Figma: FinOps Excellence & Cost Control
A detailed look at the challenges and successes of Figma.
Key Metrics at a Glance
Reduction in monthly AWS costs through strategic use of Savings Plans and Spot Instances.
Percentage of teams managing their own budgets via self-service dashboards.
The Problem in Detail: How Did It Come to This?
Figma experienced explosive growth, leading to an equally rapid increase in AWS costs. The costs were opaque, difficult to attribute, and lacked a central optimization strategy. Development teams were frustrated as they had no insight into the cost implications of their architectural decisions.
The Solution: A Strategic Approach
Introduction of a central FinOps culture. This included implementing a strict tagging policy, building detailed cost dashboards per team, and establishing a central process for managing AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances. The key was empowering developers to see and understand the costs of their own services.
Key Learnings
- FinOps is a culture, not a tool. Empowering the teams is the key.
- Accurate cost allocation through tagging is the absolute foundation.
- A mix of on-demand, Savings Plans, and Spot Instances is the key to cost optimization.
Essential Questions & Answers
What was the biggest lever for cost savings?
The strategic use of Spot Instances for stateless workloads combined with high Savings Plans coverage for the baseline load.