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FinOps Certified Professional

FinOps Certified Professional

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The FinOps Professional Certification isn’t just a test. There is meaningful engagement with others in the cohort and other contributions to give back to the community and help others find their way. The required sessions with other members of my cohort were really great.

It’s interesting that even though our backgrounds were varied, in the end, we still spoke a common language and could relate. So even though we had never met before and were grouped together to work on the business case tasks, conversation and ideas flowed because we all drew from our experiences.

- Amy Ashby, FinOps Lead, Undor Armour

FinOps Certified Professional

The FinOps Certified Professional course is the most in-depth and hands-on FinOps training available. It is designed for experienced FinOps practitioners who want to move to the next level to further their careers, further their knowledge in their current practice, and round out their FinOps knowledge with other professionals who have similar and varied backgrounds. 

Is FinOps Certified Professional Right for Me?

Let's start by setting expectations. FinOps Certified Professional isn't for everyone. You read that correctly - it isn't for everyone.  This course is for the experienced FinOps practitioner who wants to take their FinOps knowledge to the next level. It's designed for current and future leaders of FinOps. This is an intensive course with 40-50 hours of anticipated work over several weeks. Much of the work will be self-paced but you will also be required to attend two virtual instructor-led trainings.

The FinOps Certified Professional course is not just a normal training where you spend some hours studying and take an exam. It’s a more immersive experience, where you get the chance to learn each capability in fine detail.

- Angel Alves, Sr. Manager, Cloud FinOps, Saint-Gobain

 

About the FinOps Certified Professional Course

The course is a hybrid model with virtual instructor-led and self-paced training.

You are required to attend two virtual instructor-led sessions, one at the beginning and one at the end of the program. The first session covers the building, managing, and evolving a FinOps team.  Whereas the last one will be the strategy session where you will work with other learners on a business case to solve FinOps challenges at a sample organization. Class dates and times for the virtual instructor-led sessions by selecting the FinOps Team and Strategy modules. You register for the sessions after purchasing the course and completing prerequisite work.

In between the live sessions, there are multiple self-paced modules covering every FinOps capability, as well as some special topics.  There are required and optional modules to earn the certification. The required modules are set but you are able to choose which optional modules you are most interested in completing. 

The FinOps Certified Professional also requires service and content contribution requirements. Some of the things you can do to meet those requirements are to add or update modules in the course, contribute content to the FinOps framework, assist with FinOps Foundation training certification classes, or mentor students in future cohorts.

Required Prerequisites - Must be met to register for the course

Note: Failure to meet prerequisites may result in removal from the course and a refund.

Recommended Prerequisites 

  • Understand the basics of how cloud computing works, know the key services on your cloud providers, including their common use cases, and have a basic understanding of billing and pricing models.
  • Be able to describe the basic value proposition of running in cloud and understand the core concept of using a pay-as-you-go consumption model.
  • Have a base level of knowledge of at least one of the three main public cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud). For AWS, we recommend AWS Business Professional training or, even better, the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification. For Google, check out  Google Cloud Digital Leader course. For Azure, try the Azure Fundamentals learning path. Each can usually be completed in a full-day workshop.
  • Be a FinOps Foundation community member
  • Have access to Google Workspace (used for shared work during training sessions)

Requirements for Certification

  • Attend two live sessions
  • Complete required self-paced modules
  • Successfully pass the FinOps Certified Professional exam
  • Fulfill service and content contribution requirements  

By completing the modules in the course, collaborating with other FinOps professionals, and contributing content to the FinOps community, you’ll not only be prepared to build or lead a FinOps team, but you’ll deepen your FinOps expertise and be able to add more value in any FinOps related roles you currently perform.

What You Get With This Course

  • Self-paced training modules and virtual instructor-led training sessions
  • Access to a private Slack channel to collaborate with other student while in the course (12 months)
  • 12 Months of access to online course materials and classes
  • FinOps Certified Professional exam 

The FinOps Certified Professional Certification is valid for 36 months once earned.

 

FinOps Professional Introduction
FinOps Professional Introduction
This module welcomes you to the course and includes a list of required pre-work.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
FinOps Team - Interactive Session One
FinOps Team - Interactive Session One
The first virtual instructor-led session in the FinOps Certified Professional course. This session focuses on the FinOps vision, teams, roadmap, and creating a business case for change.
FinOps Certified Professional Virtual Instructor-Led Self-Paced
1.1.0 Team Building & Adoption
1.1.0 Team Building & Adoption
This module includes lessons on team building, adoption, and a business case for change.
FinOps Certified Professional Self-Paced
2.1.0 The FinOps Framework
2.1.0 The FinOps Framework
The FinOps Framework provides the operating model for how to practice it.
Self-Paced
2.2.0 Understanding Cloud Usage & Cost
2.2.0 Understanding Cloud Usage & Cost
Within this Domain, the organization will work to gather all required information about its cloud usage and cost, normalize it, make it available for review, including circulating it to those personas that will use it in other Domains.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.2.1 Cost Allocation
2.2.1 Cost Allocation
It's important to understand Cost Allocation because it is one of the most important of the capabilities within Understand Cloud Usage & Cost domain.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.2.2 Managing Shared Cost
2.2.2 Managing Shared Cost
This is one of the most important, impactful and central capabilities of any FinOps practice, and one that requires a lot of domain knowledge to do well with the volume and pace of data in cloud, and the consistency required by the end results
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.2.3 Data Analysis and Showback
2.2.3 Data Analysis and Showback
Data analysis and showback is the ability to leverage data, along with metadata on cloud resources and resource hierarchies, to create a near “real time” reporting mechanism for stakeholders
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.2.4 Data Ingestion & Normalization
2.2.4 Data Ingestion & Normalization
Data Ingestion and Normalization is a capability that will be performed first in the Understanding Cloud Usage and Cost domain
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.2.4.1 Multi-Currency
2.2.4.1 Multi-Currency
Multi-Currency Normalization is a sub-capability within the capability Data Ingestion and Normalization.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.3.0 Performance Tracking & Benchmarking Domains
2.3.0 Performance Tracking & Benchmarking Domains
Within this domain, the organization sets and maps its usage and cost to budgets, uses historical information to forecast, and establishes and measures KPIs and other performance indicators, including benchmarking.
Advanced Self-Paced
2.3.1 Measuring Unit Costs
2.3.1 Measuring Unit Costs
Unit Costs are a key way to communicate both the cost and the value of what an organization is doing in cloud.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.3.2 Forecasting
2.3.2 Forecasting
Forecasting is the practice of predicting future spending, usually based on a combination of historical spending and an evaluation of future plans. understanding how future cloud infrastructure and application lifecycle changes may impact current budgets and influence budget planning and future cloud investment decisions.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.3.3 Budget Management
2.3.3 Budget Management
Why is Budget management important? It’s no surprise that budgets are used in just about every organization to manage spend. They have been shown to be effective and important over the years in ensuring organizations are managed responsibly.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.4.0 Real-Time Decision Making Domain
2.4.0 Real-Time Decision Making Domain
This Domain improves stakeholder enablement by curating data in stakeholder-specific contexts, iteratively improving decision velocity and aligning organizational processes to the realities of operating in the cloud.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.4.2 Managing Anomalies
2.4.2 Managing Anomalies
Anomalies in the context of FinOps are unpredicted variations (usually increases) in cloud spending that are larger than would be expected given historical spending patterns.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.5.0 Cloud Usage Optimization Domain
2.5.0 Cloud Usage Optimization Domain
Within this domain, the organization identifies and takes action to match running cloud resources to the actual demand of the workloads running at any given time.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.5.1 Workload Management & Automation
2.5.1 Workload Management & Automation
This capability may be known by many different names, including elasticity, variable spending, dynamic resource pro/deprovisioning, and so on. No matter the name we associate to this capability, it is one of the primary benefits of cloud and a fundamental aspect of the FinOps practice.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.5.2 Resource Utilization & Efficiency
2.5.2 Resource Utilization & Efficiency
In context to FinOps, resource utilization is about making sure you are getting sufficient business value for the cost. It is necessary to observe a resource’s utilization over time to understand if the performance, availability or other quality metrics are of value for the expense incurred.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.5.2.1 Leverage Spot Resources
2.5.2.1 Leverage Spot Resources
Spot resources are spare compute capacity offered by the cloud service providers.
33 min
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.5.3 Onboarding Workloads
2.5.3 Onboarding Workloads
The Onboarding Workloads capability is about establishing a process to migrate and develop applications in the cloud (included in the FinOps Professional course).
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.5.3.1 Multi-Cloud
2.5.3.1 Multi-Cloud
This module takes a look at Multi-Cloud.
33 min
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.6.0 Cloud Rate Optimization Domain
2.6.0 Cloud Rate Optimization Domain
Within this domain, the organization works to define its pricing model goals, uses historical data to make pricing model adjustments, and works to manage the pricing aspects of services.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.6.1 Manage Commitment Based Discounts
2.6.1 Manage Commitment Based Discounts
Each cloud vendor has their own set of commitment based discount options, so the specifics of what you’re committing to and the discount you receive will vary depending on the vendor and what type of commitment you make.
FinOps Certified Professional Self-Paced
2.7.0 Organizational Alignment Domain
2.7.0 Organizational Alignment Domain
Within this domain, the organization acts and automates to manage cloud use within the context of other IT Finance activities, and integrates FinOps capabilities with existing organizational processes, organizational units, and technology.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.7.1 Chargeback & IT Finance Integration
2.7.1 Chargeback & IT Finance Integration
Chargeback and IT Finance Integration establishes financial accountability for cloud spend and IT Finance Integration is the ‘forward path’ of cloud spend data through to an organization’s financial management systems.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.7.2 Cloud Policy & Governance
2.7.2 Cloud Policy & Governance
Cloud Policy is a statement of intent to align cloud-related activity with a standard model designed to improve business value. Cloud Governance is a set of processes by which activity is controlled, so that cloud policy is implemented.
Advanced Self-Paced
2.7.2.1 Working with Cloud Service Providers
2.7.2.1 Working with Cloud Service Providers
Understanding the relationships with cloud service providers.
30 min
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.7.3 Establishing FinOps Culture
2.7.3 Establishing FinOps Culture
At its core, FinOps is a cultural movement because the practice of FinOps is more than a technology solution or a checklist you hand to your teams.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.7.4 FinOps Education & Enablement
2.7.4 FinOps Education & Enablement
FinOps Education & Enablement allows all those participating in FinOps practices to increase the business value of cloud by accelerating FinOps adoption.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.7.5 IT Asset Management Integration
2.7.5 IT Asset Management Integration
ITAM integration is one of the areas of integration into the organization for FinOps. Organizations with an ITAM function will benefit from having a strong partnership between FinOps practice and ITAM functions.
FinOps Certified Professional Self-Paced
2.8.0 Translating Services Across Cloud Providers
2.8.0 Translating Services Across Cloud Providers
A look at specific FinOps terminology and tools per cloud provider.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.8.1 Cloud Billing Mechanics
2.8.1 Cloud Billing Mechanics
Cloud Billing Mechanics describes how organizations incur charges for using cloud services, reconcile charges with cloud usage, pay suppliers, and use billing data to optimize the business value of cloud.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.8.1.1 Azure Billing Mechanics
2.8.1.1 Azure Billing Mechanics
An overview of Azure billing mechanics including billing hierarchy, billing organization, data structures, and optimizations mechanics.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.8.1.2 GCP Billing Mechanics
2.8.1.2 GCP Billing Mechanics
An overview of Google Cloud Provider billing mechanics including GCP resource hierarchy, billing concepts, rate optimizations, detailed usage, and billing data.
37 min
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
2.8.2 FinOps Assessment
2.8.2 FinOps Assessment
Define and establish the required scoping to execute a FinOps Assessment.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
FinOps  Strategy - Interactive Session Two
FinOps Strategy - Interactive Session Two
The second virtual instructor-led session in the FinOps Professional course. This session covers FinOps Strategy.
FinOps Certified Professional Virtual Instructor-Led
FinOps Certified Professional Certification Essay Questions
FinOps Certified Professional Certification Essay Questions
A collection of three essay questions required to earn FinOps Professional Certification.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
FinOps Certified Professional Certification Service & Content Project
FinOps Certified Professional Certification Service & Content Project
The FinOps Professional Certification requires you to fulfill a service and content project requirement.
FinOps Certified Professional Advanced Self-Paced
FinOps Certified Professional Exam
FinOps Certified Professional Exam
Final exam for FinOps Professional Certification
FinOps Certified Professional Certification Exam Advanced