FinOps Automation: Why is Simple So Hard (And How We Solved It)

The main goal for any FinOps team is to create automated processes that save money and improve efficiency in the cloud. The problem is, FinOps engineers, while technically skilled, are not developers. They have a technical background but aren’t programmers, and the tools available to them today are often limited BI tools that display dashboards but don’t allow for true process building. This creates a huge gap between the immense need for automation and the limited ability to implement it.

Furthermore, it’s not just about building the automation; it’s about maintaining it. The process needs to be simple to build and just as simple to use and modify down the line.

When we started building Wiv, we identified this exact gap. Our goal was to provide FinOps engineers with developer-like capabilities, but without any need for coding knowledge. We wanted to give them the power to create, manage, and adapt complex automations themselves, through a simple and intuitive interface, and without the complexity of code, loops, conditions, and APIs.

In this first post of the series, I want to present a classic example that illustrates the challenge and our solution: the “Combo Step”.

The Long Way: The Frustration of Getting an EC2 Instance List

Let’s take a task that sounds simple on paper: “I want to get a list of all my EC2 instances across all accounts and regions in the organization.”

In reality, for someone who needs to build this automation from scratch, the process is not just long; it’s frustrating and prone to errors. It looks something like this:

1. Step 1: Get Account List – You need to start with an API call to get all active accounts under the Organization.
2. Step 2: Configure Permissions (Assume Role) – You have to loop through each account separately and assume a temporary role, because each account has a different role. Any small permission error halts the entire process.
3. Step 3: Get Region List – After gaining access to an account, you need to get a list of all regions where the account is active.
4. Step 4: Scan Servers in Each Region – Now you need a second loop to go through all the regions, and in each one, make an ec2:DescribeInstances call to get the list of servers.
5. Step 5: Filter and Process Data – After you’ve received all the instances, the real work begins. You need a third loop to go through all the servers, filter them by conditions (e.g., only instances running for more than 7 days), collect the relevant data, and perform calculations.

This process isn’t just technically complex; it’s also slow, requires constant maintenance (what happens when a new account is added?), and most importantly – it’s out of reach for the users who need this information the most. In the end, a simple task required three nested loops, conditional logic, and complex interaction with multiple different API calls. This is what it looks like in practice:

The Short Way with Wiv: Meet the Combo Step

We understood that this process is a recipe for frustration and errors. That’s why we developed the Combo Step in Wiv – one smart step that replaces this entire complex process. The goal wasn’t just to shorten the process, but to empower the user.

Instead of building cumbersome logic, the user simply drags one step and enjoys the following “out-of-the-box” capabilities:

• Automatic Scan of All Accounts and Regions: The step knows how to scan the user’s entire cloud environment automatically, with no need for loops. This means that even if new accounts are added, the information will always be up-to-date without any changes to the automation
• Exclude Option: You can easily exclude specific accounts or regions from the scan. Want to focus only on the production environment? No problem. Want to exclude the sandbox account? One click.
• Data Enrichment (Metadata): We automatically add crucial information to each instance, like the account name it belongs to, its uptime, or how long it has been in a Stopped state. This turns raw data into actionable insights.
• Cost Data Integration: You can easily integrate the cost data for each server directly into the information you receive. Instead of cross-referencing data from different systems, the user immediately sees how much each resource costs.
• Smart Filters: We added simple filters based on “greater than…”, “less than…”, “equals…”, and more. This allows the user to perform complex filtering in seconds, without writing a single line of code.

Suddenly, a task like “get all EC2 instances that have been in a Stopped state for more than 14 days from all accounts in the organization” becomes a single, intuitive step:

Conclusion: Simplifying to Empower

The EC2 instance example is just the tip of the iceberg. Our goal at Wiv is to take complex processes in the FinOps world and make them simple, intuitive, and accessible to everyone. When we simplify the technology, we don’t eliminate its capabilities – we empower the people who use it. The Combo Step is a prime example of how we apply this philosophy.

In the next post, we’ll talk about another challenge and how we cracked it. Stay tuned!