FinOps in VMware Cloud Foundation

Overview Cost Management Cloud Service Providers and FinOps Consumer Side FinOps Cost Planning Workload Planning Infrastructure Planning Cost Comparison/Migration Planning Takeaways Related Related Articles FinOps in VMware Cloud Foundation Deploy VMware Private AI on HGX servers with Broadcom Ethernet Networking Unlocking the Power of GenAI Cloud costs are no longer just for IT finance analysts—cost management is a core part across IT operations. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) brings together private cloud infrastructure with FinOps principles to help ensure financial accountability, operational visibility, and business alignment for all IT users. The FinOps framework in VCF enables enterprises to not only provision infrastructure but also optimize, govern, and allocate costs intelligently across developers and providers. In an era where IT infrastructure costs are rapidly escalating, particularly with the rise of AI initiatives, enterprise organizations demand greater control and visibility over their expenditures. This necessitates not only refined service metering and billing, but also the ability to accurately capture and view the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and overall expenses. Concurrently, IT teams face the challenge of optimizing infrastructure to reduce costs and promote resource reuse, while also refining service metering and billing for a diverse array of modern services, including VMs, AI services, database services, Kubernetes services, and storage services. VCF cost management monitors and controls infrastructure spend by improving transparency, enabling cost governance, and supporting accurate budgeting. Delivered through a single pane of glass, VCF enables cost visibility, analysis, budgeting, optimization, and ROI insights while enabling showback for transparency and chargeback with customizable billing models—empowering enterprises to manage expenses, ensure accountability, and compare costs against public cloud efficiently. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) brings robust chargeback capabilities that cater to the unique needs of both enterprises and cloud service providers. For enterprises, VCF enables internal IT teams to bill back projects and application groups based on the resources they consume, creating financial accountability and promoting efficient usage. On the other hand, cloud service providers can leverage the same framework to track, meter, and charge tenants for the services delivered, ensuring fairness and transparency. By combining metering with data- and logic-backed billing, VCF empowers providers to generate accurate, itemized bills while giving consumers confidence that they are only paying for what they use.