Cost Visibility & Allocation

You cannot optimize what you cannot measure.

Tagging Strategy

A robust tagging strategy is the foundation of FinOps. Every resource (EC2, RDS, S3 Bucket) must have metadata indicating its owner and purpose.

CostCenter=1024 (Marketing)
Environment=Production
Application=CheckoutService
Owner=team-alpha@company.com

Showback vs. Chargeback

  • Showback: Showing teams what they spent, for awareness and accountability, without actually moving budget. Good for early maturity.
  • Chargeback: Actually deducting the cloud spend from the team's P&L budget. Drives stronger behavior change but requires mature finance processes.