Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a suite of cloud services designed to help businesses run their applications and workloads in a scalable, secure, and high-performance environment. OCI offers a broad spectrum of services, including compute, storage, networking, database, and analytics solutions. Key features of Oracle Cloud include: In the cloud market, Oracle positions itself as…

Platform Engineering

Platform Engineering emerged as a response to the increasing complexity of cloud-native environments and the need for streamlined, efficient operations. It bridges the gap between development, operations, and financial management, providing a unified approach to managing cloud resources. In the context of FinOps, Platform Engineering plays an important role in aligning technical decisions with financial…

Pulumi

Pulumi is an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) platform that enables developers to define, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages. Launched in 2018, Pulumi has quickly gained traction in the cloud-native ecosystem, offering a powerful alternative to traditional IaC tools. Pulumi provides a unique approach to infrastructure as code by allowing developers…

Reserved Instances

Reserved Instances were introduced by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2009 as a way for customers to reduce their cloud computing costs by committing to a specific amount of compute capacity for a predetermined period. Since then, other major cloud providers, such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, have adopted similar models. The primary…

Shared Responsibility Model

The Shared Responsibility Model is a framework in cloud computing that delineates the security and operational responsibilities between cloud service providers and their customers. This model is crucial for effective cloud cost management and FinOps practices, ensuring clear accountability and efficient resource utilization. In the context of cloud computing, the Shared Responsibility Model outlines which…

Shift Left

Shift Left is a strategic approach in FinOps that emphasizes the early integration of cost management practices into the cloud development lifecycle. This concept, originating from the software development and testing field, has been adapted to address the growing need for proactive cloud cost optimization. In FinOps, Shift Left involves moving financial considerations and cost…

Showback in FinOps

Concept of Showback In organizations, IT departments often incur significant costs for services, infrastructure, and operations. The showback process provides an itemized overview of these costs to internal departments or business units. Unlike chargeback, where costs are actually billed to departments, showback merely displays the costs, fostering awareness and accountability. Purpose of Showback The primary…

Spot Instances

Spot Instances are a cost-effective cloud computing resource offering that allows users to leverage unused capacity in cloud provider data centers at significantly reduced prices. These instances provide substantial savings compared to traditional On-Demand instances, making them an essential tool for organizations looking to optimize their cloud spending and implement effective FinOps strategies. The concept…

Spotify Backstage

Spotify Backstage is an open-source developer platform that helps organizations streamline software development, improve efficiency, and manage cloud infrastructure costs. Created by Spotify in 2020, this tool has gained significant traction in the tech industry, particularly in FinOps, for its ability to enhance visibility and control over cloud resources. The platform serves as a single…

Terraform

Terraform is an open-source Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that allows users to define, provision, and manage cloud infrastructure resources using a declarative language. Developed by HashiCorp, Terraform has become a crucial component in modern cloud infrastructure management, enabling organizations to automate and streamline their infrastructure deployments across multiple cloud providers. Core Concepts and Functionality…

Terragrunt

Terragrunt is an open-source tool that enhances Terraform’s capabilities by providing additional features for managing infrastructure as code. It serves as a thin wrapper for Terraform, offering improved modularity, code reusability, and remote state management. Terragrunt was developed to address common challenges faced by teams using Terraform for large-scale infrastructure management. It was created by…

The Benefits of FinOps

What is the meaning of FinOps, and what does it stand for? FinOps, a combination of Finance and DevOps (not to be confused with FinOps in finance, which stands for Financial Operations), is a cloud financial management practice that aims to bring teams together to ensure a company maximizes its cloud ROI (Return on Investment)…