Cloud Cost Optimisation (FinOps) Certification Guide

Primary Certification

FinOps Certified Practitioner (FOCP — finops.org)

Format: 50 questions | 90 minutes | 70% passing | $300 USD (FOCP)

Related Certifications

•AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (cost basics)

•AWS Solutions Architect (Well-Architected cost pillar)

Key Exam Topics

•FinOps lifecycle: Inform (visibility) → Optimize (action) → Operate (efficiency culture)

•Commitment discounts: Reserved Instances vs Savings Plans vs CUDs (GCP) — trade flexibility for savings

•Right-sizing: match resource size to actual usage; use AWS Compute Optimizer recommendations

•Spot/Preemptible/Spot VMs: 60-90% savings for fault-tolerant workloads

•Tagging strategy: consistent cost allocation tags → accurate showback/chargeback

•Storage lifecycle: move data to cheaper tiers automatically (S3 IA, Glacier, Archive)

•FinOps team model: centralized cloud COE → distributed practitioners → federated hybrid

Must-Know CLI Commands

bash

aws ce get-cost-and-usage --time-period Start=2024-01-01,End=2024-01-31 --granularity MONTHLY --metrics BlendedCost --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE
aws compute-optimizer get-ec2-instance-recommendations --filters Name=Finding,Values=NotOptimized
aws ec2 describe-volumes --filters Name=status,Values=available  # Unattached EBS = waste
aws ec2 describe-addresses --filters Name=association-id,Values=*  # Check unassociated EIPs
aws ce get-savings-plans-purchase-recommendation --savings-plans-type COMPUTE_SP --term-in-years ONE_YEAR --payment-option NO_UPFRONT

Exam Tips

•Quick wins: delete unattached EBS, release unused EIPs, terminate idle EC2 (often 20-40% savings)

•Savings Plans vs Reserved: Savings Plans more flexible (any instance family/region for Compute SP)

•Auto-shutdown dev environments: scale to 0 at night/weekends = save 67% compute costs

•Cost anomaly detection: AWS Cost Anomaly Detection alerts on unusual spend spikes

Study Plan

Week 1-2: Read official docs + overview/fundamentals sections in this platform

Week 3-4: Hands-on labs (AWS free tier / Azure sandbox / GCP free tier)

Week 5: Practice exams (TutorialsDojo, ExamTopics, Whizlabs)

Final days: Review weak areas + cheatsheet

Free Study Resources

•AWS: aws.amazon.com/training — free digital courses

•Azure: learn.microsoft.com — Microsoft Learn (free + sandbox labs)

•GCP: cloud.google.com/training — free courses + Qwiklabs credits

•TutorialsDojo: cheat sheets for all exams (best value paid resource)

Revision Notes

PRIMARY EXAM: FinOps Certified Practitioner (FOCP — finops.org)

TOP TOPICS:
  FinOps lifecycle: Inform (visibility) → Optimize (action) → Operate (efficiency culture)
  Commitment discounts: Reserved Instances vs Savings Plans vs CUDs (GCP) — trade flexibility for savings
  Right-sizing: match resource size to actual usage; use AWS Compute Optimizer recommendations
  Spot/Preemptible/Spot VMs: 60-90% savings for fault-tolerant workloads

Cost Optimization — Certification