The Frugal Architect's FinOps Journey: A Series of Cost-Saving Adventures - Part 1

 

Introduction

The world is rapidly advancing through migration and modernization. The integration of advanced tools, technologies, innovative solutions, and well-defined processes has heightened agility. Amidst this journey, a pivotal aspect is the transition to the cloud. 

The question arises: 
Are we considering cost efficiency at a pace that matches our swift migration to the cloud?

 Let me revisit that with a fresh perspective, drawing inspiration from Dr. Werner's "The Frugal Architect" to establish a connection with FinOps Foundation principles. I'll provide examples from AWS services and usage, followed by a FinOps Odyssey with a personal touch. This will be blended with visuals and a poetic representation of the 7 laws of the Frugal Architect. I'm presenting them as "The FinOps Odyssey" series in four parts. Here's Part 1 of the series.

[Note: In this blog, Odyssey stands for a long voyage marked by many changes of fortune ultimately maximizing the value of the cloud expense.]

AWS FinOps Journey 

For all the customers who are striving hard to reduce their carbon footprint in this universe for sustainability, Dr. Werner, calls out that Cost is a close proxy for sustainability.

Cloud FinOps discussions are generally oversimplified or misrepresented leading to misunderstandings about its scope and impact. Hence when discussing Cloud FinOps, it's important to avoid general stereotype statements such as:

1. Cloud FinOps is just about cutting costs.
2. Only finance and accounting teams need to worry about Cloud FinOps.
3. Cloud FinOps is only relevant for large enterprises.
4. Implementing Cloud FinOps is a one-time task.
5. Cloud FinOps is only for businesses with complex cloud environments.
6. Cloud FinOps is just another name for cloud cost management.

 

With the transition from pre-paid pricing to pay-as-you-go pricing, the detailed cost comes with every service since the inception of AWS Cloud and over the years AWS users have been reaping the benefit from the economies of scale. Architect with cost in mind was emphasized by Dr. Werner in AWS re:Invent 2012 and AWS continued to update and enhance its services over the years, hence the features and capabilities of cost management tools have evolved over the last decade. AWS Cost Management Tools have taken different dimensions, and various tools and services have been introduced to help users manage and optimize their costs.

 

As depicted in the above infographic, the launch of simple monthly calculator in 2009 to the launch of AWS Trusted Advisor to the AWS Pricing Calculator in 2018 to becoming AWS a Premier Member of the FinOps Foundation and AWS Cost Optimization Hub have been a very interesting journey. The Frugal Architect by Dr.Werner Vogels was introduced as a guidebook at AWS re:Invent 2023, detailing simple principles for constructing cost-conscious, sustainable, and contemporary architectural designs.

Let’s delve deeper into Dr.Werner’s simple laws for building cost-aware, sustainable, and modern architectures.

The Frugal Architect

The Frugal Architect by Dr.Werner Vogels was introduced as a guidebook at AWS re:Invent 2023, detailing simple principles for constructing cost-conscious, sustainable, and contemporary architectural designs.

Let’s delve deeper into Dr.Werner’s simple laws for building cost-aware, sustainable, and modern architectures.

As depicted in the above picture, The Frugal Architect is based on 3 pillars – Design, Measure and Optimize. 

Design

LAW I - Make Cost a Non-Functional Requirement

Dr. Werner’s Cloud FinOps Insights

 

A non-functional requirement specifies criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a system, rather than specific features or functions. Examples are accessibility, availability, scalability, security, portability, maintainability, and compliance. What often goes overlooked is cost.

Companies can fail because they don’t consider cost at every stage of the business – from design to development to operation – or because they’re not measuring it properly. The math is simple: if costs are higher than your revenue, your business is at risk.

By considering cost implications early and continuously, systems can be designed to balance features, time-to-market, and efficiency. Development can focus on maintaining lean and efficient code. And operations can fine-tune resource usage and spending to maximize profitability.

(excerpt from https://thefrugalarchitect.com/)

Let’s delve deeper

·      Non-functional requirements define criteria for evaluating system operation, such as accessibility, availability, scalability, security, portability, maintainability, performance and compliance. They are not part and parcel of the application you are building but become key aspects of your application to stand strong and tall amidst all the competing solutions available in the market.

·      One crucial aspect to consider is cost. By consistently integrating cost considerations throughout the business lifecycle, from design to development to operation, businesses can mitigate risks of failure. 

·      Design with a cost-consideration approach ensures that systems are designed to balance features, time-to-market, and efficiency, ultimately leading to more successful outcomes. Further, it allows development to focus on lean, efficient code and operations to optimize resource usage and spending for maximum profitability. 

Apply FinOps principles and AWS services

From a Cloud FinOps perspective, each point can be understood and applied as follows:

1. Stay mindful of costs from the start: This aligns with the FinOps principle of "inform," which emphasizes the importance of understanding and managing costs throughout the entire lifecycle of a project. Teams should continuously monitor and analyze cost implications, making informed decisions to optimize costs.
   AWS Example:
   When planning an AWS architecture, 
• consider using cost calculators and AWS Trusted Advisor to estimate costs and identify potential cost-saving opportunities. 
• continuously monitor AWS Cost Explorer 
• and set up AWS Budgets to stay on top of cost trends and anomalies.
2. Develop systems that balance features, timing, and efficiency: This principle resonates with the "optimize" pillar of FinOps, which focuses on optimizing cloud resources to meet business objectives efficiently. By balancing features, time-to-market, and efficiency, teams can ensure that resources are utilized effectively without compromising on performance or delivery speed.

AWS Example:

When designing systems on AWS, 

·      consider using AWS services like AWS Lambda for serverless computing to optimize costs and improve efficiency. 

·      Use Lambda to process data intermittently which will be more cost effective than maintaining a fleet of servers.

3. Keep code lean and efficient: This aligns with the "operate" pillar of FinOps, which emphasizes the importance of operational excellence and efficiency. Writing lean and efficient code helps reduce resource consumption and costs, contributing to overall cost savings.

AWS Example:

·      Inefficient use of AWS services like Amazon S3 can lead to higher storage costs. 

·      By writing code that minimizes unnecessary data transfer and storage, you can reduce costs. 

·      If you aren’t sure of the Storage class to choose, you may consider Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering which can help you to automate storage cost savings by moving data when access patterns change.

·      For application performance monitoring, you can use AWS native tools like Amazon CloudWatch to monitor performance metrics, trace  and identify areas for code optimization and Amazon X-ray to view, filter and gain insights into that data to identify issues and opportunities for optimization.

4. Optimize resource use and spending: This principle is in line with the "optimize" pillar of FinOps, which encourages continuous optimization of cloud resources. By fine-tuning resource usage and spending, operations teams can identify and eliminate inefficiencies, leading to cost savings and improved performance.

AWS provides a range of tools to help fine-tune resource usage and spending. 
AWS Example:

·      Use AWS Auto Scaling to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances based on demand, optimizing resource usage. 

·      Use Amazon EC2 Spot Instances to take advantage of unused EC2 capacity at a discounted rate, helping to reduce costs for fault-tolerant and flexible applications. 

·      Use AWS Cost Explorer to analyze spending patterns and identify opportunities for cost optimization, such as using reserved instances or spot instances for cost savings.

5. Aim to maximize profitability: This aligns with the overarching goal of FinOps, which is to maximize the value delivered by cloud resources while minimizing costs. By adopting a FinOps mindset and implementing best practices, organizations can achieve greater profitability and efficiency in their cloud operations.

AWS Example:

·      Use AWS Trusted Advisor to monitor and optimize costs can help maximize profitability by identifying and resolving cost inefficiencies.

 

A FinOps Odyssey

Stay tuned for Part – 2 of The FinOps Odyssey series