Launch of FinOps SaaS “Octo” to manage ROI of cloud infrastructure
*View in browser* *Alphas*
Press release: March 27, 2024
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Launch of FinOps SaaS “Octo” to manage ROI of cloud infrastructure *Provide cloud cost data to all stakeholders within the company from the necessary perspective to support decision-making*
Octo product logo
* Alphas Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the Company) is a FinOps company that is gaining attention both domestically and internationally.
Starting today, we will start offering a new product called “Octo” (pronunciation: Octo) that enables companies and organizations to put this into practice. *
Octo
visualizes data on cloud infrastructure costs, which can be
particularly complex and difficult for non-engineering departments to understand, at a level of granularity that allows all stakeholders within a company or organization to understand the details they need. By increasing the transparency of cloud infrastructure costs, which tend to be a black box, and making it easier to analyze, we will enable collaboration between departments and staff with different expertise and knowledge, and optimize the expanding cloud
infrastructure costs. Becoming
We support data-based discussions and decisions regarding actions to improve ROI.
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Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud
The amount of spending by companies and organizations on public cloud services is increasing year by year.
According to research firm Canalys (Singapore), cloud infrastructure costs in 2023 will increase by 18% from the previous year to USD 290.4 billion (approx.
43 trillion yen), and the growth rate in 2024 is expected to exceed this at 20% (*1). The same is true in Japan, research company IDC Japan
According to the Japanese public cloud service market, the market for public cloud services in Japan is estimated to be 2,159.4 billion yen in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 20.8% from 2021 to 2026.
It is predicted that (*2)
*1: Canalys press release “Worldwide cloud service spending to grow by 20% in 2024” (February 26, 2024)
*2: IDC Japan press release “Announcement of domestic public cloud service market forecast” (September 15, 2022)
In response to this worldwide expansion of cloud infrastructure costs, there is a growing need for companies and organizations that use public clouds to appropriately manage and optimize costs.
“FinOps (cloud FinOps)” is a typical framework that is spreading mainly in Europe and the United States, where large amounts of spending are spent on public clouds. FinOps
is an initiative to ensure accountability for public cloud spending, and aims to transform organizational culture to enable collaboration between engineering and non-engineering departments (*3).
*3: For more information on “FinOps,” please refer to the website of the FinOps Foundation, which advocates this movement, and our explanatory article.
– FinOps Foundation “What is FinOps?”:
https://www.finops.org/introduction/what-is-finops/
– Our commentary article “Terminology: FinOps”:
https://www.alphaus.cloud/jp/blog/term-explanation-finops
Our company has a FinOps Certified Practitioner (FOCP) qualified person in-house, which is a certification related to FinOps. In addition to employing 5 people, we have been providing the cloud infrastructure cost management tool “Ripple” since 2018 for major cloud resellers in Japan and overseas, and have been using AWS We are Japan’s top runner in cloud infrastructure cost management, managing over 5% (*4) of Japan’s domestic sales.
*4: Calculated by our company based on a report by Fuji Chimera Research Institute. All year 2022.
New product “Octo”
Octo is a SaaS tool that helps organizations implement FinOps frameworks. Octo provides the following benefits to companies and organizations: Automate cloud infrastructure cost aggregation
Aggregating and analyzing cloud infrastructure costs based on the huge amount of data regarding costs and usage status provided by public cloud vendors is difficult for management and accounting departments who are highly aware of and interested in costs to perform on their own, and many In some cases, this is done with the help of
infrastructure engineers. Octo
automates the aggregation and analysis that used to bother
infrastructure engineers.
Understand unit costs through accurate cost allocation
In order to optimize cloud infrastructure costs for each business, service, and product (user department), it is necessary to accurately understand the costs for each user department. Octo
In addition to aggregating costs using multiple accounts and cost allocation tags, cloud infrastructure costs for a common platform can also be apportioned based on rules and distributed to each user department. It is also possible to allocate cost reductions (savings) by optimizing procurement costs at the company/organizational level to the departments that use them.
Common infrastructure costs and savings from central purchasing are also accurately allocated to each project.
Understand costs with dashboards customized according to scope of responsibility and interests
In the FinOps framework, FinOps
Activities involve various people within companies and organizations, including management, business managers, accounting departments, engineers, and procurement departments. However, these parties have different technical knowledge and cost concerns. Octo
Dashboards can be customized according to the responsibilities and interests of each person involved, and the data each person wants to see can be displayed at an easy-to-understand level.
Octo dashboard UI image
Construction and operation of cost optimization cycle
Accurate recognition of cloud infrastructure costs, accurately aggregated by usage department, is the first important step in raising cost awareness in companies and organizations. By automating data aggregation to optimize cloud resources and consider cheaper purchasing options, we shorten cost review cycles and create a continuous cost reduction process.
Operating FinOps cycles with Octo
Appropriate discussion and decision-making based on a “common language” Accurate understanding of cloud infrastructure costs serves as a “common language” that serves as the foundation for communication between all parties within an organization that is optimizing cloud infrastructure costs. Through the process of regularly reviewing your customized dashboard, you can quickly recognize recently incurred costs and discuss and make timely budgeting and cost reduction decisions.
Using Octo improves the return on investment in cloud infrastructure and supports organizations to further their digital transformation. Comments from the person in charge
Usually, the implementation and operation of FinOps, which requires technical knowledge such as AWS, places a heavy burden on
infrastructure engineers, and FinOps is difficult for companies and organizations to implement and operate.
This has become a hurdle to getting started.
Octo automates cloud infrastructure cost aggregation
In addition to freeing infrastructure engineers from routine cost data collection and analysis tasks, it also frees non-engineering executives and financial departments from relying on the burden of infrastructure engineers.
Create an environment where you can engage in FinOps.
Companies and organizations using FinOps
Incorporating this into a part of your business strategy will change your approach to dealing with ever-increasing cloud infrastructure costs from “simple reduction” to “purposeful optimization,” which will lead to ways to allocate costs that will lead to business sales and profits. I think it can be changed to.