Origins of Google Cloud Platform Google Cloud Platform, launched by Google in 2011, emerged from the company’s own needs for scalable, reliable, and cost-efficient infrastructure for its services like Search and YouTube. Leveraging this expertise, Google offered cloud services for businesses looking for powerful computing, data analytics, and machine learning tools. Key Services of GCP…
Origins of HashiCorp Founded by Mitchell Hashimoto and Armon Dadgar, HashiCorp started with the vision of revolutionizing datacenter management: application development, delivery, and maintenance. Over the years, it has released multiple tools that focus on individual parts of the application delivery pipeline, each designed to be composable to support diverse workflows. Key Products of HashiCorp…
Origins of Infrastructure as Code With the rise of cloud computing and the need for rapid, reproducible, and scalable infrastructure deployments, IaC emerged as a solution. By codifying infrastructure, organizations can automate and streamline the provisioning and management of resources. Principles and best practices of IaC Principles and best practices of IaC include: Benefits of…
Navigating Azure in the FinOps Landscape As one of the leading cloud service providers, Microsoft Azure plays a significant role in many organizations’ cloud strategies. For those vested in FinOps, understanding Azure’s cost structures and optimization techniques becomes essential. What is Azure? Microsoft Azure, commonly referred to as Azure, is a cloud computing platform offered…
Origins of Platform Engineering As software development practices evolved and the need for rapid, continuous delivery became evident, the role of Platform Engineering emerged. It bridges the gap between traditional IT operations and development teams, ensuring streamlined processes and consistent environments from development to production. Role of a Platform Engineer Platform Engineers focus on: Benefits…
Origins of Pulumi Pulumi, founded in 2017, sought to redefine Infrastructure as Code by allowing developers to use standard programming languages (like JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, and .NET) rather than domain-specific languages or YAML. The idea was to harness the power of existing programming ecosystems while managing cloud resources. How Pulumi Works At its core,…
Concept of Showback In organizations, IT departments often incur significant costs for services, infrastructure, and operations. The showback process provides an itemized overview of these costs to internal departments or business units. Unlike chargeback, where costs are actually billed to departments, showback merely displays the costs, fostering awareness and accountability. Purpose of Showback The primary…
Origins of Spotify Backstage Spotify, known for its music streaming service, realized the need for a unified developer portal as they scaled and their engineering ecosystem became more complex. To address the fragmentation of tooling and infrastructure, they developed Backstage to provide a single pane of glass for all developer tooling, irrespective of the technology…
Origins of Terraform Developed by HashiCorp, Terraform was introduced as a solution to the growing need for automated, reproducible infrastructure deployments across diverse cloud providers and on-premises environments. Since its inception, Terraform has become a popular choice for cloud infrastructure automation. How Terraform Works Terraform operates on the principle of ‘Infrastructure as Code’, allowing users…
What is the meaning of FinOps, and what does it stand for? FinOps, a combination of Finance and DevOps (not to be confused with FinOps in finance, which stands for Financial Operations), is a cloud financial management practice that aims to bring teams together to ensure a company maximizes its cloud ROI (Return on Investment)…
Basics of TCO Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a comprehensive financial estimate that helps companies determine direct and indirect costs of a product or system. It provides a holistic view of both upfront and hidden costs, aiding in more informed purchasing decisions. Components of TCO The TCO is typically composed of multiple cost factors:…
Origins of CCoE The Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) concept emerged as businesses began adopting cloud services and realized the need for a dedicated team to ensure consistent, secure, and efficient use of these services. Comprising experts from IT, security, and other relevant departments, the CCoE offers guidance and expertise for a company’s cloud initiatives….