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FinOps - Cloud Cost Management

Realm9 FinOps provides unified cloud cost visibility across AWS and Azure, helping organizations understand, optimize, and control their cloud spending.

Overview

FinOps in Realm9 offers:

  • Unified Cost View: Aggregate costs across multiple cloud providers and accounts
  • Cost Trend Analysis: Historical trends and future cost forecasting
  • Anomaly Detection: Automatic detection of unusual spending patterns
  • Usage Analysis: Resource utilization metrics and rightsizing recommendations
  • Cost Allocation: Tag-based cost breakdown and chargeback

Requirements

License

FinOps is available with the Ultimate license tier.

Permissions

  • View FinOps: Requires Admin role
  • Manage FinOps: Requires Admin role with MANAGE_FINOPS permission

Prerequisites

  1. At least one AWS or Azure cloud connection configured
  2. Cloud connection must have FinOps enabled in settings
  3. Cost data sync must be completed (initial sync may take several minutes)

Getting Started

Step 1: Enable FinOps on Cloud Connections

  1. Navigate to Settings > FinOps
  2. Find your cloud connection in the list
  3. Toggle Enable FinOps to ON
  4. Configure tag keys for cost allocation (optional but recommended)

Step 2: Configure Cost Tags

For accurate cost allocation, configure the tag keys used in your cloud resources:

Common tag keys:
- Environment (dev, staging, prod)
- Project or Application
- Team or Owner
- CostCenter

Step 3: Trigger Initial Sync

  1. Click Sync Now on the Overview page
  2. Wait for the sync to complete (progress shown in real-time)
  3. Initial sync fetches up to 6 months of historical data

FinOps Pages

Overview Dashboard

The main FinOps dashboard at /finops/overview provides:

  • Sync Status: Real-time sync progress and history
  • Cost Trend Alert: Period-over-period cost comparison with percentage change
  • Anomaly Summary: Active anomalies by severity with cost impact
  • Top Cost Changes: Services with biggest cost increases/decreases
  • Optimization Score: Overall cost efficiency score with category breakdown

Cost Explorer

Detailed cost analysis at /finops/explorer with three tabs:

  • Trends & Forecasting: Time-series cost visualization with forecast predictions
  • Cost Breakdown: Donut and bar charts by service, region, or tag
  • Details: Hierarchical drill-down from service to individual resources

See Cost Explorer Guide for details.

Usage Analysis

Resource utilization insights at /finops/usage with four tabs:

  • Overview: High-level utilization metrics and efficiency scores
  • Resources: Inventory of cloud resources with cost attribution
  • Utilization: CPU, memory, network, and disk utilization charts
  • Rightsizing: Recommendations to optimize resource sizes

See Usage Analysis Guide for details.

Anomaly Detection

Cost anomaly management at /finops/anomalies:

  • View detected anomalies with severity levels
  • Investigate root causes with automated analysis
  • Resolve or acknowledge anomalies
  • Configure anomaly detection sensitivity

See Anomaly Detection Guide for details.

Key Features

Multi-Cloud Support

Realm9 FinOps supports:

ProviderCost DataResource InventoryUtilization Metrics
AWSCost Explorer APIEC2, RDS, S3, etc.CloudWatch metrics
AzureCost Management APIVMs, Storage, etc.Azure Monitor

Cost Normalization

Costs from different providers are normalized into a unified view:

  • Common currency conversion
  • Standardized service categories
  • Unified tag structure
  • Consistent time granularity (daily)

Data Retention

  • Raw cost data: 6 months
  • Aggregated data: 12 months
  • Anomaly history: Indefinite

Best Practices

Tag Strategy

Implement consistent tagging across all cloud resources:

Required Tags:
  - Environment: dev | staging | prod
  - Project: project-name
  - Owner: team-name
  - CostCenter: cost-center-code

Optional Tags:
  - Application: app-name
  - Component: component-name

Regular Review

  • Daily: Check Overview dashboard for anomalies
  • Weekly: Review Cost Explorer trends
  • Monthly: Analyze Usage and rightsizing recommendations

Cost Allocation

Use tag-based cost breakdown for:

  • Showback: Visibility into team/project costs
  • Chargeback: Allocate costs to business units
  • Budgeting: Set budgets per tag dimension

Troubleshooting

No Cost Data Showing

  1. Verify FinOps is enabled for the cloud connection
  2. Check sync status - initial sync may take several minutes
  3. Ensure cloud connection credentials have cost API permissions
  4. Verify date range includes dates with cost data

Sync Failures

  1. Check cloud connection status is "Connected"
  2. Verify IAM permissions include Cost Explorer access
  3. Review sync error messages in sync history
  4. Retry sync after fixing issues

Missing Resources

Resource inventory syncs separately from cost data. If resources are missing:

  1. Wait for next inventory sync (runs hourly)
  2. Check if resources have required tags
  3. Verify resource is in a supported region

API Access

Access FinOps data programmatically:

# Get cost overview
curl -X GET https://realm9.app/api/finops/overview?period=30 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

# Get cost trends
curl -X GET https://realm9.app/api/finops/trends?days=30 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

# Get anomalies
curl -X GET https://realm9.app/api/finops/anomalies?status=OPEN \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

Next Steps

Support

For help with FinOps: