Embrace FinOps for AI Success

Did you know that, on average, companies waste 30% of their cloud spend due to inefficiencies? As more businesses adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and migrate to the cloud, managing cloud spend has become a critical challenge. In this era of optimising operations and minimising costs, organisations are constantly seeking innovative ways to leverage AI advancements like Open AI GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to revolutionise their business processes. However, it's important to recognise that choosing the right AI model not only impacts performance, but also has significant cost implications. This is where the concept of FinOps comes into play.

FinOps, an abbreviation for Financial Operations, is a well-established methodology that combines financial management principles with cloud operations to empower businesses with enhanced control over their cloud spending. By implementing FinOps practices, organisations can proactively manage and optimise their cloud costs, ensuring that each euro spent delivers maximum value. With a focus on optimising costs, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring accountability in cloud spending, FinOps presents a strategic approach to effectively manage cloud spend, especially with regards to the growing adoption of AI and cloud technologies.

When it comes to cost transparency in the realm of AI and FinOps, it's essential to understand how different cloud providers handle this aspect. Let's take a closer look at one of the major cloud providers in Belgium: Microsoft Azure. 

Azure Migrate and Modernise, along with Azure Innovate, offer a range of benefits to customers. These include assessments, proof-of-concepts, and deployment assistance from experts. Customers can take advantage of expert guidance, partner funding, Azure credits, migration tooling, and technical skilling. When it comes to AI (pilot) projects, Azure AI services provided by Microsoft Azure offer a convenient way to quickly implement AI proof-of-concepts or minimum viable products (MVPs). However, they have limitations when it comes to individual insights on costs per AI resource. Gaining an understanding of the individual cost per resource can become challenging and time-consuming, whereas considering the cost of your project and close monitoring after deployment are crucial parts of the process. This is where FinOps can bring a significant improvement. 

To efficiently implement FinOps, a cross-functional approach is important. PwC has identified four key domains that are essential for achieving cloud efficiency in FinOps. 

These domains provide a comprehensive framework for organisations to effectively manage and optimise their cloud spend.

By incorporating these four domains into a cross-functional FinOps practice, organisations can establish a comprehensive approach to managing and optimising their cloud spend.

By now, it should be evident that FinOps is pivotal for developing AI models for your business. However, the role of AI extends beyond this – it can also significantly impact your FinOps practices. By harnessing the power of AI-powered analytics and cost optimisation tools, organisations can unlock real-time insights, identify cost-saving opportunities, and maximise their return on cloud investments. AI, when combined with FinOps, empowers businesses to leverage the full potential of the cloud, driving innovation and gaining a competitive edge. With AI-driven cost analysis and predictive modelling, organisations can accurately forecast and optimise their cloud spend, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and cost-effectively. Additionally, AI automates and streamlines FinOps processes, enabling proactive monitoring, anomaly detection, and automated cost optimisation. This integration of AI and FinOps not only enhances cost efficiency but also enables data-driven decision making, optimised resource allocation, and achieve agility in cloud management strategies.