Top 10 FinOps Tools: A Guide of Essential Tools

The cloud brings multiple advantages, such as scalability, agility, and innovation. While it simplifies the management process, it raises new problems, like those associated with cloud cost management and optimisation. It is at this point that FinOps becomes significant. FinOps vs DevOps is a critical comparison as FinOps is the hybrid between Finance and DevOps to align the cost of cloud spending with business value. To implement FinOps successfully, you require the right tools. In this blog, we will make you acquainted with the leading 10 FinOps Tools which are geared towards cost reports, analysis, optimisation and governance.

Table of Contents

1) What is a FinOps Tool?

2) Top FinOps Tools

   a) Apptio (IBM)

   b) AWS

  c) Cloudability

  d) CloudCheckr

  e) Cloud Keeper

  f) CloudZero

  g) Datadog

  h) Solidify

  i) Exit

  j) Flexera

3) How to pick the FinOps Tool that's best for you?

4) Conclusion

What is a FinOps Tool?

A FinOps Tool is a software solution that helps you manage and optimise your cloud costs. A FinOps Tool can perform various functions, such as:

a) Collecting and aggregating cloud cost data from different sources and providers

b) Providing visibility and transparency into cloud spending and usage

c) Analysing and forecasting cloud costs and trends

d) Identifying and recommending cost-saving opportunities and best practices

e) Enabling cost allocation and chargeback to different business units and projects

f) Automating and enforcing cost policies and controls

g) Integrating with other cloud management and DevOps tools

A FinOps Tool can help you achieve the three phases of the FinOps lifecycle: inform, optimise, and operate. In the inform phase, a FinOps Tool helps you understand your cloud costs and how they relate to your business value.

In the optimise phase, a FinOps Tool helps you reduce your cloud costs and improve your cloud efficiency. In the operating phase, a FinOps Tool helps you monitor and manage your cloud costs and ensure compliance with your cost policies and goals.

 

Top FinOps Tools

In this section, we will review the greatest FinOps tools on the market. We will give you a brief explanation of what each tool does and what its features are

Apptio (IBM)

The Appio platform incorporates an AI-based cloud cost management and optimisation services that help you with planning analysis and optimisation of all your cloud spending. Apptio can tie up to various vendors such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, which can be viewed as the top leading cloud players. Through collaboration with Apptio, the views of your cloud computing bills will include a universal view of your cloud expenses in terms of services, locations, and young accounts. Among the great qualities of Apptio in that it captures hybrid and multicloud environments plus on-premise and legacy systems, its capability to present the organisation's financial plans also gets notice. Apptio enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Allocate and chargeback your cloud costs to different business units and projects

c) Identify and implement cost-saving opportunities and best practices

d) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

e) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

f) Benchmark and compare your cloud costs and efficiency with industry peers and standards

Apptio is a comprehensive and powerful FinOps Tool that can help you gain full visibility and control over your cloud costs and value. However, Apptio can also be complex and expensive to implement and use, as it requires a lot of customisation and integration. Apptio is best suited for large and mature organisations that have a high level of cloud spending and complexity.

AWS

AWS stands as the foremost cloud provider, presenting an extensive array of cloud services and solutions. Additionally, AWS furnishes various native tools and functionalities conducive to FinOps, including:

a) AWS Cost Explorer: This tool aids in visualising and analysing AWS costs and usage trends over time.

b) AWS Budgets: This tool supports the creation and management of AWS budgets along with corresponding alerts.

c) AWS Cost and Usage Report: A comprehensive report delivering detailed insights into your AWS costs and usage.

d) AWS Cost Anomaly Detection: A feature that helps you detect and investigate unexpected changes in your AWS costs and usage

e) AWS Savings Plans: A pricing model that helps you save money on your AWS compute and Lambda usage

f) AWS Reserved Instances: A pricing model that helps you save money on your AWS EC2 and RDS usage

g) AWS Trusted Advisor: A tool that helps you optimise your AWS performance, security, and costs

AWS offers many native FinOps Tools and features that can help you manage and optimise your AWS costs and value. However, AWS tools and features are limited to AWS services and accounts, and do not support other cloud providers or platforms.

AWS tools and features can also be difficult to use and understand, as they require a lot of configuration and analysis. AWS tools and features are best suited for AWS users who want to leverage the native capabilities of AWS for FinOps.

Cloudability

Cloudability is cloud cost management and FinOps platform that helps customers track, allocate, and optimise their cloud spending across multiple cloud providers and business units. Cloudability enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Allocate and chargeback your cloud costs to different business units and projects

c) Identify and implement cost-saving opportunities and best practices

d) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

e) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

f) Benchmark and compare your cloud costs and efficiency with industry peers and standards

g) Cloudability is a comprehensive and powerful FinOps Tool that can help you gain full visibility and control over your cloud costs and value.

However, Cloudability can be complex and expensive to implement and use, as it requires a lot of customisation and integration. Cloudability is best suited for large and mature organisations that have a high level of cloud spending and complexity.

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CloudCheckr

CloudCheckr is a cloud management platform that provides cost optimisation, security, compliance, and governance for cloud environments.

CloudCheckr also supports hybrid and multi-cloud environments, as well as Kubernetes and containerised workloads. CloudCheckr enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Allocate and chargeback your cloud costs to different business units and projects

c) Identify and implement cost-saving opportunities and best practices

d) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

e) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

f) Benchmark and compare your cloud costs and efficiency with industry peers and standards

g) Monitor and audit your cloud security and compliance

CloudCheckr is a comprehensive and powerful FinOps Tool that can help you manage and optimise your cloud security, compliance, and costs. However, CloudCheckr can also be complex and expensive to implement and use, as it requires a lot of customisation and integration. CloudCheckr is best suited for large and mature organisations that have a high level of cloud spending and complexity.

Cloud Keeper

Cloud Keeper is a cloud cost optimisation tool that helps customers reduce their cloud waste and save money by automating actions such as deleting unused resources, resizing instances, and purchasing reserved instances. Cloud Keeper enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Identify and eliminate unused and underutilised cloud resources

c) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

d) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

e) Automate and schedule your cloud cost optimisation actions

Cloud Keeper is a simple and effective FinOps Tool that can help you reduce your cloud costs and waste. However, Cloud Keeper does not provide many features and functions that other FinOps Tools offer, such as cost allocation, chargeback, benchmarking, and reporting.

Cloud Keeper is best suited for small and medium-sized organisations that want to save money on their cloud costs and waste.

CloudZero

CloudZero is a cloud cost intelligence platform that helps customers understand the cost and value of their cloud resources and align their cloud spending with their business goals. CloudZero enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Allocate and chargeback your cloud costs to different business units and projects

c) Identify and implement cost-saving opportunities and best practices

d) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

e) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

CloudZero uses artificial intelligence to detect and alert you of abnormal changes in your cloud costs and usage. CloudZero also helps you align your cloud costs with your business value by showing you the cost per customer, feature, product, and more.

Datadog

Datadog is a cloud monitoring and analytics platform that helps customers track the performance, availability, and cost of their cloud applications and infrastructure. Datadog enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Allocate and chargeback your cloud costs to different business units and projects

c) Identify and implement cost-saving opportunities and best practices

d) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

e) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

f) Monitor and troubleshoot your cloud performance and reliability issues

Datadog is a comprehensive and powerful FinOps Tool that can help you monitor and optimise your cloud performance, reliability, and costs. However, Datadog can also be complex and expensive to implement and use, as it requires a lot of customisation and integration. Datadog is best suited for large and mature organisations that have a high level of cloud spending and complexity.

Solidify

Solidify is cloud cost optimisation tool that helps customers reduce their cloud spending by providing recommendations, alerts, and automation for resource management, pricing models, and budgeting. Solidify enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Identify and eliminate unused and underutilised cloud resources

c) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

d) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

e) Automate and schedule your cloud cost optimisation actions

f) Integrate with other cloud management and DevOps tools

Solidify is a simple and effective FinOps Tool that can help you automate and optimise your cloud costs and waste. However, Solidify does not provide many features and functions that other best FinOps Tools offer, such as cost allocation, chargeback, benchmarking, and reporting. Solidify is best suited for small and medium-sized organisations that want to save money on their cloud costs and waste.

Exit

Exit is a cloud cost optimisation tool that helps customers exit their cloud contracts and migrate their workloads to lower-cost or on-premises alternatives. Exit enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Compare and evaluate different cloud providers and plans

c) Identify and implement cloud migration opportunities and best practices

d) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

e) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

f) Automate and execute your cloud migration actions

Exit is a unique and innovative FinOps Tool that can help you exit your cloud contracts and migrate to cheaper or better cloud providers. However, Exit can also be risky and challenging to implement and use, as it requires a lot of planning and coordination. Exit is best suited for adventurous and flexible organisations that want to explore new cloud options and opportunities.

Flexera

Flexera is a cloud management platform that helps customers optimise their cloud usage and spending and manage their cloud governance and compliance.

Flexera enables you to:

a) Track and forecast your cloud costs and usage

b) Allocate and chargeback your cloud costs to different business units and projects

c) Identify and implement cost-saving opportunities and best practices

d) Optimise your cloud performance and utilisation

e) Manage and enforce your cloud budget and policies

f) Benchmark and compare your cloud costs and efficiency with industry peers and standards

g) Monitor and audit your cloud security and compliance

Flexera is a comprehensive and powerful FinOps Tool that can help you manage and optimise your cloud security, compliance, and costs. However, Flexera can also be complex and expensive to implement and use, as it requires a lot of customisation and integration. Flexera is best suited for large and mature organisations that have a high level of cloud spending and complexity.

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How to pick the FinOps Tool that’s best for you

As you can see, there are many best FinOps Tools available in the market, each with its own features, functions, and benefits. However, not every FinOps Tool is suitable for every organisation. To pick the FinOps Tool that’s best for you, you need to consider several factors, such as:

a) Your cloud spending and complexity

How much do you spend on the cloud, and how complex is your cloud environment? If you have a high level of cloud spending and complexity, you may need a more comprehensive and powerful FinOps Tool that can handle your cloud cost management and optimisation needs.

If you have a low level of cloud spending and complexity, you may need a simpler and cheaper FinOps Tool that can help you save money on your cloud costs and waste.

b) Your cloud goals and challenges

What are your cloud goals and challenges, and how do they relate to your business value? If you want to align your cloud costs with your business value, you may need a FinOps Tool that can help you allocate and chargeback your cloud costs to different business units and projects.

If you want to reduce your cloud costs and improve your cloud efficiency, you may need a FinOps Tool that can help you identify and implement cost-saving opportunities and best practices. If you want to monitor and optimise your cloud performance and reliability, you may need a FinOps Tool that can help you track and troubleshoot your cloud performance and reliability issues.

c) Your cloud preferences and options

What are your cloud preferences and options, and how do they affect your cloud cost optimisation? If you prefer to use a single cloud provider or platform, you may need a FinOps Tool that can integrate with your native cloud capabilities and features.

If you prefer to use multiple cloud providers or platforms, you may need a FinOps Tool that can support hybrid and multi-cloud environments. If you prefer to use Kubernetes and containerised workloads, you may need a FinOps Tool that can support them. If you prefer to explore new cloud options and opportunities, you may need a FinOps Tool that can help you exit your cloud contracts and migrate to cheaper or better cloud providers.

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Conclusion

FinOps is a practice that helps organisations optimise their cloud costs and value. To implement FinOps Strategy effectively, you need the right tools. In this blog, we introduced you to the top 10 FinOps Tools that can help you with cost reporting, analysis, optimisation, and governance. If you're preparing for a role in FinOps, reviewing FinOps Interview Questions will further enhance your understanding of these tools and how they align with cloud financial management practices.

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