FinOps Automation holds incredible potential for reducing cloud costs and improving efficiency, but the path how to start automate is not clear. Many organizations struggle with figuring out where to begin and how to scale automation in a structured way. At Wiv.ai, we focus on what we call Hyper Automation — an approach where you start small, automate specific processes, and gradually build up from discovery to remediation.
We believe that great automation should always keep humans in the loop, especially for tasks requiring critical decision-making or context. Automation isn’t about removing human input entirely — it’s about enabling smarter workflows, where automation handles routine tasks while approvals and oversight ensure that important decisions remain in human hands.
Rather than diving headfirst and trying to automate everything at once (like finding all unattached EBS volumes and deleting them right away), it’s important to take incremental steps. Automation should evolve organically: first discovering issues, then setting up rules for action, and finally moving towards full remediation.
Why Automation?
Before diving into the how, let’s talk about the why. Cloud environments are growing faster than ever, and with that growth comes increased complexity and cost. Managing these environments manually is time-consuming and unsustainable at scale. FinOps Automation provides relief by allowing you to optimize, monitor, and remediate cloud usage seamlessly, cutting costs while ensuring your cloud infrastructure runs smoothly.
Automation isn’t just about reducing expenses — it’s about eliminating inefficiencies and empowering teams to focus on higher-value tasks rather than getting bogged down by manual processes. By automating routine tasks, you free up engineering and FinOps teams to focus on innovation rather than babysitting cloud resources.
But the real power of automation is that it allows your organization to be proactive rather than reactive. With the right automation tools in place, you can monitor your cloud environment continuously, spot inefficiencies, and remediate them before they become major issues.
The Traffic Light Method: A Step-by-Step Automation Guide
One method that has proven effective in approaching FinOps Automation is the Traffic Light Method, which breaks down tasks based on complexity and urgency.
Red: Clear Wins with Immediate Actions
In the “red” category are tasks that are obvious candidates for automation. These are the simple, high-impact actions that should be implemented right away. For example, EC2 stopped instances that have been idle for more than 120 days with $1,000+ in potential savings are clear opportunities for automation.
An organizational policy can be set to delete these instances automatically, but before that happens, notify the relevant teams (like R&D) a week in advance. Automating these policies gives immediate benefits and establishes a foundation for more complex tasks later.
Ownership is a common issue in the cloud, where defining who is responsible for what can be challenging. To start automating ownership, use what data you have, like the user_name tag or account name, and slowly build up more refined ownership mechanisms.
Yellow: Actions Needing Approval
In the “yellow” category, tasks are a bit more complex. These involve actions that you might want to automate, but require some form of human approval first. For example, regularly deleting resources that are underutilized may be beneficial, but some items might require approval before deletion. This stage emphasizes collaboration while still leveraging automation.
Set up approval workflows that send notifications to the resource owner. With Wiv.ai, you can automate the approval process, ensuring the resource owner is informed and has the chance to review the action before the system takes further steps.
Green: Complex Tasks Needing Further Discussion
The “green” tasks are the most complex and require additional discussion or evaluation. These might be areas where automation could cause unforeseen issues or where deeper analysis is needed. Resources with intricate dependencies or significant business value often fall into this category.
Green tasks are where cross-team collaboration and thorough discovery processes become crucial. Before automating these tasks, it’s important to gather data, run reports, and ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the next steps.
Starting with Red: Automate What You Can Today
Begin your automation journey by focusing on red tasks — like removing EC2 instances that violate your organization’s policy of no idle instances over 120 days. Automating this process sends a message to the team, notifying them of the upcoming action. By starting with clear wins, you build a solid foundation for tackling more nuanced tasks later.
One of the biggest challenges is assigning ownership of resources in the cloud, but this can be done incrementally. Start by automating ownership tagging using what’s available, and improve this as you go.
From Discovery to Remediation: The Power of Hyper Automation
Automation doesn’t happen all at once, and that’s where the concept of Hyper Automation comes in. Hyper Automation is the gradual process of automating from discovery (identifying opportunities for optimization) to remediation (taking action). For example, instead of just deleting all unattached EBS volumes, start by discovering which volumes are unattached and evaluating them before automating the cleanup process.
At Wiv.ai, we provide the tools to help you automate every phase — whether it’s ownership tagging, approvals, or notifications. Our platform helps you progress from discovery to full remediation, ensuring that you always have control while benefiting from automation’s time-saving and cost-cutting advantages.
By implementing the Traffic Light Method and adopting Hyper Automation, you’ll create a structured, scalable automation strategy that evolves with your organization’s needs. Start small, focus on clear wins, and gradually expand into more complex automations.
