction in time and effort required for cost management tasks allows FinOps practitioners to focus more on strategic optimization rather than getting caught up in the complexities of managing and organizing data. As a result, teams can dedicate more resources to identifying cost-saving opportunities and implementing optimization strategies.

For organizations utilizing multiple cloud providers, FOCUS offers a significant advantage in multi-cloud management. By providing a unified view of costs across different platforms, it enables a comprehensive understanding of the entire cloud ecosystem. This holistic view is crucial for developing and implementing effective multi-cloud strategies, ensuring optimal resource allocation across various providers, and identifying opportunities for cost arbitrage or workload redistribution. Most importantly, FOCUS fosters a culture of continuous improvement in cloud cost management. The standardization and accessibility of data encourage teams to regularly review and optimize their cloud usage. With easier access to trends and patterns in cloud spending, teams can quickly identify inefficiencies, implement optimizations, and measure the impact of their changes. This ongoing cycle of improvement is essential for maintaining cost-effectiveness in the rapidly evolving cloud landscape.

Challenges and Considerations

While FOCUS offers significant benefits for organizations embracing FinOps culture, it’s important to acknowledge and prepare for potential challenges in its implementation. These challenges, while not insurmountable, require careful consideration and planning to ensure a successful adoption of FOCUS and its integration into existing FinOps practices.

One of the primary challenges is – when already having a dashboard and processes in place – the changes that must be made to the initial data setup, reconfiguring data collection methods, transforming datasets towards the now unifying FOCUS format, and potentially modifying internal reporting structures. This all can get increasingly complex when the organizations are more diverse in their cloud infrastructure, current maturity of their FinOps practice, and organizational size.

One of the most nuanced challenges is addressing the potential cultural resistance to change. When implementing FOCUS, often results in a shift in how teams interact with and interact with cost data, which can lead to resistance from employees accustomed to existing systems and processes. Change Management is crucial in this challenge. As a change manager you can focus on open and transparent communication, consistent collaboration between different teams, perform quick and iterative feedback loops, and align metrics and goals with each other.

Despite these challenges, the long-term benefits of FOCUS in fostering a robust FinOps culture often outweigh the initial hurdles. By anticipating these challenges and developing strategies to address them, organizations can smooth the path to FOCUS adoption and maximize its value in their cloud cost management practices. Successful implementation of FOCUS can lead to more efficient, data-driven decision-making processes, improved cost optimization, and ultimately, a stronger competitive position in the cloud-driven business landscape.

Conclusion

In conclusion, FOCUS emerges as a pivotal tool in fostering and enhancing a robust FinOps culture within organizations. By providing a standardized format for cloud cost and usage data, it significantly improves visibility, collaboration, and decision-making across teams. FOCUS enhances cost forecasting accuracy, increases efficiency in cost management, and enables more informed resource allocation decisions. These benefits allow organizations to optimize cloud spending effectively and navigate the complexities of cloud financial management with greater confidence.

However, successful FOCUS adoption requires organizations to overcome challenges such as adapting data collection methods, modifying existing processes, and addressing cultural resistance to change. Implementing effective change management strategies and maintaining ongoing education are crucial for overcoming these hurdles.

Ultimately, organizations that successfully embrace FOCUS can achieve greater financial discipline, and operational efficiency, and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement in cloud cost management. As a powerful component of the FinOps toolkit, FOCUS drives accountability, efficiency, and optimization in cloud operations, positioning adopters competitively in the evolving cloud landscape. By leveraging FOCUS, organizations can better navigate the intricacies of multi-cloud environments and establish a more mature, data-driven approach to cloud financial management.