Maximising Efficiency with Automated FinOps
Monday 29th January 2024
If there’s one thing businesses want, it’s efficiency. Nowhere is this more the case than in financial operations (FinOps), where every little tweak could make a big difference to the bottom line.
As a leading provider with over 1.45 million businesses using their services, AWS is a typical top choice for companies that turn to the cloud. But, as with any service, there are always new ways we can optimise to get more from the systems we use. Businesses are continually seeking ways to optimise their AWS usage, not only to reduce costs but to enhance financial visibility.
One powerful approach that’s been gaining prominence over the past few years is Automated FinOps—a methodology that brings automation to the financial operations of the cloud.
In this article, we'll explore customer pain points when using AWS cloud environments, discuss solutions provided by Automated FinOps, and outline the significant benefits of taking the leap to this revolutionary method of FinOps management.
Let’s dive right in.
Common Cloud Challenges
The cloud infrastructure market is a global titan, boasting a total value of well over $60 billion. But, despite the impressive market value, not everything runs smoothly in the world of cloud services.
In fact, there are multiple customer challenges that AWS users repeatedly encounter.
Manual Tracking and Analysis
When we talk about customer pain points with AWS, manual tracking is normally top of the list.
Manually tracking and analysing AWS cloud expenses is a time-consuming and error-prone process. Businesses often have to grapple with spreadsheets, battle through complex data sets, and keep up with real-time changes in their cloud environment. This manual approach results in inefficiencies, delays, and a lack of granular insights into spending patterns.
Manual tracking also leads to scalability issues, as larger volumes of data take longer for humans to process and draw insight from.
Unpredictable Costs
Cloud services empower businesses to pay as they go, offering unlimited resources to get the job done. Sounds great, right? Well, absolutely. However, unlimited freedom can often leave businesses with unexpected costs at the end of a billing period.
Around 60% of companies report that cloud costs are too high or higher than they should be, according to 2022 data.
Fluctuating workloads, complex pricing models, and dynamic resource usage can lead to unexpected spikes in expenses. This lack of cost predictability makes budgeting and financial planning difficult, leading to potential overspending and financial uncertainty.
Cloud services should streamline financial operations, not add another ball to juggle.
Lack of Financial Visibility
Ever feel like you’re flying blind in the cloud? You’re not alone. One of the most common complaints among businesses is that they lack financial visibility in AWS cloud usage.
Without a clear understanding of where their money is going within the cloud environment, organisations struggle to make informed decisions about resource allocation, identify areas of overspending, and align their cloud strategy with overall financial objectives.
Source: How much enterprise cloud budget is wasted?
No matter how effectively businesses budget, if there isn’t a high degree of visibility as to where costs are going, tracing cloud spending is impossible.
How Do Automated FinOps Solve Common Cloud Challenges?
Automated FinOps tools provide a comprehensive solution to the challenges faced by businesses in AWS cloud management.
- Streamline Manual Tracking – By streamlining the labour-intensive process of manual tracking, Automated FinOps tools not only save time and ensure accuracy but also contribute to a more efficient, cost-effective, and agile cloud management process.
- Offer Predictive Costing Models – Automated FinOps tools leverage advanced analytics and machine learning to predict and forecast future expenses accurately, empowering organisations to proactively identify potential cost escalations, set budget thresholds, and implement automated alerts.
- Full Financial Transparency – FinOps platforms address the lack of financial visibility by offering real-time insights through dashboards and reports, enabling detailed breakdowns of costs and tracking expenses across projects or departments.
Across the board, automated FinOps tools help to solve leading customer cloud pain points.
Why Should My Business Use Automated FinOps?
Beyond just actively remedying pain points, Automated FinOps tools and processes help to provide businesses with tangible benefits.
Here are some of the leading advantages:
- Cost Savings: Automated FinOps helps businesses to save money by identifying inefficiencies, optimising resource utilisation, and avoiding unnecessary expenditures.
- Enhanced Efficiency: Automation reduces manual efforts, allowing teams to focus on high-value activities rather than routine financial tasks.
- Improved Resource Utilisation: Automated FinOps tools help businesses manage resources, ensuring optimal utilisation and preventing underutilisation or over-provisioning.
In this blog we've explored some of the common challenges businesses face with AWS cloud management, such as manual tracking, unpredictable costs, and a lack of financial visibility.
Automated FinOps emerges as a pivotal strategy in the cloud optimisation journey, setting companies up for success in the cloud. By leveraging automation, businesses can navigate the complexities of cloud financial management with greater precision, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.
The adoption of Automated FinOps as a whole brings tangible benefits, including cost savings, enhanced efficiency, and improved resource utilisation.
Sounds great, right? So, how can Bytes help your business save money?
Let’s take a look at how Bytes can save your business money with automated FinOps tools.
- Reservations and Savings Plans – Cut costs in the cloud via optimisation strategies and recommendations. Bytes can help you analyse usage patterns and advise the most cost-effective reservation and savings plan option.
- Spot Instances – Spot instances are a purchasing option that allows you to bid for unused EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances at a discounted price. We can help you drive down 50-80% of the costs of EC2 out of your environment. Automation solutions also available to help manage kubernetes infrastructure.
- Private Pricing – With Bytes you have access not only to our experienced engineers but also to exclusive CloudFront pricing to suit your requirements, meaning you save even more money.
If you’d like to discover more about automated FinOps and best practices on how to cut your cloud costs, contact a member of the team [email protected]
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