As Commonwealth entities increasingly adopt cloud FinOps, it is important that they adopt a strategic approach that outlines a clear vision, a plan for incremental development, and a target to pragmatically achieve their organisational objectives.
All cloud FinOps implementations should take a systemic approach, factoring in need of stakeholders including, but not limited to:
- Executive leadership need assurance that the cloud is controlled and managed effectively and efficiently. This can be achieved through regular updates and strategic meetings, as well as through detailed reporting, such as real-time dashboards that provide insights into key performance metrics and operational challenges.
- Finance teams need to identify the budget owners, forecast the costs for each budget owner, and monitor the actual versus predicted costs on a regular basis.
- Product owners need to forecast and track the cloud costs related to their product, and account for those costs within the profit and loss. They need to understand the business changes that can impact their predicted costs, and track value metrics to ensure they are getting an efficient service.
- IT leadership need to ensure that the cloud FinOps strategy is incorporated into the cloud strategy and ensure an effective cloud FinOps service. They need to establish optimisation priorities, define technical controls and processes, so that they can track the trends, identifying and responding to any anomalous costs.
- Engineering teams need to be aware of their service costs and have defined routes for the technical optimisation of their services. They need to be alerted to irregular or unplanned costs and either take corrective action or communicate the changes and their value. The running cost needs to be considered as part of the design process when developing or refreshing systems to enable optimum design decisions.
The needs of stakeholders should be realised via clear and traceable requirements, that are maintained as fundamental to further implementation works.
Comply with legislation
When establishing cloud FinOps practices, entities should ensure legislative compliance and embed visibility and legislative traceability into the operating model itself. This approach ensures compliance and legislative alignment is core to all cloud deployments and makes audits efficient.
Any domain-specific legislation relevant to the context of the entity/cloud investment should be considered alongside core pieces of legislation including the:
- Archives Act 1983 (Cth)
- Data Availability and Transparency (DAT) Act 2002 (Cth)
- Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth)
Research and assess practices and solutions
All entities should conduct their own requirements gathering and follow an objective assessment of platform suitability utilising whole-of-government (WofG) procurement panels, guidance and tool kits.
Researching and assessing cloud FinOps solutions is crucial, particularly as this is an emerging capability in which vendor offerings are also rapidly evolving. Thorough research allows entities to understand the diverse range of solutions and tools available, helping to make informed decisions to optimise cost management, enhance resource utilisation and compatibility with existing systems.
Incrementally improve strategies
Entities should incrementally establish a central cloud FinOps function to provide coordination and information between stakeholders involved in cloud operations. Making multiple small scale, quick actions with limited scope allows FinOps teams to assess the outcomes of their actions, and gain insights into the value of taking further action.
Reuse previous investment
Entities should seek to reuse existing investment where suitable, and prudentially consider whether the efficacy of a given implementation method will meet entity needs. When selecting a cloud FinOps model, tool, or platform for reuse, entities should:
- understand their use-case specific functional and non-functional requirements, including volume and nature of data, broader system purpose, performance matters, and privacy/sensitivity concerns
- consider existing and future technological landscape and interoperability needs
- investigate previous investment within your entity and across government and seek to reuse where suitable
- ensure any investment is contemporary and viable for long-term use.
If existing options in the capability are not suitable, consideration should be given to the reusability of relevant processes and practices derived from related AGA capabilities.
There are several existing governance frameworks developed for other AGA capabilities, that may lend themselves to developing cloud FinOps policies and practices. Entities may also explore the FinOps Framework, established by the FinOps Foundation, which provides an operating model that it considers a baseline for establishing excellent FinOps practice.
Build for reuse and the long-term use
Developing a cloud FinOps system with broad applicability across entities, and a future-focus that enables long term support and viability, is critical for reducing risk, increasing efficiency, and supporting consistent implementation across government.
Any new system should be designed with a modular and scalable architecture, allowing for future integration into other structures. Emphasising interoperability and standardisation, in both technologies and data formats, ensures adaptability across different entities. Additionally, user-friendly interfaces and comprehensive documentation should be incorporated to facilitate ease of implementation and use. This will allow for a streamlining of processes, promoting and fostering consistency across entities and aligning with best practice in non-government organisations.