Free course: FOCUS in Practice

Turn three cloud bills into one answer.

FOCUS gives AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle billing data the same columns and the same meaning. This short course shows you how to read it, combine it and get answers from it, with three free tools to practise on.

✓The handful of FOCUS columns that answer most questions, and the four costs
✓Where to switch on FOCUS exports in each cloud, and three checks before you combine them
✓Three use cases to run on day one: allocation, unit cost and commitment waste
✓What FOCUS 1.5 brings, and a 30-day plan for your team
6short videos
~15 minin total
Freeno card needed
Priya, head of finance at Maple Freight, with three different cost figures for the same platform
Lesson 1 · Three clouds, three truths1:38

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What's inside

Three chapters, six lessons, one story

You follow Priya, head of finance, and Marco, who runs platform engineering, at Maple Freight, a logistics company with a bill in three clouds. Each lesson is a short video with a real decision at the end.

Chapter 1

The problem and the standard

Three clouds, three truths
One question from finance, three exports, three different answers.
1:38
Where FOCUS comes from
What the specification is, who it serves and who exports it today.
2:07
Chapter 2

Working with FOCUS data

The columns that matter
ChargeCategory, the four costs and how to spot unused commitments.
2:07
One bill, three clouds
FOCUS exports in AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle, combined in one table.
2:26
Chapter 3

Putting FOCUS to work

Use cases you can run today
Allocation, unit cost and commitment waste, each with its query.
2:24
What's next for FOCUS
The 1.5 roadmap, conformance checks and your 30-day plan.
1:46
Who it's for

Anyone who has to explain a cloud bill

Finance and FinOpsYou report cloud spend and want one number you can defend, whatever the provider.
Engineers and data teamsYou build the cost pipeline and want to know which exports to switch on and how to join them.
Certification candidatesFOCUS shows up in the FinOps exams. This is a quick, practical way to get comfortable with it.
Included: three free tools

Practise on Maple Freight's bill

The lessons use three free tools you can keep using with your own team.

FOCUS cost dashboardOne workload from list price to effective cost: prepay it, over-commit it and see which FOCUS columns move.
FOCUS column explorerThe closest native name of each FOCUS column in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, and where to switch on each export.
FOCUS use case librarySix questions finance asks every month, each answered with one SQL query for Athena or BigQuery.
Your instructor

Serge Niagne

Serge Niagne

Triple FinOps-certified consultant and Microsoft Certified Trainer, founder of Cloud Institute Canada. His FinOps courses have been taken by more than 11,000 students. This course is the short, practical version of how he gets client teams onto FOCUS.

Questions

Before you start

Is it really free?

Yes. You give us your name and email, and you get the six lessons and the three tools. No card, no trial. We will email you the link to come back to the course and, now and then, a FinOps tip. You can unsubscribe in one click.

Do I need to know FinOps already?

No. If you have looked at a cloud bill before, you can follow. The first lesson starts from the problem, not from the specification.

Which version of FOCUS does it cover?

FOCUS 1.4, the current release, ratified in June 2026, with a look at what version 1.5 is planned to add.

Do I need access to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud?

No. Every example uses sample data from Maple Freight. When you are ready, the lessons tell you where to switch on the exports in your own accounts.

How do I get back to the lessons later?

After you sign up, you land on the course page. Bookmark it, or use the link in the welcome email. Your progress is saved on your device.

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FOCUS in Practice is an independent course by Cloud Institute Canada. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the FinOps Foundation. FOCUS™ spec content © FOCUS, a Series of Joint Development Foundation Projects, LLC, CC BY 4.0.