Category: AWS Cost and Usage Report

Our product teams have spared no effort in the past few months developing new capabilities, so that we can bring the latest advancements to FinOps X. Let’s take a moment to recap the product announcements made at FinOps X and how they can help accomplish your FinOps goals.

Starting today, you can create exports of your AWS cost and usage data with the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) 1.0 schema as a preview feature. For those of you who aren’t yet familiar with the FOCUS standard, FOCUS is a new open-source cloud billing data specification that provides consistency and standardization to simplify cloud cost reporting and analysis across multiple sources. With Data Exports for FOCUS 1.0 (preview), you can configure recurring delivery of your AWS cost and usage data with the FOCUS 1.0 schema to your designated Amazon S3 bucket, and use these exports for your desired FinOps activities, such as cost reporting and allocation.

Given cloud invoice timing and the corporate closing calendar, variances between the AWS CUR and the GL are common for many companies. Our recommendation is to document your financial closing process, and educate leadership on any identified variance drivers. Calculating the variance percentage between the finalized AWS CUR and your GL entry to use as a talking point can also enhance understanding of the financial process.

If you’re scratching your head and trying to catch up with all the re:Invent launch announcements from the AWS Cloud Financial Management team, let me walk you through how your FinOps experience may be improved for better with the latest capabilities that were just released last week at AWS re:Invent 2023. I’ve also included recordings of these launch announcements, so you can watch these at your own pace.

Today, we announced the general availability of Data Exports, a new AWS Billing and Cost Management feature that enables you to create exports of your billing and cost management data using SQL column selections and row filters. As part of AWS Data Exports, you can now also deploy a Cost and Usage Dashboard powered by Amazon QuickSight directly from the AWS Billing and Cost Management console. The Cost and Usage Dashboard uses a summary view of the AWS Cost and Usage Report 2.0 (CUR 2.0) and provides pre-built visuals to facilitate interactive analysis and sharing of cost insights with a broader stakeholder group who may not have access to AWS console.

Today, we announced the general availability of Data Exports, a new Billing and Cost Management feature that enables you to create exports of your billing and cost management data using SQL column selections and row filters to select the data you want to receive. Exports are delivered on a recurring basis to an Amazon S3 bucket for use with business intelligence or data analytics solutions.

If you’re planning to attend the AWS re:Invent 2023 and wondering what Cloud Financial Management sessions and activities you should participate, look no further! In this blog post, we’ll take a sneak peek into these programs. Hope it can help you navigate re:Invent like a true CFM pro and learn and meet with like-minded FinOps professionals.

Cost transparencies and insights will help drive data-driven and informed decisions. This blog describes a flywheel approach that an enterprise can utilize to optimize their AWS spend and leverage those saving towards driving continuous innovation.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through an example of setting up a multilevel hierarchy in Cost Categories. We’ll use Amazon Athena to consolidate cost and usage data across all AWS services, accounts, tags, cost categories, and other fields from the AWS Cost and Usage Reports (CUR). 

In case you missed the launch announcement from AWS Cloud Financial Management solution category in Q2, this blog presents you a quick summary.