Revolgy built a smarter cloud cost system for a leading digital marketing platform, giving their budget owners, product teams, and financial managers a real-time, clear view of Google Cloud spending. With this new FinOps setup from Revolgy, they can now fully manage their financial reporting, track costs in real time, and forecast future spending while using accurate, up-to-date data.
A FinOps solution built on BigQuery and Tableau
Our FinOps solution was built around BigQuery and Tableau to create a complete reporting and forecasting system. The setup included several key components:
1. Data centralization and cost breakdown
- GCP billing data was regularly imported into BigQuery, the primary repository for tracking real-time and historical spending data.
- The system processed resource-specific cost details, including discounts and credits.
2. Forecasting and data transformation
- SQL transformations within BigQuery prepared and structured the data to drive dashboard visualizations.
- The ARIMA_PLUS models in BigQuery ML were used to accurately forecast costs across multiple organizational levels: Finance Unit, Product, and Project.
3. Automated data updates
- Scheduled queries were established to automatically refresh the data on a daily or monthly basis, making sure that budget insights were always current.
4. Interactive Tableau dashboards
- The data visualization in Tableau allowed for a granular view of current and forecasted costs, from project-specific details to month-over-month comparisons.
Overcoming technical challenges
A major challenge was achieving 100% accuracy in reflecting the client’s true GCP usage costs. This required factoring in special discounts and adapting to changing GCP pricing. Consistency across varied data sources and accuracy in forecasting required careful alignment of all data flows, complex SQL query crafting, and meticulous validation of calculations.
Technologies and tools used
- BigQuery: The core data repository, with scheduled queries and ARIMA_PLUS models for forecasting.
- Tableau: Used to create dynamic, detailed dashboards.
- Google Cloud Billing Export and Cloud Functions: Enabled precise discount calculations via Python scripts, enhancing data reliability.
A clear visibility into cloud spending
With this FinOps system in place, the client gained full visibility into their cloud spending, enabling more informed financial planning and cost management. The project delivered several impactful results:
- Precise cost tracking: The solution provided reliable, up-to-date cost reports, offering a clear view of actual spending, including discounts and price changes.
- Reliable forecasting models: Accurate cost forecasts were built using BigQuery ML, giving teams a dependable way to anticipate expenses across products, projects, and finance units.
- Increased efficiency through automation: Daily and monthly data refreshes were automated, reducing manual tasks and ensuring that reports were always current.
- Seamless Tableau integration: Interactive dashboards in Tableau allowed team members to view and analyze GCP usage and costs at different levels in real time.
- Better decision-making: With accurate data, the client could confidently make strategic decisions on cloud spending and resource optimization.
This FinOps system provided the client with clear, real-time visibility into their cloud spending. Thanks to BigQuery and Tableau, tracking and forecasting costs became simpler and faster than expected, allowing financial teams and budget owners to manage their budgets confidently and make better financial decisions.
Ready to optimize your cloud spending or tackle a unique project? Revolgy’s team of cloud experts is here to help. Get in touch, and let’s build a solution tailored to your business needs!