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Production AI Radar

How to standardize AI cloud cost with FOCUS

Export and map spend to the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification so AI GPU and LLM lines land in one finance-ready model.

AssessFinOps11 min
FinOps · GPU & LLM metering

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Labels on every GPU job + gateway tags on every token. FOCUS-aligned showback across AWS / Azure / GCP.

When you need this

  • Finance cannot reconcile AWS bill with LLM invoices
  • Need multi-cloud AI cost in one schema
  • Showback meetings argue about column definitions
  • Preparing FinOps practice for board reporting

Prerequisites

  • Access to CUR / cloud cost export
  • LLM gateway usage export
  • Tag taxonomy (team, product, env)

Tools

Steps

  1. 1

    Adopt FOCUS columns as the contract

    Map ChargePeriod, ServiceName, Tags, and BillingAccountId. Agree the AI tag keys with finance once.

  2. 2

    Normalize cloud + GPU allocation

    Ingest CUR/FOCUS export; join Kubecost GPU allocation on resource IDs / tags. Fill gaps with estimated allocation rules — document them.

  3. 3

    Normalize LLM SaaS spend

    Map LiteLLM/provider invoices into FOCUS-like rows with team tags. Treat tokens as usage units alongside cloud meters.

  4. 4

    Automate the weekly pack

    Dashboard + CSV for finance. Top drivers, forecast vs budget, anomalies. Same definitions every week.

Adoption pitfalls

  • Custom schemas that finance never adopts
  • LLM spend left in spreadsheets forever
  • Tags missing → FOCUS export with null dimensions

Adoption checklist

  • Tag taxonomy documented and enforced
  • Cloud + LLM spend in one weekly report
  • Finance signs off on mapping rules
  • Anomaly alert on AI spend >X% WoW

SEER REAL assessment / sprint

Assessment scores FinOps maturity for AI. Sprint delivers a FOCUS-aligned weekly pack for cloud GPU + LLM gateway spend.

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