Master in FinOps

Bridge the gap between finance and technology. Learn to optimize cloud spending, drive financial accountability, and accelerate business value by fostering a culture of collaboration and data-driven cloud cost management.

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Who Should Enroll?

This course is ideal for:

Prerequisites

Essential FinOps Tools & Concepts Covered

AWS Cost Explorer

Azure Cost Management

GCP Billing Reports

Cost Optimization Tools

Budgeting & Forecasting

Cloud Tagging Strategies

Reserved Instances/Savings Plans

Unit Economics

Policy-as-Code (Cost)

Anomaly Detection

Cross-Functional Collaboration

FinOps Dashboards

Our hands-on approach focuses on mastering these crucial tools and concepts for effective cloud financial management.

Job Roles After This Course

Comprehensive FinOps Syllabus: Maximizing Cloud Value!

Module 1.1: FinOps Foundations & Principles

  • Introduction to FinOps: What it is, why it's crucial for cloud success.
  • The FinOps Framework: Inform, Optimize, Operate phases.
  • FinOps Principles: Collaboration, ownership, business value, accessibility, centralization, variable spend.
  • FinOps Personas: Role of Finance, Engineering, Product, Executives in FinOps.
  • Cloud Economics 101: Understanding the pay-as-you-go model and its challenges.
  • Cultural Shift: Fostering a cost-conscious, collaborative culture.
  • Lab: Analyzing basic cloud billing statements to identify key cost centers.

Concepts Covered:

  • FinOps Framework, FinOps Principles, Cloud Economics, Cross-Functional Collaboration.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Understand the core philosophy and principles of FinOps.
  • Identify key stakeholders and their roles in a FinOps practice.
  • Grasp the fundamental differences of cloud financial management.

Module 1.2: Cloud Cost Components & Visibility

  • Understanding Cloud Pricing Models: On-demand, Reserved Instances (RIs), Savings Plans, Spot Instances.
  • Key Cloud Cost Drivers: Compute, Storage, Network, Databases, Serverless, Data Transfer.
  • Cost Allocation Strategies: Tagging, Labeling, Cost Centers, Business Units.
  • Resource Hierarchy and Cost Grouping: Projects, Accounts, Subscriptions.
  • Gaining Cost Visibility: Native cloud provider tools (AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, GCP Billing Reports).
  • Real-time vs. Batched Billing Data.
  • Lab: Navigating cloud provider billing consoles, applying tags to resources, generating basic cost reports.

Tools Covered:

  • AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, GCP Billing Reports.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Break down cloud costs into constituent components.
  • Implement effective tagging and allocation strategies.
  • Utilize native cloud tools for cost visibility and analysis.

Module 2.1: Cloud Cost Optimization Techniques

  • Right-sizing Resources: Matching instance types and sizes to workload needs.
  • Eliminating Waste: Identifying and shutting down idle/underutilized resources.
  • Leveraging Discount Models: Strategic use of RIs and Savings Plans.
  • Architectural Optimization: Serverless, managed services, containerization for cost savings.
  • Storage Optimization: Lifecycle policies, tiering, deletion of unattached volumes.
  • Network Cost Optimization: Reducing data transfer costs.
  • Lab: Identifying over-provisioned resources and recommending right-sizing, developing strategies for RI/Savings Plan purchases.

Concepts Covered:

  • Rightsizing, Waste Reduction, Discount Programs, Architecture Optimization.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Apply various techniques to reduce cloud spend effectively.
  • Identify and address cloud waste.
  • Strategically utilize cloud provider discount models.

Module 2.2: Financial Governance & Accountability

  • Budgeting and Forecasting Cloud Spend: Methodologies, challenges, tools.
  • Anomaly Detection and Alerting: Identifying unexpected cost spikes.
  • Showback vs. Chargeback Models: Implementing financial accountability.
  • Setting Cloud Cost Policies and Guardrails.
  • Cost Allocation to Business Value: Unit economics, cost per customer/feature.
  • Financial Reporting and Communication for different stakeholders.
  • Lab: Creating a cloud budget and forecast, setting up cost anomaly alerts, designing a simple showback report.

Tools & Concepts:

  • Cloud Provider Budgets/Alerts, Unit Economics, Showback/Chargeback, Cost Policy.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Develop and manage cloud budgets and forecasts.
  • Implement mechanisms for financial accountability (showback/chargeback).
  • Communicate cloud financial insights effectively to various teams.

Module 3.1: FinOps Tooling & Dashboards (Advanced)

  • Third-Party FinOps Platforms: Overview of CloudHealth, Cloudability, Spot.io, CloudZero.
  • Data Ingestion and Normalization: Connecting to billing data, transforming raw data.
  • Building Custom FinOps Dashboards: Using tools like Power BI, Tableau, Grafana.
  • Advanced Reporting and Drill-down Capabilities.
  • APIs for Cost Data: Programmatic access to billing and usage data.
  • Benchmarking Cloud Spend: Internal and external comparisons.
  • Lab: Connecting to sample cloud billing data, building custom cost dashboards.

Tools Covered:

  • CloudHealth/Cloudability (conceptual), Power BI/Tableau/Grafana (conceptual), Cloud Billing APIs.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Evaluate and select appropriate FinOps tools.
  • Design and create compelling FinOps dashboards.
  • Utilize advanced data analysis techniques for cloud costs.

Module 3.2: Optimizing for Value & Performance

  • Balancing Cost, Speed, and Quality (The Iron Triangle).
  • Optimizing for Business Value: Beyond just cost reduction.
  • Performance Optimization with Cost in Mind: Right-sizing for performance vs. pure cost.
  • Application Cost Attribution: Linking application features to cloud spend.
  • Continuous Optimization: Iterative process, feedback loops.
  • Sustainability in Cloud: Understanding the environmental cost of cloud, green IT initiatives.
  • Lab: Analyzing a specific application's cloud spend to identify value drivers and areas for performance-cost optimization.

Concepts:

  • Iron Triangle, Value Optimization, Continuous Improvement, Cloud Sustainability.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Make data-driven decisions balancing cost, speed, and quality.
  • Align cloud spending with business objectives and value.
  • Incorporate sustainability considerations into FinOps practices.

Module 4.1: FinOps Automation & Advanced Strategies

  • Automating Cost Optimization: Scheduled start/stop, auto-scaling, unused resource clean-up.
  • Policy-as-Code for Cost Control: Implementing guardrails via Infrastructure as Code (e.g., OPA with Terraform).
  • Cost Anomaly Detection and Automated Remediation.
  • Advanced Reserved Instance & Savings Plan Management (Exchanges, modifications).
  • Leveraging AI/ML for Cost Optimization and Forecasting (conceptual).
  • Vendor Management and Negotiation in Cloud FinOps.
  • Lab: Implementing a simple automation script for resource scheduling, writing a basic cost policy-as-code.

Tools & Concepts:

  • Cloud Automation (Lambda/Functions), Policy as Code (OPA), AI/ML for FinOps, Vendor Negotiation.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Automate common cloud cost optimization tasks.
  • Implement policy-driven cost controls using code.
  • Understand advanced strategies for large-scale FinOps.

Module 4.2: Building & Maturing a FinOps Practice

  • Building a FinOps Team: Structure, roles, and responsibilities.
  • Integrating FinOps into the SDLC: Shift-left cost considerations.
  • FinOps Maturity Model: Assessing and advancing your organization's practice.
  • Overcoming Common FinOps Challenges: Data complexity, cultural resistance.
  • FinOps Certifications and Community: FOCP, FinOps Foundation.
  • Future of FinOps: Evolving landscape, containers, serverless, SaaS FinOps.
  • Capstone Project: Develop a comprehensive FinOps strategy and implementation roadmap for a fictional company, addressing their cloud spend challenges.

Concepts & Tools:

  • FinOps Team Building, SDLC Integration, FinOps Maturity Model, FinOps Foundation.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Design and implement a FinOps practice within an organization.
  • Drive cultural change towards financial accountability in the cloud.
  • Position yourself as a leader in the FinOps domain.
  • Develop a complete FinOps strategy from foundational principles to advanced automation.

Our comprehensive modules ensure you gain the deep understanding and practical skills required to excel in FinOps.

Student Testimonials

"This FinOps course completely changed how I view cloud spending. I can now effectively communicate cost implications to our engineering teams!"

- Anil Kumar, Cloud Engineer

"As a financial analyst, the practical insights into cloud pricing models and optimization strategies were invaluable. Vishwa Sir makes it easy to bridge finance and tech."

- Sarah Chen, Financial Analyst

"The hands-on labs with cloud cost tools and dashboard creation were fantastic. I'm now confidently building FinOps reports for our executives."

- Ben Carter, IT Manager

"Learning about unit economics and linking cloud spend to business value was a huge eye-opener. This course is essential for anyone in cloud roles."

- Fatima Zahra, Product Owner

"The automation module taught me how to put cost guardrails into code. This proactive approach saves us a lot of money and effort."

- Liam Murphy, DevOps Engineer

"Thanks to Vishwa Sir's holistic approach to FinOps, I feel equipped to lead cloud cost optimization initiatives. The capstone project was incredibly practical and rewarding."

- Olivia Rodriguez, Cloud Architect

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