Recently, we had the opportunity to attend and present at re:Invent in Las Vegas.
Our presentation highlighted PointFive's DeepWaste Detection™ and how its approach draws inspiration from cybersecurity tools, applying similar methodologies used to detect threats to uncover inefficiencies in cloud cost optimization.
But what does cybersecurity have to do with cloud cost optimization? Believe it or not, a lot. Cloud waste is a real problem, and uncovering that waste requires teams to dive deep into their organizations' cloud environments to uncover inefficiencies. But this isn’t realistic; multi-cloud environments often require unique knowledge to navigate various cloud setups and, similar to the cybersecurity space, this is a time-consuming manual effort.
So what, exactly, does a DeepWaste Detection approach look like, and how does it work? Let’s dive in.
The cloud is constantly expanding, which means its challenges are growing, too. Experts predict comprehensive cloud spend will surpass $675 billion by the end of 2024. That’s a staggering amount, but it makes sense considering there are 100+ cloud providers today, each of which offers thousands of different services to help organizations make the most of their technology and operations.
Even with our technology constantly evolving, many organizations haven’t found a good solution to cloud cost efficiency. Already, studies show that more than 30% of cloud spend goes to waste. If you do the math, that’s billions of dollars going down the drain.
Therefore, it’s not a surprise that 82% of organizations say that managing their cloud spend is a problem.
Why is this? We’ve found there are three primary FinOps challenges for organizations in keeping cloud costs under control:
Considering these challenges, it’s clear that a strong cost efficiency program requires three things to come together: FinOps, engineering, and technology.
This is where cybersecurity comes in.
If you have experience in cybersecurity, the challenges I described should look familiar. The cybersecurity world navigated the same problems back when the industry was still fairly nascent. Security experts lacked the access to understand and take action to mitigate relevant issues.
This is where the concept of shifting left—integrating practices, tools, and processes earlier in the software development lifecycle—gained traction. It empowered engineers with the tools to proactively address threats in identity management, data security, and other vulnerabilities before they progressed too far into development.
Not only did this create a new category of security frameworks and tools to help overcome security challenges, but it did what we now need to do in FinOps. It brought the right teams together to solve problems.
Now, we need to do the same thing in cloud cost optimization. And at PointFive, we did.
Bringing the right teams together is the first big step in tackling the problem of cloud cost optimization, but it’s not enough on its own. These teams also need the right tools and visibility into cloud cost efficiency to be able to take action.
This is why we created DeepWaste Detection: a continuous detection engine that tackles cloud cost inefficiencies. DeepWaste Detection brings together two critical teams—FinOps, and engineering—and arms the experts with everything they need to see so they can identify and remediate cloud waste.
DeepWaste is powered by four key components:
In coming together, these components create better visibility into and remediation of cloud waste.
We think of DeepWaste detection as the first FinOps Detection and Response (FDR) solution. This end-to-end solution doesn’t only detect waste; it provides specific recommendations so that team members who work in the cloud are better able to harness their investments in it..
DeepWaste Detection is built on a powerful engine architecture that starts with ELT orchestration, in order to bring all required data points into examination. It then enriches those data points using large language model (LLM) technology. From there, the ever-growing, field-tested library of detections are run against the environment’s data. And lastly - as we learnt from cyber security - it cannot stop there, and in order to drive action, we preset all relevant context pillars in-place so no further investigation is required: resource metadata, events history, discounts, usage metrics, user/team attribution, context graph and any additional ad-hoc calculation required. This way, we are able to drive higher “conversion” rates of remediations.
It’s not enough to just detect cloud waste. To have a real impact on investments, organizations need to know how to remediate the problem. They also need the tools to do it within their workflows rather than adding an unnecessary amount of extra work. PointFive’s DeepWaste Detection does just that.
DeepWaste Detection integrates seamlessly into engineering workflows by embedding cost optimization efforts into tasks created in Jira or any other task management system the organization uses. This approach encourages engineers to actively participate in the cost optimization process, making it easier for them to take on the critical role needed to drive meaningful savings.
With these features and capabilities, DeepWaste Detection empowers FinOps practitioners and engineers to drive impactful cloud cost optimization. As organizations continue to invest in their cloud environments, this opportunity is one they simply can’t afford to overlook.
Just as we don’t expect cybersecurity threats to ever disappear or be eliminated completely, we can’t assume the same of cloud waste. The more organizations continue to use these environments and resources, the more they’ll need to monitor where those cloud investments are going.
DeepWaste Detection leverages advanced technology, collaboration, and expertise to bridge the gap between finance and engineering, transforming cost efficiency from an aspiration into a tangible outcome
Book a demo to learn more about how you can optimize your cloud investments.
