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Certifications for Organizations

The FinOps Foundation offers five different certifications for Vendor Members, Training Partners and Enterprise Organizations.

 

FinOps Certified Platform

Tier of technology providers that license and deliver a software product, or are founders/maintainers of an open-source project, that helps people successfully adopt cloud financial management practices aligned with the FinOps standards.

View Certified Vendor Members


FinOps Certified Specialty Solution

For providers that deliver solutions that contain a subset of the functionality found in the Certified Platforms which solve a specific part of a cloud cost management challenge.

View Certified Vendor Members


FinOps Certified Service Provider

FinOps experienced professional service providers that consult with enterprises about cloud financial management and help their clients with best practices.

View Certified Vendor Members


FinOps Certified Training Provider

This is a tier of vetted training providers who have deep experience in cloud financial management training.

View Certified Vendor Members


FinOps Certified Enterprise

FinOps experienced enterprises that continually advance their practices while contributing to the greater community.

View Certified Enterprise Members

Certification Requirements

Current certifications will be soft-vetted by the FinOps staff and then presented to the Technical Advisory Council for approval. As the FinOps Framework is adjusted and built out we will move towards a core function model for future certifications or renewals.

Email partner-cert@finops.org to learn more about certified Vendor Members and to start the certification process.

FinOps Practitioner Certifications Requirements

The individual certification requirements below apply to all Member Certifications. For example, if your organization has 1200 people in it and want to achieve the FinOps Certified Platform certification, then you need to have at least 35 individuals—who are actively working at the company—who have individually achieved the FinOps Certified Practitioner certification.

Company Size FinOps Certified Practitioners Required
5000+ 50
500-4999 35
100-499 10
0-99 3

1 FinOps Certified Professional counts for 5 FinOps Certified Practitioners.

Please note that the employee count is based on the size of the parent organization, not the individual business unit. For example, a 100 person product team who is part of a 1500 person organization would fall into the 500-4999 tier, not the 100-499 tier.

FinOps Certified Platform

Tier of technology providers that license and deliver a software product, or are founders/maintainers of an open-source project, to help FinOps practitioners successfully adopt cloud financial management practices aligned with the FinOps Framework. You can address a number of use cases and be rolled out quickly across an organization. Requirements include:

Pre-Requisites
Mandatory Requirements
  • Publicly Facing Content that shows how product features map to ALL FinOps Framework Domains AND Capabilities
  • Host an active Product Support Channel in FinOps Foundation Slack
  • Achieve Working Group Contributor Status in any FinOps Foundation Working Group
  • Live demonstration of your product to be completed after fulfilling all other certification requirements
Optional Requirements
(Must meet 3 of 5)
  • Contribute 2 Community Open Source Material Annually on FinOps Best Practices
  • Share 4 Publicly Available Customer Case Studies
  • Active Corporate Blog/Podcast (or equivalent) that share FinOps Best Practices
  • Formally Participate in the FinOps Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) Project
  • Serve on the Technical Advisory Council or Governing Board

After completing the requirements above, the Vendor Member Certification team will request a 60 minute live video demo of your tool to validate the product.

FinOps Certified Specialty Solution

Tier of technology providers that license and deliver a software product that contains a subset of the functionality found in the Certified Platform products and is specialized for helping FinOps practitioners solve a specific subset of their cloud cost management challenges. Requirements include:

Pre-Requisites
Mandatory Requirements
  • Publicly Facing Content that shows how product features map to specific FinOps Framework Capabilities
  • Host an active Product Support Channel in FinOps Foundation Slack
  • Achieve Working Group Contributor Status in any FinOps Foundation Working Group
  • Live demonstration of your platform to be completed after fulfilling all other certification requirements
Optional Requirements
(Must meet 3 of 5)
  • Contribute 2 Community Open Source Material Annually on FinOps Best Practices 
  • Share 4 Publicly Available Customer Case Studies 
  • Active Corporate Blog/Podcast (or equivalent) that share FinOps Best Practices
  • Formally Participate in the FinOps Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) Project
  • Serve on the Technical Advisory Council or Governing Board

After completing the requirements above, the Vendor Member Certification team will request a 60 minute live video demo of your tool to validate the product.

FinOps Certified Service Provider

A pre-qualified tier of vetted service providers who have deep experience helping enterprises successfully adopt cloud financial management practices. The FinOps certified service providers offer FinOps support, consulting, professional services and training for organizations embarking on their cloud financial management journey. Requirements include:

Pre-Requisites
Mandatory Requirements
  • Submit written Services Descriptions or Statement of Work that outlines services scope, deliverables, timelines, etc. of all FinOps Services
  • Demonstrate how services deliverables align to FinOps Framework
  • Achieve Working Group Contributor Status in any FinOps Foundation Working Group
  • 1 FinOps Certified Professional
Optional Requirements
(Must meet 3 of 5)
  • Sample FinOps Assessment
  • Contribute 1 Community Open Source Material Annually on FinOps Best Practices
  • 3 Published Customer Case Studies
  • Corporate Social (Blogs, YouTube, Podcast, etc) that share FinOps Best Practices
  • Formally Participate in the FinOps Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) Project

FinOps Certified Training Partner

FinOps Foundation recognizes a select group of FinOps Training Partners. This is a tier of vetted training providers who have deep experience in FinOps training.

Pre-Requisites
  • Maintain Linux Foundation and FinOps Foundation Corporate Member
  • Obtain adequate individual certifications within your company
Mandatory Requirements for
FinOps Training Partner
  • Signed FinOps Certified Training Partner contract
  • Employ a FinOps Certified Instructor
Mandatory Requirements for
FinOps Certified Instructors
  • Individual community participant of the FinOps Foundation
  • Have at least 12 months as a FinOps practitioner or related experience
  • Have valid FinOps Certified Practitioner certification
  • Have valid FinOps Certified Professional Certification
  • Hold at least one Practitioner-level cert from a major cloud service provider
  • Experience public speaking or advocacy in FinOps related areas
  • Be employed by a FinOps Certified Training Partner

FinOps Certified Enterprise

FinOps experienced enterprises that continually advance their practices while contributing to the greater community. To be eligible, Enterprises need to be General or Premier Members of the FinOps Foundation and earn points based on the criteria below:

 

Point Category Activity Points Point Cap
Training FinOps Professional Certification 25 50 Points
FinOps Certified Practitioner 5
FinOps Persona Training 3
FinOps Certified MeetUp Organizer 3
Demonstrate FinOps Program Complete FinOps Program Overview Interview 10 25 Points
Publicly Share lessons learned story about FinOps program 10
Complete FinOps Assessment in last 12 Months 5
F2 Participation Lead a Working Group 20 50 Points
Hold a Technical Advisory Council Seat 10
Submit Community Open Source Materials around FinOps Best Practices 10
Achieve Working Group Contributor Status in any FinOps Foundation Working Group 5
Special F2 Initiatives Participation (i.e. FOCUS, Book Contributions) 5
FinOps Ambassador Program Member 5
Interact with Vendor Members Currently use a FinOps Certified Platform 15 30 Points
Currently use or have used a FinOps Certified Service Provider in the last 12 months 15
Internal FinOps Tool (Requires Validation) 15
Share Knowledge FinOps X Breakout Session 10 30 Points
Speaking about FinOps at sanctioned FinOps Official Events / Programs 10
Speaking about FinOps at non-F2 Official Events 5

NOTE: FinOps Certification Achieved at 100 Points total. A minimum of 15 points of the total must be from the “Demonstrate FinOps Program” Category.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What’s the difference between a FinOps Certified Platform and FinOps Certified Specialty Solution?
    • Both Platform and Specialist Solution are a value type of FinOps Tools. A FinOps Platform refers to a full service FinOps tool that solves all use cases for a FinOps Practitioner. A FinOps Speciality Solution refers to a FinOps tool that focuses on one very specific FinOps use case such as rate optimization or container cost management. See the list of current FinOps Certified Platforms and FinOps Certified Speciality Solutions for more examples. 
  • Who is eligible for FinOps Certified Enterprise?
    • FinOps Certified Enterprise is designed for a FinOps team that is run by FinOps Practitioners. FinOps Practitioners are defined as someone who must:  (i) be actively working in FinOps: (a) in an executive capacity, such as a Chief Information Officer or Chief Technology Officer; (b) in IT/engineering and operations; (c) in finance and/or procurement; (d) as a FinOps practitioner; or (e) in a similar capacity (regardless of title); (ii) not be employed by a FinOps, cloud, or cloud management vendor; and (iii) not have FinOps-related sales, marketing, or business development as their primary business.
  • When can I schedule a demo or interview?
    • After you have submitted all required documentation, the Vendor Member Certification team will review the documentation and reach out to you when they are ready to complete the final step of the certification process.
  • What is the definition of a contributor for a working group?
    • A contributor is defined as someone who is interested in the subject matter and is willing and able to participate in the WG. These individual are expected to perform the following duties:  
      • Regularly attend WG meetings (at least 50%)
      • Actively contribute to WG efforts by taking on action items and participating in group discussions
      • Assist working group lead with their duties as needed
      • For additional details, see the Working Group FAQ
  • Who is required to have a FinOps Certified Practitioner to meet the certification requirement?
    • Organizations are required to have enough associates that are FinOps Certified Practitioner trained based on the Company Size in the table below. The Company Size is determined on the parent organization size which was used for defining your fee structure to the Linux Foundation. 
    • Company Size FinOps Certified Practitioners Required
      5000+ 50
      500-4999 35
      100-499 10
      0-99 3
  • What is an example of mapping features to tool features to FinOps Domains and  Capabilities?
    • Below is an overly simplified example that was used for demonstration purposes with the Technical Advisory Council when developing the certification requirements. 
Features / Functionality Framework Capability Supported
Anomaly Alert Functionality
  • Managing Anomalies
Create & Monitor Budgets
  • Budget Management
Create Custom Metrics
  • Measuring Unit Economics
Commitment Based Discounts Reporting
  • Managing Commitment Based Discounts
Cost Allocation Model
  • Managing Shared Costs
  • Cost Allocation
  • Data Analysis & Showback
  • Chargeback & Finance Integration
Forecasting based on previous spend
  • Forecasting 
Ingest 3rd Party Data 

(either via API, CSV, manual input, etc)

  • Establishing a FinOps Design & Accountability Structure
  • FinOps & Intersecting Frameworks
Real Time Cloud Billing Data Reporting 
  • Onboarding Workloads
  • Data Ingestion & Normalization
  • FinOps Education & Enablement
  • Establishing a FinOps Culture
Real Time Cloud Resource Utilization Data Reporting
  • Workload Management & Automation
  • Resource Utilization & Efficiency
  • Cloud Policy & Governance
  • Who should I contact to create my “active product support slack channel”?
  • Where should I go if my question isn’t answered in this list?