Why FOCUS? A New Framework for FinOps

In June, Version 1.0 of the FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification) standard reached general availability. Introduced by the FinOps Foundation, this new open-source framework defines how cloud providers should generate simplified and unified cost and billing data for their end users. This is a win-win for vendors and clients alike: taking the complexity out of billing makes it easier than ever to understand cloud usage, optimize cost, and maximize cloud value for the business.  

All major hyperscalers plan to adopt this new format for cost data, making all of billing more user friendly – and eliminating the need for all cloud personnel to be black belts in all clouds. 

Read on to learn more about the framework and how it will benefit all FinOps practitioners. 

What is FOCUS? The FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification Explained

In short, FOCUS defines requirements for cloud vendors to generate billing files in a single format. FOCUS was developed in tandem with the largest cloud providers in the world (AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle) and with some of the largest cloud spenders. It enables a common FinOps lexicon for cost analysis, spend allocation, commitment optimization, invoice reconciliation, and unit economic reporting. 

FOCUS aims to eliminate time spent on data ingestion and data normalization. Version 1.0 establishes a common terminology, taxonomy and metrics for major IaaS/PaaS providers, but will eventually expand to other cloud SaaS billing datasets like networking, observability, or security tools. Much like the rest of FinOps, it’s an ongoing, iterative process. But the end goal is to make it easier for FinOps teams to mature and optimize their programs by reducing the amount of work needed to begin analyzing cloud cost and usage. 

In Version 1.0, there are 43 columns of qualitative or quantitative data that cloud providers should generate for a billing statement. You can learn more about those columns in the FinOps Foundation’s detailed breakdown here.  

The rest of this blog will focus (pun intended) on the benefits of adopting the framework. 

What are the benefits of FOCUS?

The greatest single benefit of FOCUS is that FinOps teams now only have to learn one single process to run queries on cloud billing data, no matter the vendor. Data skills are now transferrable across clouds, FinOps tools, and organizations. Specialists, no need to despair — reducing the time and effort needed to normalize and analyze cloud billing data enables you channel that energy into strategic initiatives and drive home the business value of a strong FinOps program. 

Other benefits of FOCUS include: 

• Fewer billing discrepancies for more accurate reporting 
• Little to no new hire training needed around data normalization 
• More self-service reporting across the organization 
• Easier integration of new vendors 
• Cheaper data processing 
• Better decision-making and fewer data silos 
• Better understand how cloud offerings drive business growth 

FOCUS will be adopted everywhere soon enough, so getting comfortable with the framework sooner than later is strongly recommended. In the meantime, if you’re not getting a billing dataset in the FOCUS format, there are tools to help. An official Data Validator can check if your bill aligns to FOCUS, and the FOCUS Converter can help re-write the bill in the proper format and make a best-effort conversion for any required FOCUS data that might be missing from the vendor’s bill. 

AHEAD FinOps-as-a-Service can help you fast-track utilization of the FOCUS framework and help you see cloud cost optimizations of up to 20% in your first year of our service.

Learn more about AHEAD FinOps.