Question

Difficulty: MediumOptimizing Business Processes through FinOps and Cloud Cost Management

A media streaming company runs an unpredictable, high-volume batch video processing workload alongside a steady-state REST API service on Google Cloud. The finance and platform engineering teams need to establish a FinOps governance framework to reduce cloud expenditures while maintaining automated budget tracking across multiple projects. Which of the following strategies should a Cloud Architect recommend? (Select TWO)

  1. Utilize Spot VMs for the batch video processing workloads and purchase flexible Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) to cover baseline compute spend.Answer
  2. Export detailed Cloud Billing data to BigQuery and configure programmatic budget notifications using Pub/Sub to trigger automated cost-control actions.Answer
  3. C
    Purchase 3-year standard resource-based Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) specifically dedicated to the batch video processing compute instances.
  4. D
    Migrate standard relational backend databases from Cloud SQL to Cloud Spanner to minimize base instance running costs.
  5. E
    Deploy stateless REST API services to Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters with dedicated node pools instead of Cloud Run to reduce serverless overhead.

Answer

The correct recommendations are to utilize Spot VMs for batch video processing alongside flexible Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) for baseline spend, and to export Cloud Billing data to BigQuery with Pub/Sub budget alerts for automated governance.
Combining Spot VMs for interruption-tolerant batch processing with flexible spend-based CUDs ensures maximum savings across both variable and steady-state compute. Concurrently, exporting billing metrics to BigQuery and integrating Pub/Sub budget alerts creates a robust FinOps control loop capable of programmatic remediation.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze workload compute characteristics for cost optimization.
Identified batch processing as stateless/fault-tolerant (ideal for Spot VMs) and identified general compute baseline as suitable for flexible CUD coverage.
Matching compute pricing models to workload variability yields maximum cost savings without performance degradation.
2
Establish FinOps visibility and automated governance mechanisms.
Configured BigQuery Cloud Billing export for analytical querying and Pub/Sub notifications on budget alerts for automated remediation.
FinOps frameworks require real-time visibility and automated guardrails to enforce organizational budget compliance.

Key Concept

FinOps Cost Optimization and Governance in GCP
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