A new industry-wide initiative aims to standardize the presentation of cloud cost data, and Tangoe is proud to announce that we will be adopting this common format known as the FOCUS schema. FOCUS (FinOps Cost and Usage Specification) is a technical specification for vendors that defines uniform requirements and consistent datasets for cloud costs, billing, and usage information. Learn more about FOCUS here.
Tangoe joins a growing list of cloud service providers and FinOps solution providers adopting FOCUS. What does this mean for our clients? Our cloud expense management platform, Tangoe One Cloud, will:
- Adopt the FOCUS terminology,
- Transform data into FOCUS categorizations,
- Offer billing data exports in the FOCUS format,
- Ingest FOCUS data from cloud service providers, and
- Adapt to future requirements and changes in the FOCUS specifications.
Tangoe’s Leadership in Normalizing Cloud Data
For years, Tangoe has been a leader in normalizing cloud data. Data normalization aids in identifying unit costs that enable apples-to-apples cost comparisons across multiple IaaS providers. It also assists in managing hybrid cloud costs and guiding workload placement policies — helping IT leaders know whether it’s more cost effective to place their workloads in private cloud or public cloud architectures.
Adhering to the FOCUS standards is the next step in ensuring our clients can dissolve inconsistencies among hyperscalers to see a clear, data-driven path toward cloud cost optimization. We’re currently working to align our software platform to emerging industry best practices as put forth by the FinOps community.
At the same time, we’re deepening our relationship with the FinOps Foundation, serving as a contributing member of the FOCUS Project but also shaping Foundation strategy as a voting member of the Governing Board. In 2023, Tangoe joined the FinOps Foundation as a Premier Member, and today 70% of our cloud leaders have become Certified FinOps Practitioners, validating our depth of knowledge and expertise.
New Standards Please Practitioners and Vendors Alike
FOCUS is celebrated by FinOps practitioners for solving deep-rooted data analysis changes, but it’s also praised by vendors. FOCUS is supported by the FinOps Foundation, but legally it’s a separate entity. That line of separation is important to note because it promotes vendor neutrality. No single company or associated vendor can own the FOCUS standard, which means the project is characterized by transparency, collaboration, and an inclusive process that ultimately fosters adoption across more cloud and FinOps vendors.
Leaders at the FinOps Foundation describe FOCUS as “the cornerstone lexicon of FinOps providing an open source, vendor-agnostic specification featuring a unified schema and language.” Forrester is quoted as saying, “Vendors that don’t support FOCUS are standardizing on a soon to be antiquated process.”
Major public cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are already adopting and engaging with FOCUS – contributing to the 1.0 version. All offer billing data exports in the FOCUS format. SaaS vendors are also adopting the new standard. FinOps Foundation stated, “FOCUS aims to gain deeper and broader adoption across the industry, particularly among other cloud SaaS providers, including networking, observability, and security tools.” See the full list of FOCUS adopters here.
This is Just the Beginning
Today, FOCUS is aimed at standardizing cloud infrastructure services, but its scope is set to widen. Billing standards and specifications are expected for networking, observability, and security tools too. Future plans also include cloud software and licensing management.
Here at Tangoe, we’re sharpening our focus on FOCUS. We will continue to adapt and align our cloud expense management roadmap with additional specifications coming from future versions. We believe standardization is long overdue and the critical missing link in helping IT and finance leaders chart their course to cost efficiency. Adhering to the FOCUS standard is the first but not the last step for Tangoe as we put our sights on becoming a FinOps Certified Platform.
When you’re ready to elevate your cloud cost management strategy, count on Tangoe to take your savings higher. On average clients save 20% on cloud with some reaching 40% or more.