May 8, 2023
The FinOps Foundation has announced the launch of a new project, the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS).
FOCUS seeks to create a standard definition for cloud pricing, use, and billing data. The organization’s goal with FOCUS is to create a uniform reporting format for cloud cost data, allowing businesses to accelerate cloud adoption by building better trust in the data and the ability to track expenses for particular business units.
The foundation wants to use FOCUS to provide a standard data format and naming strategy for presenting cloud cost data. While the definition is now geared toward cloud companies, the foundation aims to broaden it to include SaaS vendors and license expenses in the future. Businesses may gain a unified perspective of their cloud spending by standardizing data.
Udam Dewaraja, former head of worldwide cloud financial management at Citigroup, has been named chair of the FOCUS steering committee by the FinOps Foundation. The steering group will also include representatives from Google and Microsoft, both founder members of the FinOps Foundation. The FOCUS project will also include CloudZero, CloudMonitor, Neos, VMware, Ternary, and Accenture.
According to Dewaraja, there is presently no clear approach for merging pricing and use data sets across many cloud suppliers. The foundation thinks that an open-source definition with standardized schema and vocabulary can help propel the FinOps discipline ahead substantially.
The sources for this piece include an article in CIODIVE.
