FinOps Certified FOCUS Analyst Preparation

• Basic understanding of financial concepts like budgeting, forecasting, and cost control
• Basin analytical skills

Audience

• Financial analysts
• Finance professionals
• Business analysts

The FinOps Certified FOCUS Analyst certification is designed to equip professionals with the skills to leverage the FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification) framework. FOCUS is an open-source standard that unifies cloud billing data across multiple providers, making it easier to analyze cloud costs, optimize spending, and drive data-driven decisions effectively.

This instructor-led, live training (online or onsite) is aimed at intermediate-level finance professionals who wish to gain a comprehensive knowledge of FinOps principles and methodologies, including cloud financial management, optimization strategies, and collaboration among finance, engineering, and business teams.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the FinOps framework, principles, and phases.
• Manage cloud costs effectively through data analysis and governance.
• Collaborate between finance, engineering, and business units to align cloud spend.
• Use FinOps tools for cost allocation, forecasting, and optimization.
• Prepare for the FinOps Certified FOCUS Analyst exam.

Format of the Course

• Interactive lecture and discussion.
• Lots of exercises and practice.
• Hands-on implementation in a live-lab environment.

Course Customization Options

• To request a customized training for this course, please contact us to arrange.

Introduction

• Overview of FinOps
• Key principles of FinOps: Accountability, Optimization, and Transparency
• Roles and responsibilities within a FinOps team

Phases of the FinOps Lifecycle

• Inform Phase: Understanding cloud spend
• Optimize Phase: Maximizing value
• Operate Phase: Continuous operations

Introduction to Cloud Providers and Billing

• Understanding cloud billing models (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
• Billing structure, invoices, and chargebacks

Cloud Cost Allocation and Tagging Strategy

• Best practices for tagging and categorizing cloud resources
• Mapping cloud spend to business units

Cloud Cost Optimization

• Identifying waste: Orphaned resources, unused commitments, and right-sizing
• Implementing auto-scaling and on-demand vs. reserved instances

Reporting and Dashboards

• Tools for FinOps reporting (Power BI, Tableau, or cloud-native tools)
• Setting up dashboards for key metrics and alerts

Governance and Policies

• Creating FinOps policies for budget control
• Governance frameworks for cloud financial management

Compliance and Regulatory Considerations

• Data residency and cloud spend compliance
• Internal and external audits

Collaboration Between Finance, Engineering, and Business Units

• Aligning objectives across teams
• Communication strategies for transparency in cloud spend

Tools for FinOps Analysts

• Overview of FinOps tools: CloudHealth, Cloudability, and Apptio Cloudability
• Using cloud provider tools for cost management

Case Studies and Industry Examples

• Real-world examples of FinOps success stories
• Lessons learned and best practices

Certification Exam Preparation

• Exam structure and format
• Sample questions and practice tests
• Review session and Q&A

Summary and Next Steps