Into the cloud – but at what cost?
One of the primary reasons organizations worldwide have moved to the cloud is to reduce costs. However, many have found that the cloud isn’t delivering the cost savings they expected.
It’s common to see high levels of wastage in cloud environments. Often, organizations have cloud resources in full-time usage unnecessarily or haven’t adapted sizing to meet changing needs. Many organizations also have unused capacity they’ve already paid for, ramping up cloud costs even further.
Cloud usage continues to grow, but many organizations have limited visibility into the distribution of cloud consumption. That makes it hard for IT leaders to determine where they can trim cloud usage to keep costs under control. What’s more, the on-demand pricing models that helped organizations shift away from massive capital expenditure (CapEx) investments can make monitoring, forecasting, and budgeting difficult.
of cloud decision-makers are prioritizing cost optimizationi
These cost challenges will be exacerbated over the next few years as the consumption of resource-intensive generative AI applications grows – with a corresponding impact on organizations’ carbon footprint.
Organizations are under more pressure than ever to deliver on their sustainability commitments. However, most users and application owners are accustomed to using cloud resources without limitations; many aren’t even aware of the cost and environmental impacts of their cloud usage. Plus, a lack of sustainability ownership across IT, finance, and line-of-business teams makes accountability opaque, so nobody is responsible for taking action.
of organizations now give cloud cost optimization and sustainability equal priorityii
Many organizations have adopted a FinOps approach in an attempt to control cloud costs, but with varying levels of success. Often, FinOps leaders find it hard to bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
Meanwhile, sustainability teams often lack visibility of the CO2 impact of cloud consumption across the organization, making it difficult to identify where they can make reductions.
However, a new approach – Sustainable FinOps – combines FinOps and GreenOps best practices to help organizations realize significant cost and CO2 reductions.
In this guide, we’ll explore how Sustainable FinOps can help organizations boost cost optimization and carbon efficiency in the cloud, as well as the key success factors to consider on your own Sustainable FinOps journey.
