June was a hot month — both in terms of the temperature in North America and because of the FinOps news that has been rolling down the pipeline! (Around here, there’s always excitement in the air when a major FinOps event goes off without a hitch.)
Here’s what you may have missed in the cloud cost world last month:
- The FinOps X conference was held in San Diego
- AWS formally presented its cost management tool lineup for the first time
- Google Cloud became the current leader of the price (and power) war between AI platforms
Get the details below!
Top Cloud Cost News From June 2024
FinOps X conference attendees were treated to a three-day master class on the latest trends in FinOps
Participants in FinOps X 2024 met up in San Diego from June 19–22. The agenda was lengthy and varied, covering everything from AI FinOps solutions and implementation tips to the ways various companies (Walmart, PepsiCo, and more) approach cost optimization.
The theme this year was “There are no runners.” If you’ve heard our explanation for the crawl, walk, and run stages of FinOps maturity, you might have an idea of what this means.
Essentially, participants learned that for every company, there are numerous levels of maturity across the 27 FinOps capabilities in the FinOps Framework. At any given moment, even the most mature company may have teams or departments at every stage of the development journey. So to say that any company has achieved the “run” stage and is now fully optimized is a fallacy.
Other interesting topics covered at this year’s conference included balancing AI costs and how to make the decision to build or buy a FinOps solution.
Last year, the FinOps Foundation published highlights from the 2023 conference on YouTube. They have not yet made a video for this year’s conference, but we expect to see one posted shortly. Stay tuned!
If you missed this year’s FinOps X conference, there will be a smaller, regional conference in Barcelona in November. Don’t forget to register to reserve your spot!
AWS presented a number of product updates to FinOps X attendees
AWS is a brand new member of the FinOps Foundation, so its first-ever FinOps X presentation was a noteworthy event. Announcements centered around the strides AWS has been making toward helping users achieve FinOps competency.
Specifically, presenters explained the details of AWS’s new Cost Optimization Hub, which allows users to see all their AWS cost data in one dashboard alongside some helpful cost optimization suggestions. Additionally, they discussed the Billing and Cost Management Console and Data Exports functionality.
If you’re an AWS user, give the full summary a read-through to make sure you’re up to date on the latest cost-saving techniques!
Google’s Gemini 1.5 model promises higher AI speeds at a more efficient price
Even with the dramatic boom in AI technology the world has seen over the past couple of years, the truth is that public-domain AI is still in its infancy. It seems like a major announcement in the AI space happens several times a month these days, and June was no exception.
Google Cloud’s Gemini 1.5 model is reputed to offer 40% faster speeds and a 400% improvement on price, compared to GPT. Whether this holds true in the long run remains to be seen—as we mentioned, new developments are flooding in—but for now, Google Cloud’s Gemini may be worth a look if you’re aiming to dive deeper into the AI space.
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AWS’ cost optimization efforts and the fact that AI is becoming more competitive are welcome changes that should help SaaS companies wrangle their runaway costs back under control.
However, even with better AWS data and lower-cost AI, you probably still have plenty of gaps in your cost control strategy that need to be filled in.
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