A Hidden Pitfall of Cloud Cost Reporting That Will Cost You
- You've followed the FinOps guidelines
- You engaged key stakeholders
- You implemented monthly cost reports
- You established a robust tagging strategy.
Yet, your cloud costs continue to rise inexplicably.
The issue might lie in the frequency of your cost reporting.
Problem: Traditional cost reporting is often monthly or quarterly, but cloud environments can change daily.
Solution: Provide cloud engineers daily cost reports, including day-over-day costs and monthly forecasts.
The Importance of Daily Reports
Imagine a scenario where your standard monthly cloud spend is $100K. On the 3rd of the month, a change results in a daily increase of $333, equating to a 10% hike. If you rely solely on monthly reports, it could take a whole month to detect this $10K increase, translating to a potential annual rise of $120K. This delay impacts operational expenses and diverts engineering resources toward identifying the cause of this surge, leading to lost velocity.
Conversely, daily reporting allows cloud engineers to spot and address unexpected cost increases promptly. This immediate response not only prevents shocks in the monthly report but also fosters a more proactive approach to cost management, ultimately saving time and resources.
#findops #cloud @costmanagement
