SoftwareOne's FinOps for Cloud helps businesses optimize cloud spending by providing real-time insights, budget tracking, and cost management. This solution enables teams to allocate resources efficiently, control expenses, and drive financial accountability across cloud environments.

FinOps integrates with public cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Built on the open-source OptScale platform from Hystax, the FinOps platform contains several features that enhance your cloud usage experience by providing detailed insights and management capabilities without actively interfering with your environment.

Here are some of the key features:

• Cost explorer - Analyze your cloud spending with clarity. This feature includes tools that help you break down your cost structure, uncover trends, and identify opportunities to optimize spending across your organization.

• Recommendations - Use recommendations to discover hidden inefficiencies in your cloud infrastructure. Our recommendations highlight overlooked configuration issues and security risks to help you optimize performance, reduce costs, and strengthen your cloud posture.

• Budgeting tools - Set, track, and adjust cloud budgets with built-in forecasting tools. Stay ahead of unexpected costs and ensure every team stays aligned with financial goals throughout the cloud lifecycle.

• Ownership and accountability - Empower teams to take ownership of their cloud spending. With clear cost allocation, usage breakdowns, and automated alerts, you can easily promote responsible consumption.

• Analytics and Insights - Gain insights into your cloud usage and spending across different platforms. With up-to-date dashboards and analytics, you can quickly identify inefficiencies and take action before costs spiral out of control.

To learn more, see .

FinOps for Cloud is SoftwareOne's cloud financial management platform designed to help organizations gain visibility into and optimize their spending across platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

With FinOps for Cloud, you can explore and analyze your cloud expenses, monitor resource usage, and implement policies to ensure efficient and cost-effective cloud management. The platform's user-friendly interface and robust features empower organizations to achieve greater visibility and control over cloud infrastructure, enabling smarter decision-making and improved financial planning.

Get started

Visualize costs and usage

Optimize and control costs

Manage your organization

The Add option on the Data sources page allows you to connect your data source to FinOps for Cloud. The supported data sources include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure.

Before adding a data source, you must complete certain prerequisites, depending on the type of data source you are adding. In addition, you might also need to complete certain tasks on the cloud provider's side and some in FinOps for Cloud.

To learn about all the prerequisites and onboarding steps for each of the supported data sources, see the following links:

The Re-apply ruleset option initiates a new check of the already assigned resources against the current ruleset.

When selected, this option reorganizes the resources, even if they were previously assigned otherwise. This feature helps you manage assignments, especially when the rules are edited, new ones are added, or the priority of existing rules is changed.

Reapplying a ruleset

To reapply a ruleset:

1. Navigate to the Pools page.

2. Select Configure assignment rules, then select Re-apply ruleset.

3. Choose whether to reapply the ruleset to the resources in the entire organization or a specific pool.

4. If you selected Specific pool

FinOps for Cloud is a SaaS product that is built on top of Optscale .

It enables you to optimize cloud spending by providing real-time insights, budget tracking, and cost management. You can also allocate resources, control expenses, and drive financial accountability across cloud environments.

See the following links to get started:

Additional resources

Once your organization is set up within FinOps for Cloud and a data source is connected, you can perform several tasks to optimize your cloud spending and manage overall costs.

Use the following reference to access the relevant documentation:

You can download a complete list of users in your organization as an Excel or a JSON file for offline analysis, reporting, or integration with external tools.

The downloaded file includes details for each user, such as user ID, first and last name, organization ID, last login, and more.

Downloading users

To download a list of users:

1. Navigate to the User management

The Disconnect option on the details page of a data source lets you disconnect and remove a data source from FinOps for Cloud.

When a data source has been disconnected, you’ll only be charged for the days the data source was connected. Once it’s disconnected, billing will stop, and you won’t receive any further invoices.

Disconnecting a data source

To disconnect a data source from FinOps for Cloud:

1. In FinOps for Cloud, navigate to the Data sources page.

2. Select the data source you want to disconnect.

3. On the details page of the selected data source, select Disconnect.

4. Select Disconnect again to confirm the action.

Use the resource details page to view detailed information about each resource.

You can check resource properties, review associated expenses, and see any pool constraints applied through resource policies. From the same page, you can also add an assignment rule if needed.

Viewing resource details

To view resource details and add an assignment rule:

1. From the sidebar, navigate to the Resources page.

2. (Optional) to display specific resources, or use search to find the required resource.

3. In the Resource column, select the link for the resource to view.

4. On the resource details page, use the Details, Constraints, and Expenses tabs to view the data.

5. To create a new assignment rule, select Add Assignment Rule. For more details, see .

The following are the available recommendation categories in FinOps for Cloud and their descriptions:

• Savings - These recommendations help you save money and reduce costs.

• Security - These recommendations help to improve the security of your connected data source.

• Critical - These recommendations must be prioritized and addressed immediately to prevent potential disruptions or vulnerabilities.

• Non-empty - These recommendations help ensure that all active resources are being utilized efficiently and are not incurring unnecessary costs.

See the following links for a list of savings and security recommendations:

When setting up your FinOps organization, it's important to consider the different roles you need for your account members.

The roles available within FinOps for Cloud include Organization Manager, Manager, Engineer, and Member. For a description of these roles, see . Once you have determined the appropriate roles for each individual you want to add to your account, open User management to start adding new users.

Inviting users to your organization

The Perspective feature on the Resources page allows you to create new perspectives.

A perspective is a customized view that you can create using only the filters you need. For example, you can save a view that shows only certain data sources, regions, or resource types. This ensures you can quickly return to your preferred view without reconfiguring the filters each time.

You can create multiple perspectives and save them for future use. When saving perspectives, make sure to use different names, as you cannot have two perspectives with the same name. If you use the same name for a new perspective, the platform overwrites the existing one.

You can also share the perspective URL with others in your organization, and delete a perspective if it's no longer needed.

Saving a perspective

Organization Managers can create new anomaly detection policies by defining the policy name and description, and the parameters under which anomalies will be identified.

FinOps for Cloud supports two types of anomaly detection policies, including Resource count and Expense. To learn about these policy types, see .

Creating a new anomaly detection policy

To create a new anomaly detection policy:

In FinOps for Cloud, the User management page shows a list of existing users in your organization and what role they have been assigned. Each page shows up to 50 users.

For each user, you can also view the following information:

• The user's name and the unique ID assigned to them by FinOps for Cloud.

• The last time the user accessed the organization.

• The user's email address.

Quotas and budgets are two crucial concepts to consider when managing cloud storage. These tools help organizations control costs and manage resources efficiently.

Budgets refer to the financial limits an organization sets to manage the costs associated with cloud storage usage, and quotas limit the storage resources a user, application, or department can consume.

Quotas and budgets in FinOps for Cloud

In FinOps for Cloud, quotas and budgets are used to create policies that ensure cost optimization and compliance with your budget constraints.

FinOps for Cloud supports three types of policies, including resource quota, recurring budget, and expiring budget. You can define the policy type along with thresholds and filters during policy creation.

The Recommendations page is designed to make you aware of the less apparent deficiencies of the infrastructure, like configuration flaws and security risks.

To receive recommendations, it's essential to to FinOps for Cloud. When a data source is added, FinOps for Cloud analyzes it to provide recommendations to help you optimize costs and improve resource security, performance, and availability.

Currently, FinOps for Cloud performs a check every 3 hours.

The Recommendations page displays a summary of each recommendation and suggests actions to help you make informed decisions. The summary varies, depending on the condition. For instance, it might show AWS S3 duplicates found during the last check, checks that did not start or finish successfully, and so on.

Recommendations also contain one of the following symbols:

To address the ever-dynamic cloud infrastructure where resources are being created and deleted continuously, FinOps for Cloud contains a set of tools to help limit the related expenses and the lifetime of individual assets.

This is implemented in the form of constraints that you can set for a specific resource or generally for a pool. You can set two types of constraints:

• TTL - Represents time to live. A resource must not live for more than the specified period.

  • For a resource, specify a date and time.

If you connected an AWS data source using the Legacy CUR export schema and want to migrate to CUR 2.0, you will need to create a new CUR 2.0 report and then update the AWS data source within FinOps for Cloud.

The Resources page provides a detailed overview of all available cloud resources, detailing their usage and associated costs. You can use this page to efficiently monitor and manage your cloud resources.

The page displays data in graphical format and in a table. The graphic visualization includes various types of charts, such as bar charts and line graphs, helping you understand trends, patterns, and anomalies in your cloud resource usage and expenses. The tabular data includes specific data points and metrics, including columns for different parameters, such as resource type, cost, usage, tags, owner, and more.

Using resource filters

By default, the Resources page displays details about all cloud resources, including total expenses and the resource count. You can narrow down the data using customization features such as date range and filters.

The User management page in FinOps for Cloud displays a list of existing members within your organization. For each member, you can view details, such as their name, unique ID, last login time, email address, and assigned roles.

From this page, Organization Managers can also invite new members or remove existing members from the organization.

User management roles

In FinOps for Cloud, roles can be assigned when .

By default, the Member role is assigned to allow the individual to have read-only access. You can select other roles and assign them at the pool level. When assigning roles, we recommend assigning the Organization Manager role only to those individuals who need the highest level of access and permission to perform actions without any restrictions.

To start monitoring your cloud resources, you must connect your billing source to FinOps for Cloud. The supported data sources include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure.

The onboarding process in FinOps requires you to meet certain prerequisites based on the data source you want to add. These prerequisites can differ depending on the source.

Additionally, you might need to complete certain tasks on the cloud provider's side and some in FinOps for Cloud. For instance, if you are connecting an AWS source, you must create Cost and Usage Reports, configure policies in the AWS console, and then add your AWS account to FinOps.

Adding a data source

If you no longer need a pool, you can delete it. However, a pool can only be deleted if it doesn't contain any sub-pools. If the pool you want to delete contains subpools, you must first delete all subpools.

Note that to delete a pool, you must have the Manager role in the parent of the pool you want to delete.

Deleting a pool

The Pools page in FinOps for Cloud allows you to view and manage your organization’s resource pools, including their limits, expenses, and forecasts. You can also monitor resource usage, identify potential overspending, and optimize costs by visualizing current expenses and forecast.

All pools and sub-pools are organized in a hierarchical structure to help you navigate and manage them easily. The Expenses and Forecast columns provide insights into your current expenses and projected costs for each pool and sub-pool.

You can also see the pool owner and perform actions, like adding new subpools, viewing the resource list, opening the pool in the cost explorer, and deleting the pool and its subpools.

About Assignment Rules

You can create a new Cost and Usage Report (CUR) from the AWS console. For details, see in the AWS Data Exports User Guide.

When creating the report, use the following settings:

1. Under Export details, choose Standard data export.

2. For Export name, enter billing-{your AWS account number}. Replace {your AWS account number} with a valid AWS account ID.

The Cost explorer feature contains tools and options to help you analyze costs and understand the cost structure for your organization.

Using this feature, you can view your total expenses for the selected period and compare them with the total expenses from the previous period. You can also view a chart of your expense data to understand your overall spending and identify any trends or changes in your spending patterns.

The Cost Explorer contains the following options to display a breakdown of your expenses:

• Time interval - Use this to change the time interval on the graph. You can change the time interval to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. This allows for a more detailed or broader view of cost trends over different periods.

You can view the assignment rules associated with a selected pool from the Assignment rules tab on the pool's details page.

This view provides insight into how resources are assigned and managed within the pool, ensuring transparency and making it easier to verify or update rules by centralizing them in one place.

Each rule displays key information, including its Name, Owner, and Conditions. The Conditions column offers a detailed summary of the criteria defined for each rule, such as Name/ID contains, Tag is, or Source is.

Viewing pool assignment rules

The Settings page in FinOps for Cloud lets you view and manage your organization settings, account invitations, and email notifications.

• Organization - From this tab, you can retrieve and copy your organization ID and edit your organization name. You can also view the organization's currency. Note that you can connect only those data sources that match the organization's currency. This setting cannot be changed if at least one data source is already connected.

• Invitations - If you have any pending invitations to join an organization on the FinOps platform, those invitations are displayed on this tab. Use this tab to manage those pending invitations.

The Export chart option on the policy details page allows you to download the chart as a PNG file.

By default, the chart displays data categorized by service along with daily expenses. You can modify these settings using the Categorize by and Expenses options. Additionally, you can hover over the chart to view detailed information.

Exporting a chart

To export the chart as a PNG file:

The cost map enables you to visualize your cloud expenses by region/location and service, so you can detect areas with high spending across cloud providers.

A cost map can also be used to view data transfer and connectivity costs.

Viewing the cost map

To view the cost map:

1. From the left sidebar, navigate to the Cost map page.

A violation history is available for those policies where the resource count or the expenses have exceeded the quota or budget.

Violated policies are displayed in red on the Quotas and budgets page.

Viewing the policy violation history

To view the policy violation history:

1. Navigate to the Quotas and budgets page.

2. In the list of policies, find the policy for which you want to view the violation history.

3. Select the policy name.

4. On the policy details page, use the Policy Violations History section to view details including:

   1. The date and time when the policy violation occurred.

   2. The budgeted expense value vs the actual expense.

   3. The resources linked to the quota or budget.

The Rename option on the details page of a data source allows you to update the name displayed for that source.

Renaming a data source

To rename a data source:

1. In FinOps for Cloud, navigate to the Data sources page.

2. Select the data source you want to rename.

3. On the details page of the selected data source, select Rename.

4. Enter the new name, then select Save.

The updated name is now displayed in FinOps for Cloud. Note that the previous data source name might still appear in historical data.

If you want to implement policies for an entire pool, instead of a single resource, you can do so from the Constraints option within the pool's details page.

Only individuals with a Manager role can enforce shared constraints across the pool. While shared constraints apply pool-wide, custom resource-specific constraints can still be configured and will override the general policy.

Creating a pool constraint policy

To configure pool constraint policies:

1. Navigate to the Pools page.

2. Select the desired pool group or subpool.

3. Go to the Constrains tab and select the edit icon.

4. Enter values in the TTL (Time-to-live) or Daily expense limit fields.

5. Select to save your changes. The constraint will apply to the resources within the selected pool or subpool.

The more optionin a recommendation card contains features that you can use to adjust parameters and exclude pools.

These features allow you to fine-tune and optimize results to better meet specific goals or conditions. The available parameters and pools you can exclude from a recommendation vary based on the recommendation you are accessing.

Customizing a recommendation

To customize a recommendation:

1. Navigate to the Recommendations page.

2. Find the required recommendation, then select the more icon.

3. To update the recommendation parameters, select Settings and make the required changes. When saved, new settings are applied during the next recommendations check.

4. To exclude a pool from a specific recommendation, select Exclude pools. When excluded, the excluded objects are displayed on the Excluded tab within the Recommendations page.

5. To pin or unpin a recommendation, select Pin or unpin, depending on the available option. Pinned recommendations always appear as the first one in your list of recommendations until they are unpinned.

To use FinOps for Cloud, you need an account. This account is different from your Marketplace Platform account.

When you order a FinOps for Cloud subscription from the SoftwareOne Marketplace, we will process your order and create an organization for you. This organization represents your account.

FinOps for Cloud provides different experiences for first-time access, depending on whether you are an organization administrator or user.

FinOps for Cloud Administrators

Once we process your order, the organization administrator will receive a password recovery email containing a verification code. This email will be sent to the address specified during the ordering process.

To set up a new password and sign in, the organization administrator must follow these steps:

1. Open the password recovery email from SoftwareOne FinOps for Cloud.

2. Select Recover password.

1. Enter the verification code from the email and select Confirm.

1. Enter your new password and confirm it matches the one you just entered. Then, select Reset password.

2. Select Proceed to FinOps for Cloud to sign in to your organization.

After signing in, you must connect your data source to FinOps. For more information, see .

FinOps for Cloud Users

If you've been added to an organization, you'll receive an invitation email from SoftwareOne FinOps for Cloud.

To join your organization:

1. Select the invite link in your email. The registration page opens.

1. Enter your full name and password.

2. Confirm that your new password matches the one you entered in the Password field, then select Register. You'll receive a verification code by email.

3. Enter the verification code to verify your email and select Confirm. You'll be directed to FinOps for Cloud.

4. Select Accept to join your organization and start using FinOps for Cloud.

Release Date: 12 December 2025

Download Recommendations

You can now download insights directly from recommendation tiles, making it easier to export and share optimization suggestions.

Fixes

• Removed all usages of the deprecated ADAL authentication library and upgraded all Microsoft authentication to MSAL. This is Microsoft's recommended library for all new development. Read about this more at .

• Minor improvements to AWS Assumed Role data source for better reliability.

• Various stability, reliability, and performance improvements.

Release Date: 15 September 2025

Cost Map for Cloud Spend Analysis

Cost map is a new feature that offers a visual and interactive representation of your cloud spend across regions and cloud providers. The Cost map page includes two tabs:

• Region - This tab allows you to visualize your spending geographically across cloud deployments.

• Network traffic - This tab allows you to analyze costs associated with data transfer and connectivity.

Additionally, the Cost Explorer view now includes a new breakdown option called Geography, allowing you to analyze expenses by region.

New Download Functionality

A new download option has been introduced to facilitate offline analysis, reporting, and integration with external tools. You can now download data from the following modules in FinOps for Cloud:

• Resources - Download your resource data as an Excel spreadsheet or JSON file. You can also download Charts as PNG files.

• Cost explorer - Download the data as a PDF.

• User management - Export your list of users as an Excel spreadsheet or JSON file.

New Filters in Resource View

New filtering options are added to the page to help you narrow down and analyze cloud assets more effectively. You can now filter resources by:

• Multi-select fields - This allows you to select multiple values across key dimensions for more flexible filtering.

• First seen date - This allows you to identify newly discovered resources.

• Last seen date - This allows you to track resources that might have been removed or are inactive.

Improved Email Formatting

We have enhanced the formatting of monetary values in all email communications.

Currency values are now presented consistently for better readability and a reduced risk of misinterpretation, especially in automated alerts and summaries.

Release Date: 15 May 2025

SoftwareOne's is a new solution designed to help you optimize costs and manage your resources effectively.

With FinOps for Cloud, you can explore and analyze your cloud expenses, monitor resource usage, and implement policies to ensure efficient and cost-effective cloud management. With a user-friendly interface and robust features, the solution provides greater visibility and control over cloud infrastructure. Use the left sidebar to learn more about these features in detail.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Prerequisites

• jq - The package allows executing JSON scripts with bash. See .

Implementation

1. Install the requirements on a machine running Linux OS.

2. Configure the AWS Command Line Interface. (Run the aws configure command. For information, see the ).

3. Download the script from the corresponding subsection on the Recommendations page.

4. From the same page, download the JSON file containing a list of all resources recommended for deletion.

Microsoft Azure

Prerequisites

• jq - The package allows executing JSON scripts with bash. See .

Implementation

Azure Azure CLI

1. Install the requirements on a machine running Linux OS.

2. Sign in with the Azure CLI.

3. Download the script from the corresponding subsection of the Recommendations page.

4. From the same page, download the JSON file containing a list of all resources that are recommended for deletion.

Azure Shell

1. Open .

2. Download the script and the JSON file from the corresponding subsection of the Recommendations page.

3. Copy these files using the Upload/Download files button. The files will be placed in /usr/csuser/clouddrive.

4. Run the script as follows: bash <script_name> <path to json file>

Google Cloud Platform

Prerequisites

• jq - The package allows executing JSON scripts with bash. See .

Implementation

1. Install on a machine running Linux OS.

2. Configure gcloud: run gcloud init. See for more information.

3. Run script bash <script_name> <path to recommendation json file>.

Organization Managers create new tagging policies by using the Add option on the Tagging policies page. Multiple policies can be created; for instance, you can create one policy that applies to all resources and another policy that applies to specific resource types.

After entering the policy details and filters, you can save the policy to begin monitoring. This ensures that the policy is applied to relevant resources and helps ensure compliance with the organization's tagging standards.

Creating a tagging policy

To create a new tagging policy:

1. Navigate to the Tagging policies page, then select Add.

2. On the Create tagging policy page, enter a name for the policy and select the date and time when the policy must start.

1. Choose whether the policy requires certain tags, prohibits certain tags, or defines a correlation between tags.

2. Enter the values in the additional fields according to your selected tagging rule.

   • If you selected the Required tag option, specify tags that must be present.

   • If you selected the Prohibited tag

Once the policy has been created, FinOps for Cloud sends an email notification to the Organization Manager when the policy is violated.

This section contains answers to the most commonly asked questions about FinOps for Cloud.

It covers key areas such as general product information, billing processes, invoicing, and data sources.

Organization Managers can create a new quota or budget policy using the Add option on the Quota and budgets page.

Creating a new quota or budget

To create a new policy:

1. Navigate to the Quota and Budgets page, then select Add.

2. On the Create quota or budget policy page, provide a descriptive name for the new policy and select the policy type. The following options are available:

   • Resource quota - Triggers once per day if the current number of resources exceeds the limit.

   • Recurring budget - Triggers once per month if the expenses for the current month exceed the limit.

   • Expiring budget - Triggers when the total expenses from the start date exceed the limit.

1. Enter the values in the additional fields according to your selected policy type.

   • For a resource quota policy, enter the maximum number of resources.

   • For a recurring budget policy, enter the monthly budget value.

   • For an expiring budget policy, enter the total budget and the start date.

When the policy has been created, use the Status column on the Quota and Budgets page to view the current resource count or expense value. If the value exceeds the quota or budget, the progress bar turns red. Otherwise, it remains green. The progress bar also indicates how close the current value is to the set threshold values.

Tagging Policies are a type of policy that can help ensure that your resources are properly categorized and monitored.

Tagging policies use custom tags, which are descriptive labels assigned to resources. These tags help identify resources among others, making it easier for you to locate and manage them.

Tagging policies in FinOps for Cloud

In FinOps for Cloud, Organization Managers can create new tagging policies using the Add option on the Tagging policies page.

When creating a new policy, you can specify the tagging rules applicable to resources when they are tagged. If the policy is violated, FinOps for Cloud sends an email notification to the Organization Manager.

Additional actions

From the Tagging Policies page, you can create new policies and monitor your existing tagging policies. You can also do the following:

• View the timestamp of the last policy check.

• Review the status of the policy, including any violations, to determine resources that are not complying with the tagging policy.

  • A red icon indicates that resources violating the tagging rules have been identified.

  • A green icon shows that all resources covered by the policy currently meet its tagging rules.

Cost map is an easy-to-use visualization tool that provides an overview of your organization’s cloud expenses. It enables you to view a breakdown of expenses by location/region and service to identify areas of high spending and understand usage patterns.

Cost map supports all Microsoft Azure, AWS cloud, and GCP regions. You can use the cost map to visualize regional cloud spend and network traffic at a glance.

• The Region cost map allows you to view your total expenses for both the current and previous periods. You can also visualize your spending geographically across cloud providers and regions.

• The Network traffic cost map allows you to visualize data transfer and connectivity costs. You can view accumulated expenses for paid network traffic between regions or services.

Both cost maps contain a date range filter, allowing you to select a custom date range or choose from predefined time range options to view the expenses you are interested in.

Region cost map

The Region cost map contains various visual elements to help you differentiate cloud providers and expenses.

• The map uses color coding to differentiate between cloud providers. Refer to the legend above the map to interpret colors.

• Each circle on the map represents the total cost for a specific region. If no spending is detected during the selected period, the circle shows a value of zero.

• The size of the circle indicates the level of expense; for example, larger circles indicate higher costs.

• Round circles represent the combined costs across multiple cloud providers. For example, the circle over Ireland in the above image represents the total spending for both Azure and AWS (for example,

The Summary by region table on the page lists expenses for each region along with the percentage of total expenses. You can sort the data by selecting the corresponding column header, and view the resources associated with a specific region by selecting the show resources icon in the Actions column.

Network traffic cost map

The Network traffic cost map is a visual representation of the expenses associated with data transfer between regions. You can use this map to identify geographic locations where transfer costs are high and take steps to minimize those costs.

The cost map contains tabs, each representing a different cloud provider. You can switch between these tabs to view the corresponding network traffic details.

The network traffic is displayed on the map and in the Network traffic expenses table. When you select a link on the map, the table is filtered to display only the relevant data. Similarly, if you select the text in the From / To column, the map updates to show the network traffic expenses originating from that specific source only.

In FinOps for Cloud, you can customize your email notification settings to determine which notifications you want to receive to stay informed about important updates.

The notifications are organized into various categories, including:

• FinOps - This includes weekly expense reports, pool limit alerts, and notifications for new saving opportunities.

• Policy alerts - This includes all policy-related alerts.

• Recommendations - This includes all savings and security recommendations.

• System notifications - This includes system status or operational messages.

• Account management - This includes notifications related to account invitations.

Managing email notifications

To manage your email notifications:

1. Navigate to the Settings page, then select the Email notifications tab.

2. Select the arrow next to each category to expand it and view the individual notification types. A list of alerts appears, along with toggle switches to enable or disable them.

3. Use the toggle button to manage your preferences:

   • Purple (On) - You will receive email notifications.

At the top of each category, a label shows how many alerts are active out of the total available (for example, Active: 4/4).

Anomaly detection is an integral part of a cloud security and management strategy.

It helps maintain the integrity and performance of cloud services while identifying and addressing potential issues before they cause significant damage or disruption. An anomaly is defined as a deviation from the normal pattern of cost or usage for a specific resource or group of resources.

Anomaly detection in FinOps for Cloud

Anomaly detection in FinOps for Cloud helps you identify unusual behavior that may indicate a security breach, system malfunction, or other operational challenges.

You can create new anomaly detection policies and manage them from the Anomaly detection page.

FinOps for Cloud supports two types of anomaly detection policies, including resource count and cost:

• Resource count - These anomalies refer to inconsistencies or unexpected variances in the number of resources being utilized or allocated compared to what is expected or provisioned. Resource count anomalies can occur in various cloud resources, such as virtual machines, storage, network bandwidth, or cloud services, like databases and application servers.

• Expense - These anomalies refer to instances where the actual financial expenditure on cloud resources deviates significantly from expected or budgeted costs. Expense anomalies can represent underlying issues, such as inefficient resource utilization, misconfigurations, unauthorized access, or even billing errors from cloud service providers.

When creating policies, you can also define the evaluation period, thresholds, and filters.

Additional actions

From the Anomaly detection page, you can create new policies and view existing policies. You can also do the following:

• Select a policy to view detailed policy information, including violations if applicable.

• Search for a specific policy by its name or description.

• Track the dynamics in the Status column and hover over it to see both the average and current values.

• Check the instances where the policy is applicable. An en dash (–) in the Filters column means the policy applies to all cases.

There are two ways to configure assignment rules in FinOps for Cloud. You can add them from the Pools or Resources pages.

When a new rule is added, it's always prioritized across the organization. It means that any discovered resources are first checked against the conditions of this new rule. If the resource doesn't meet the new rule's conditions, it's checked against the remaining rules in descending order until a matching rule is found.

Configuring a new assignment rule

To configure a new assignment rule:

FinOps for Cloud supports three major cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure.

To use FinOps, you only need to provide read-only access to your connected cloud account. This allows FinOps to view and retrieve data without making any changes. It also that FinOps does not interfere with any processes in your environment.

When the read-only access has been granted, the following data is used:

• Billing information, including all details related to your cloud expenses.

• For actively discoverable types, the current state of resources is collected. This is essential for implementing constraints like Time to Live (TTL), expense limits, and recommendations.

When a quota or budget policy has been created, Organization Managers can edit the policy name or delete the policy.

When editing a policy, you cannot change the policy type or update properties, including filters associated with the quota or budget.

Renaming a quota or budget

To rename an existing quota or budget policy:

1. Navigate to the Quotas and budgets

If you experience an issue with FinOps for Cloud, you can contact Marketplace Platform Support.

Our support team is here to assist you with any technical issues and troubleshoot errors you may encounter while using FinOps for Cloud.

Describing your issue

When contacting Marketplace Platform Support, provide as much detail as possible to help us understand your issue. Here are some important points to include in your support request:

At SoftwareOne, we believe in the power of open source. Open source communities drive innovation, foster transparency, and accelerate progress through shared knowledge and collaborative development. This belief has shaped the foundation of our latest FinOps tool, , which is built on top of the open-source project developed by .

Built on OptScale, Powered by Partnership

FinOps for Cloud represents a key step in SoftwareOne’s commitment to delivering powerful, user-centric tools for cloud financial operations. By leveraging OptScale, an advanced open source platform for cloud cost management and optimization, we are able to accelerate value delivery to our customers while aligning with a growing and active open source ecosystem.

Our collaboration with Hystax has been instrumental in bringing this vision to life. We are deeply grateful for the open and cooperative relationship we enjoy with their team, and we recognize the high-quality foundation their work on OptScale provides. As part of this collaboration, SoftwareOne is proud to contribute back to the OptScale project and support its continued evolution.

The Billing Reimport option is available on the details page of a data source in FinOps for Cloud.

This feature allows you to manually reimport your billing data starting from a specific date into FinOps for Cloud. You can manually reimport data if:

• Your billing data has not been imported as expected.

• You have made configuration or permission-related changes that require reimporting data to reflect those updates.

You can delete a tagging policy or edit the policy name at any time. You can't edit tags that are used in policies.

Editing or deleting tagging policies

To edit or delete a tagging policy:

After signing in to FinOps for Cloud, the first thing you’ll see is the Home page.

Home page

The Home page is a dashboard that displays your organization’s current spending and projected expenses for the upcoming month.

The following sections are available on the dashboard. Note that selecting the forward arrowopens up the details page for that section:

• Organization expenses - Displays the total expenses of the previous month, the expenses of the current month, and this month's forecast. The red line on the chart shows the expense limit.

• Top resource expenses for the last 30 days - Displays the resources with the highest expenses. Select the resource to open its details page.

• Recommendations - Displays the possible monthly savings. The expenses are separated into categories, such as Cost, Security, and Critical. Select the category to navigate to the Recommendations page.

• Policy violations - Displays all policy violations along with the policy name and type. Select the policy name to open its details page. Pay special attention to the Status field. If it's red, it means the policy has been violated.

• Pools requiring attention - Displays the Exceeded limit or Forecast overspend pools. Use the buttons in the Actions column to see the resources list and cost explorer.

Sidebar

The sidebar on the left is the main navigation menu containing these options:

• - Displays all recommendations so you can get the most out of your connected data sources.

• - Allows you to view and allocate your expenses for the cloud resources, monitor their performance, and set constraints. See Resources to learn about organizing and categorizing resources based on your specific requirements.

• - Displays pools with limits or projected expenses. You can categorize resources into a hierarchy of pools manually or using assignment rules.

Organization selector

The Organization selector is available in the header.

It displays your current organization and enables you to switch between organizations if you belong to several organizations in FinOps.

You can also select Organization overview for an overview of all organizations and key information for each organization. Organizations that require attention and optimization are marked in red.

Documentation and profile buttons

The header also includes these additional options:

- Select to access the product documentation.

- Select to sign out of your account.

AWS IAM Policies

FinOps for Cloud requires two policies, depending on the type of account being onboarded:

• Billing import access policy - This policy allows FinOps for Cloud to read cost and usage data from the configured S3 bucket. This policy is only required when you are onboarding an account that contains a cost and usage report.

• Resource discovery access policy - This policy allows FinOps for Cloud to discover new and changed resources in your AWS account more often than AWS updates the cost and usage reports. This allows FinOps for Cloud to show information about your spend that is more up-to-date than what is contained in the cost and usage report.

Creating a policy for billing imports

The billing import access policy is only required for accounts with cost and usage reports configured for FinOps for Cloud.

A suggested name for the policy is FinOpsForCloudBillingImport.

Creating a policy for resource discovery

The resource discovery access policy is required for all accounts.

A suggested name for the policy is FinOpsForCloudResourceDiscovery.

AWS IAM User

Creating a new IAM user

To create a new IAM user for FinOps for Cloud, see in the AWS IAM User Guide.

When creating the user, use the following settings:

1. For User name, enter FinOpsForCloudUser.

2. In Provide user access to the AWS Management Console, select No.

3. Under Set permissions, select Attach policies directly.

Creating an access key for FinOps for Cloud

To create an access key for FinOps for Cloud, see in the AWS IAM User Guide.

When creating the access key, choose Third-party service as your use case.

The Events page is a read-only page that allows you to view all events that have occurred within your organization.

The data on this page is continuously updated, so you can monitor and track events in real time. You can view both system-generated and user-generated events. The following are examples of events:

• Discovery of new resources for cloud accounts.

• Automatic assignment of resources to a pool.

• Invitations sent to new account members.

• Resource discovery failures.

In addition to viewing a list of events, you can also search for a specific event, filter the events based on severity, and select an event to view detailed event information.

Filtering events

By default, all events are displayed on the page.

To filter the list of events, choose from one of these options: Info, Warning, or Error.

Additionally, you can also use the date selector to choose a custom date range for the events you want to view.

Searching for an event

To search for a specific event, enter a keyword in the Search field and press Enter.

Viewing event details

To view detailed information for an event, select the event.

You can then view the date and time the event occurred, a description of the event, and details of the object involved in the event.

This topic describes how to connect your Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account to SoftwareOne's FinOps for Cloud. When connecting your account, you will need to provide the billing data details, such as the dataset name and table name.

Enabling billing export

To enable billing data export, see in the Google documentation.

After you have enabled billing data export, a new table is displayed in your BigQuery project.

Note the names of the dataset and the table. You'll need these details when connecting your cloud account to FinOps for Cloud.

This topic describes how you can add an Azure data source to FinOps for Cloud. It also describes the prerequisites that must be met to connect the source successfully.

Prerequisites

When connecting your Azure data source to FinOps for Cloud, you must provide the following details from Microsoft Azure:

• Application ID (client ID)

When you create a Cost and Usage Report in an AWS-linked account, the S3 bucket is automatically populated with data from the beginning of the current month.

However, if the AWS account has existed for longer than this period, you can request a backfill of historical cost and usage data.

Requesting a backfill of your cost data

To request a backfill of your historical data, create a support case with AWS.

For information on how to open a support case and the information to include in your request, see the following link in the AWS Data Exports User Guide:

This topic describes how you can add your AWS data sources to the FinOps platform. FinOps for Cloud supports both AWS organizations and individual AWS standalone accounts.

AWS terminology

The following table contains AWS data sources terminology:

FinOps for Cloud terminology

The following table describes the terminology used in FinOps for Cloud when adding an AWS data source:

Configuring your AWS accounts

AWS organizations

Depending on the access to your management account and other member accounts, there are different ways to add AWS data sources to FinOps for Cloud.

With access to the management account

If you have access to create a Cost and Usage Report (CUR) and Identity and Access Management (IAM) users in your management account, follow these steps:

When the member accounts are added, FinOps for Cloud automatically identifies the management account and uses the imported cost and usage data from that account.

Without access to the management account

If you don't have access to your management account, you can create individual CURs in each member account and add them to FinOps for Cloud as if they were AWS Root Accounts.

To add your member account to FinOps as an AWS Root account:

2. .

3. .

4. .

AWS standalone accounts

To add a standalone AWS account:

2. .

3. .

4. .

Abandoned instances

Instances that have an average CPU consumption of less than 5% and network traffic below

The Assignment rules page in FinOps for Cloud allows you to add a new automatic resource assignment rule.

From this page, you can also reapply the entire ruleset to all resources within a selected pool, even if the ruleset was previously assigned manually.

You can manage existing rules and search for specific rules using filters such as Name, Assigned To, Conditions, and Priority.

Viewing assignment rules

1. Navigate to the Pools page.

2. Select Configure assignment rules. The list of rules is displayed.

For each rule, you can view the following details:

• Name - The name of the rule. Active rules are marked with green dots next to their names, and inactive ones are marked with grey dots.

• Assign to - The pool and the owner to whom the resource is assigned.

• Conditions - Shows a summary of the conditions that trigger the rule.

• Priority - Displays the priority used to apply assignment rules to resources.

Managing assignment rules

The Actions column on the Assignment Rules page contains options you can use to manage your existing rules.

• To modify a rule, select the edit icon . You can edit the name of the rule, conditions, and assignment details. You can also enable or disable the rule.

• To set the rule priority to the highest, select . The priority of the other rules is then decreased by one.

• To decrease rule priority by 1, select . The rule is then swapped with the rule behind it.

• To increase the rule priority by 1, select . The rule is swapped with the previous rule.

Welcome to SoftwareOne’s FinOps for Cloud! Please read this agreement (“Agreement”) carefully before using the FinOps for Cloud Services or website. The FinOps for Cloud Software as a Service (“SaaS”) license granted by this Agreement is conditioned upon the organization identified within the Interface (“Company”) having executed a software purchase or other service agreement (“Contract”) with SoftwareOne AG or one of its affiliates (“SoftwareOne”) and allows Company to use the Services, associated software, and Interface for the purposes stated in this Agreement and the Contracts.

If your Company does not have a Contract with SoftwareOne, then your Company does not have a license to the Services. If you or your Company has been provided access to the Services without a Contract with SoftwareOne, then do not use the Services and contact SoftwareOne immediately using the information found at .

Last updated: 7 May 2025

By clicking “I Accept” in an electronic version of this Agreement, or making any use of the Services or Interface you are accepting the terms and conditions of this Agreement on behalf of your Company and you are representing that you have full legal authority to accept this Agreement on behalf of your Company. If you do not agree to the terms of this Agreement, or do not have the necessary authority to bind your Company, do not use the Services or Interface and contact SoftwareOne regarding the Contracts.

FinOps for Cloud is SoftwareOne's cloud management tool offering comprehensive insights into your cloud infrastructure.

If you have previously used SoftwareOne's Cloud Spend Management for managing your cloud expenses, this topic will help you understand the key differences between FinOps for Cloud and Cloud Spend Management.

Integration with cloud vendors

Cost allocation

Cost visualization

Cost optimization

Tagging

Budgeting and forecasting

Chargeback

Anomaly detection and spike alerting

Governance and compliance

Collaboration

Notifications

The Anomaly detection page displays all resource count and expense anomaly policies you have created. You can get detailed information for a policy by selecting the policy name. This includes general information, the date of violation, status, average, and actual counts.

From the policy details page, you can edit the policy name. You can also delete the policy, download the chart as a PNG file, and view the violation history.

Renaming a policy

To rename an existing anomaly detection policy:

1. Navigate to the Anomaly detection page.

2. In the list of policies, select the policy you want to rename.

3. On the policy details page, select the edit icon .

4. Under Name, enter the new name, then save your changes.

Deleting a policy

To delete an existing anomaly detection policy:

1. Navigate to the Anomaly detection page.

2. In the list of policies, select the policy you want to delete.

3. On the policy details page, select Delete.

4. In the confirmation panel, select Delete to confirm the action.

You can download a complete list of discovered cloud resources for analysis, reports, or integration with external tools.

The downloaded file includes metadata such as resource type, cost, usage, tags, ownership, and more.

Downloading resources