Operationalizing FinOps with automation

FinOps, and specifically, getting engineers to take actions and empowering them to do so, is the top challenge. But before we get to that, why do you need the cloud? What is the goal of FinOps?  

It’s about business value. Specifically about moving from a CAPEX model to an OPEX model. Making sure that your cloud infrastructure - your cloud applications - are scaled up when needed, but also scaled down when you no longer need them. The second reason is agility. This ensures that developers have what they need to code that revenue generating, differentiating functionality. Functionality in their applications, new services, etc. And last but certainly not least: differentiation by using all these cloud services that providers like AWS or Microsoft Azure are offering. Like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, developer tools, DevOps tools and even quantum computing. There are hundreds of these services that cloud providers create and invest in. If you can leverage these services, then you can focus on differentiating your business. 

For FinOps though, there are 3 phases, identified by the FinOps Foundation. Three phases that any organization goes through as they are adopting these best practices to get that business value out of the cloud that is mentioned above.  

• The first one is Inform: giving teams the visibility to make smarter spending decisions: showback, chargeback, reporting. 
• The second one is Optimize: giving applications the resources they need when they need it, and leveraging Reserved Instances (RIs) & discounts to further drive those efficiencies.  
• The third phase is Operate: continuously evaluating your business objectives. How are you tracking them? What are the trends? And then of course, continuously optimizing that.  

The reality however is that there are many solutions and services that assist you in the “Inform” phase. Like Flexera One. There are a few tools that claim to be able to do the “Optimize” phase. And “Operate”… well, let’s focus first on empowering engineers to take actions.  

IBM Turbonomic empowers engineers 

We are talking about optimizations of your Cloud environment. What is required? Let’s start with a performance-first approach. You should know that optimization understands what an application needs and is never going to risk performance. Because without performance, we can forget about all the benefits you get from cloud providers. The second topic to look at is the full application stack. From applications to the Kubernetes platform to the underlying cloud infrastructure, and everything in between. And lastly, you should operationalize the platform - and that requires trust. Because ultimately, we’re not talking about actions, but about automation. Engineers, developers, application owners, you - we all need to feel comfortable automating in the cloud. We all need to trust that the optimization was right.  

And that is why organisations should take that performance-first approach. You need to know that you never risk the performance of that application! To do that, you need to understand what is going on everywhere in the stack. To further build that trust, you need to give your stakeholders (those engineers, developers, application owners) the data. Show them what the impact is of taking these actions. And this is where IBM Turbonomic is helping our customers! 

This is a big cultural shift! But if you can do it, if you can automate, you will achieve that OPEX model. You will be able to scale up those resources on demand and scale them down when you no longer need them. Developers get what they need. They can continuously iterate and innovate for the business. If your organization can do all this, you can achieve considerable cost savings. Which your organization can invest to differentiate itself from the market. 

So, if you want to empower your engineers to take actions, think about what that optimization is that’s going to enable you and your organization to automate. That is ultimately how you accomplish all this and get that business value in the cloud.