Cloud Chaos: How a Company’s Lack of FinOps Led to Millions in Unexpected Cloud Costs
Customer stories told from a Consultant
Once upon a time, there was a rapidly growing technology company let’s just call it “TechCo”. TechCo’s business was doing well, and the company was expanding its offerings to meet customer demand. However, as the company grew, so did its expenses. TechCo’s leadership team launched a new e-commerce platform and realized that they were spending more money than they expected, but they couldn’t figure out why. They had implemented a budget and tracked their spending, but they were still experiencing financial difficulties.
The CEO of TechCo, John Doe, decided to investigate the issue. He gathered his senior leadership team to discuss the company’s financial situation. During the meeting, they discovered that the company was spending more money than expected on its cloud infrastructure, which was essential to its revenue and operations. The company was using Google Cloud services to run its applications and store data. TechCo had anticipated the cost of using these services, but the expenses were much higher than expected.
John knew that the company needed to get to the bottom of this issue, so he hired a team of consultants to help investigate the cause of the overspending. The consultants found that TechCo had not implemented a FinOps organization or process, which led to the unexpected costs. FinOps is the practice of managing cloud financials to optimize costs and align them with business objectives.
TechCo’s lack of a FinOps organization meant that the company was not tracking its cloud usage accurately, which resulted in unexpected costs. The company was not optimizing its cloud infrastructure, and as a result, it was using more resources than it needed. TechCo was not monitoring its spending, so it had no idea how much money it was spending on Google Cloud services until the bills arrived.
After discovering the root cause of the issue, John decided to invest in building a FinOps organization to manage TechCo’s cloud financials. He understood that a FinOps organization would help the company optimize its Google Cloud usage and save costs. TechCo hired a FinOps team and implemented a cloud cost management platform that provided visibility into the company’s cloud usage and spending.
The FinOps team analyzed TechCo’s Google Cloud infrastructure and identified areas where the company could optimize its usage. They discovered that some of the company’s applications were over-provisioned, meaning that they were using more resources than necessary. The FinOps team recommended rightsizing these applications, which resulted in significant cost savings. They also identified an unusual amount of logging in the platform pushing up their spend. Finally identifying unused Google Cloud resources and recommended decommissioning them, which further reduced TechCo’s cloud spending.
The FinOps team worked closely with TechCo’s developers to implement cost optimization measures, such as using Google Cloud’s committed use discounts, which provided significant cost savings. They also created policies to govern cloud usage, such as setting usage limits and creating alerts when usage exceeded these limits.
Over time, TechCo’s FinOps organization helped the company optimize its Google Cloud usage and reduce its cloud spending. The company saved millions of dollars annually by implementing cost optimization measures and managing its cloud usage more effectively. TechCo’s leadership team realized the value of a FinOps organization and made it a priority to ensure that the company continued to manage its cloud financials effectively.
In conclusion, TechCo’s story illustrates the importance of implementing a FinOps organization to manage cloud financials effectively, whether you use Google Cloud or another cloud provider. Without a FinOps organization, TechCo experienced unexpected expenses and struggled to manage its cloud usage and spending effectively. Implementing a FinOps organization allowed TechCo to optimize its Google Cloud usage, reduce its cloud spending, and align its cloud financials with its business objectives. Any company that uses cloud services should consider implementing a FinOps organization to manage its cloud financials effectively and ensure that it is optimizing its cloud usage and saving costs.
If you are looking on how to get started review this article.
