Guide to Cloud Service Provider Tools and Terminology
Summary: Cloud Providers use different tools, names, and metrics for the same FinOps capabilities (e.g., GCP’s Recommender vs. AWS’s Trusted Advisor). Reference the FinOps Tools Matrix provided in the asset to quickly translate essential FinOps functions—such as Cost Planning, Billing/Reporting, and Recommendations—across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI. By using this guide, FinOps practitioners can avoid confusion over different terminology and efficiently leverage native CSP tools to optimize costs, enforce governance, and implement alerts across all clouds.
Each Cloud Service Provider has different tools available to help FinOps practitioners learn and practice efficient utilization of cloud resources. There are tools and reports available that can help FinOps practitioners and companies plan their potential cost in advance of consumption, understand invoices, complete billing analysis, govern cost and optimize cost. These tools have been enumerated in the FinOps Tools Matrix.
Cost Management Terminology
Cloud Service Providers utilize different terms to mean the same or similar things. This can make understanding cloud concepts across providers difficult. This terminology generated from this project was created to help FinOps practitioners translate these common terms across Cloud Service Providers and has been incorporated into the FinOps Terminology page here.
Three Letter Acronyms
Cloud cost management is not void of its own set of TLA’s. As a community the goal is to collect a list of three letter acronyms that are relevant and frequently used in daily cloud cost management.
| TLA | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AWS | Amazon Web Services |
| CSP | Cloud Service Provider |
| GCP | Google Cloud Platform |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicator |
| OCI | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure |
| TAC | Technical Advisory Council |
Resources
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FinOps Foundation Landscape
Acknowledgements
The FinOps Foundation extends its gratitude to the hard-working members of the Working Group:
