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Explore options for FinOps certifications and training
Receiving a FinOps certification helps individuals develop their cloud financial management skills. Discover training and certification options that can help your resume stand out.
If you are looking to prove you can effectively manage and optimize cloud costs, a FinOps certification is a good place to start.
FinOps refers to a set of practices for managing operational expenses in cloud computing. Just as the term DevOps highlights collaboration between development and IT operations teams, FinOps suggests collaboration among finance, IT operations and engineering teams.
The FinOps Foundation, a program within The Linux Foundation, developed the FinOps practices.
FinOps helps teams ensure financial accountability across an organization. By using economic incentives offered by cloud providers, as well as cloud financial management strategies, the goal is to have a cost-effective cloud deployment. FinOps also aims to help organizations make careful tradeoffs between cloud costs and performance.
For IT pros who want to learn more about FinOps or demonstrate their FinOps expertise, there are certifications and training programs available. Some come directly from the FinOps Foundation. Others, such as those from AWS and Coursera, offer training in cloud cost management and optimization more generally. While some of these courses may not explicitly mention FinOps in their titles, the concepts they cover can lend themselves to a FinOps practice.
FinOps Foundation
The FinOps Foundation has a variety of options for certifications and training programs, as well as courses based on Personas.
FinOps Certified Practitioner
The FinOps Certified Practitioner course targets a wide variety of IT and business roles, including cloud budget owners, cloud architects, FinOps analysts, IT program and portfolio management leaders, and financial business advisors. This course introduces FinOps fundamentals and key concepts. Recommended prerequisites include knowledge of cloud computing basics, at least one public cloud platform and pay-as-you-go consumption models.
This certification comes in two forms:
- Self-paced course -- $599
- Interactive training modules, including written content and videos.
- Access to online course materials for one year.
- FinOps Certified Practitioner certificate and a Credly badge.
- Virtual instructor-led course -- $1,500
- Interactive training modules, including written content and videos.
- Access to online course materials for one year.
- A live, virtual, two-day, instructor-led workshop with interactive breakout sessions.
- FinOps Certified Practitioner certificate and a Credly badge.
It takes six hours and 10 hours to complete the courses, respectively. Alternately, you can choose to skip the courses and just take the exam. The exam costs $300. It lasts one hour and has 50 multiple-choice questions. A grade of 75% is needed to pass, and the certification is valid for two years.
FinOps Certified Engineer
The FinOps Certified Engineer course is a foundational, 10-hour training for engineers and developers on how to work with FinOps, finance and procurement teams to efficiently manage cloud use and costs. It's aimed primarily at software and system engineers, as well as DevOps engineers and managers. While there are no prerequisites, it is a practitioner-level course that explores FinOps from the perspective of engineering teams. The $699 course provides access to the following:
- Interactive training modules, including written content and videos.
- Access to online course materials for one year.
- FinOps Certified Practitioner certificate and a Credly badge.
The exam contains 50 multiple-choice questions and takes approximately an hour to complete. A passing grade of at least 75% is required to receive certification.
FinOps Certified Professional
The FinOps Certified Professional course is hands-on and the FinOps Foundation's most advanced training option. A mix of instructor-led and self-paced learning, it requires an estimated 40 to 50 hours of work over a span of a few weeks. Prerequisites include at least six months of FinOps work experience and a FinOps Certified Practitioner certificate. The course costs $1,999 and includes the following:
- Interactive training modules and videos.
- Access to online course materials for a year.
- Two live sessions led by the FinOps Foundation.
- Access to a private Slack channel to connect with other students.
To meet the requirements for this certification, you need to attend two live sessions, complete the self-paced modules and pass the exam. The two-hour exam includes 100 questions. A grade of at least 75% is required to pass, and the certification is valid for three years.
AWS
An AWS certification shows that the recipient has specific AWS knowledge, skills and capabilities.
AWS Cloud Financial Management for Builders
The AWS Cloud Financial Management for Builders course is for individuals who want to effectively manage and optimize their AWS cloud costs. It's aimed at developers, systems admins and architects. An Architecting on AWS certificate is recommended for this course.
This intermediate-level course covers the following:
- Best practices to reduce AWS costs.
- AWS tools to manage and optimize spending on the cloud platform.
- Ways to estimate and regulate current and future cloud workloads.
- Architectural best practices.
There are virtual and in-person options in various locations and languages. The three-day course costs $2,025.
AWS Cloud for Finance Professionals
The AWS Cloud for Finance Professionals course is two days and is designed for finance stakeholders looking to maximize the value of cloud in their organization. This course is focused on fundamentals and is classroom training provided in-person and virtually.
The course covers the following:
- Ways to estimate costs associated with cloud workloads.
- Tools to optimize, plan and monitor AWS cloud spend.
- How to define cloud business value.
- Pricing models to optimize cloud spend.
AWS recommends completing AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials and AWS Cloud Essentials for Business Leaders before taking the AWS Cloud for Finance Professionals course. The cost for this course is $1,350.
QA
QA is an online training platform that offers certificates on a variety of topics, from cloud computing fundamentals to business management. Subscriptions include access to the content library, hands-on labs and exam preparation. They cost $39 per month or $399 per year.
QA offers an Optimizing Cloud Costs course that focuses on cloud financial management. Participants learn how to do the following:
- Analyze and attribute cloud spending.
- Use certain services and tools to reduce your cost of ownership.
- Adopt a consumption-based cost model.
- Measure cost efficiency.
The course averages 14 hours, broken down into 22 modules, including hands-on labs, courses, webinars and an exam. The exam consists of 30 multiple-choice questions and lasts 45 minutes. You must score at least 60% to pass.
In addition to this, QA offers numerous other courses, exams and resources on its platform. Some are for general use among cloud platforms, while others are tailored for specific service provider platforms.
Other FinOps training resources
From practice tests to study guides, there are various ways to supplement FinOps training and prepare for a certification exam.
Udemy
For $20 per month or a one-time payment of $69.99, online course provider Udemy offers two practice tests for the FinOps Certified Practitioner exam. Each practice test has about 50 questions. It also provides a crash course that covers the material in the FinOps Certified Practitioner course. In addition, Udemy offers fundamental-level classes on FinOps skills tailored specifically to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
Coursera
Cloud providers also have guided projects or course options through Coursera. These resources range from beginner to intermediate levels of experience and focus on managing costs on their respective platforms. Enrolling in these courses is free; however, final certification may incur a charge.
The book Cloud FinOps: Collaborative, Real-Time Cloud Financial Management by J.R. Storment and Mike Fuller is an additional study resource. It uses real-life examples to help readers learn about cloud costs and financial management, two concepts you need to understand well to attain FinOps certification.
Editor's note: This article was originally written by Johanna McDonald and expanded by Everett Bishop.
Johanna McDonald is site editor for TechTarget IT Operations. McDonald graduated from the University of Vermont in 2021.
Everett Bishop is assistant site editor for Cloud Computing at TechTarget. He graduated from the University of New Haven in 2019.
