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In this episode, Frank and SteveO cover the latest cloud updates that matter for FinOps practitioners:
- Compute & AI: AWS launches the P6e GB200 Ultra Servers, delivering record-breaking GPU performance for training and inference at trillion-parameter scale. Google announces FlexStart VMs to lower inference costs, while Azure rolls out free AWS-to-Azure Blob migration.
- Storage & Data: Google introduces editable backup plans, and AWS adds tagging support for S3 Express One Zone—a step toward using tags as operational levers, not just reporting tools.
- Visibility & Optimization: AWS Transform enhances EBS cost analysis and .NET modernization insights. GCP improves billing exports with spend-based CUD metadata in BigQuery and previews a Cost Explorer for better spend tracking.
- Pricing & Commitments: AWS Connect introduces per-day pricing for external voice connectors. Google expands flexible CUDs to cover Cloud Run services, with full migration to the new model coming in January 2026.
- Savings & Compliance: Azure Firewall adds ingestion-time log transformations to cut monitoring costs. AWS Audit Manager improves evidence collection, reducing compliance overhead and spend.
- AI-assisted Operations: AWS debuts MCP servers for S3 Tables, CloudWatch, and Application Signals—enabling AI-driven data access, troubleshooting, and observability. Plus, QuickSight doubles SPICE datasets to 2B rows.
As always, we cut through the noise to focus on the FinOps impact—cost, commitments, compliance, and the growing role of AI in managing the cloud.