The FinOps Foundation’s FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) initiative is revolutionizing how organizations manage and standardize cloud financial operations. FOCUS aims to provide a common format for cost and usage data, making it easier for organizations to analyze and optimize their cloud spend.
This article delves into the details of the FOCUS initiative and highlights insights from key sessions at FinOps X 2024, including contributions from Zoom and GitLab.
The FOCUS Project is an open-source initiative under the Linux Foundation, supported by the FinOps Foundation.
FOCUS is a technical specification for cloud billing data that defines clear requirements for cloud vendors to produce consistent cost and usage datasets. This standardization allows practitioners to spend more time on FinOps activities and less on data normalization.
The FinOps Foundation announced the General Availability of FOCUS Version 1.0 at FinOps X 2024. This milestone signifies the readiness of the specification for widespread adoption and highlights the collaborative effort behind its development.
FOCUS is being adopted by end-user FinOps practitioners, leading cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers, and FinOps tool vendors. The initiative aims to remove the complexities associated with cloud billing data normalization, making it easier for practitioners to perform FinOps capabilities, like cost analysis, spend allocation, and unit economic reporting.
AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle have all announced support for FOCUS, and are offering billing data exports in the FOCUS format. This allows users to integrate and analyze their cloud costs more effectively.
In conjunction with FOCUS 1.0 availability, the FinOps Foundation launched a new certification course, FinOps Certified FOCUS Analyst, designed to help practitioners generate, ingest, and analyze FOCUS datasets. This course aims to equip professionals with the skills needed to leverage FOCUS for enhanced financial operations.
There are a number of benefits of having a consistent language for those in FinOps. These include:
GitLab, a web-based DevOps platform, has been an early adopter of the FOCUS initiative. Their implementation journey, shared at FinOps X 2024, offers three specific and valuable insights into the benefits and challenges of adopting FOCUS.
1. Data Pipeline and Integration
GitLab built a custom FinOps data pipeline to ingest and transform cloud billing data into the FOCUS format. This pipeline integrates data from multiple cloud providers and internal systems, providing a unified view of their cloud costs.
2. Improved Allocation and Reporting
By using FOCUS, GitLab has improved the accuracy of cost allocation to different products and services. They also enhanced their reporting capabilities, enabling detailed analysis of cloud spending and optimization opportunities.
3. Enhanced Unit Economics
FOCUS enabled GitLab to calculate unit economics for various cloud resources, providing valuable insights into the cost efficiency of their operations. These insights help GitLab optimize resource usage and drive cost savings.
In their presentation, GitLab shared that “FOCUS has allowed us to standardize our billing data, making it easier to allocate costs accurately and improve our reporting capabilities. This has provided valuable insights into the cost efficiency of our operations.”
Zoom, a leading video conferencing platform, has also embraced the FOCUS initiative to streamline its cloud financial operations. Based on the presentation at FinOps X 2024, Zoom representatives highlighted three ways FOCUS helped them.
1. Unified View of Costs
Zoom leverages FOCUS to consolidate cost data from multiple cloud providers and data centers. This unified view helps them analyze costs at various levels of granularity, providing valuable insights for cost optimization and resource allocation.
2. Improved Cost Allocation
FOCUS enables Zoom to accurately allocate costs to different products, services, and teams. This improved cost allocation enhances transparency and accountability, empowering teams to make data-driven decisions.
3. Streamlined Forecasting and Budgeting
By adopting FOCUS, Zoom improved its forecasting and budgeting processes. The standardized data format facilitates accurate predictions of future cloud costs, enabling better financial planning and resource management.
During the presentation, Zoom shared, “Using FOCUS has given us a unified view of our cloud costs, enabling us to allocate costs more accurately and improve our forecasting and budgeting processes. This has been a game-changer for our financial operations.”
The FOCUS initiative is transforming cloud financial operations by providing a standardized format for cost and usage data. Organizations like GitLab and Zoom are leveraging FOCUS to improve cost allocation, enhance reporting, and optimize cloud spending.
FOCUS is not just a one-time implementation, but an ongoing journey. Continuous refinement of cost allocation models and processes will ensure organizations reap the full benefits of this initiative. And as more organizations adopt FOCUS, the benefits of standardization and interoperability will continue to drive advancements in cloud financial management.
The collaboration between the FinOps Foundation and the cloud community is paving the way for a more efficient and transparent cloud financial ecosystem.
Curious about other training offered by the FinOps Foundation and how it can align with PointFive? Discover the alignment between PointFive and the FinOps Engineer Certification, and see how our expertise can benefit your organization.
