Client
Araza
Delivery Partner
Dirawong Consulting
Solution
Cloud Cost Intelligence, FinOps Enablement and Forecasting Platform Implementation
Executive Summary
As organisations continue to expand their cloud adoption strategies, gaining meaningful visibility into cloud spend has become increasingly important. Araza undertook a cloud financial management initiative to provide customers with improved cost transparency, forecasting capabilities, and actionable optimisation insights through its ArCO and ArCO Horizon platforms.
Dirawong Consulting partnered with Araza to support the delivery of a production-ready Cloud Cost Intelligence solution that integrates AWS billing data, account metadata, business application context, and operational metrics into a single FinOps platform.
The engagement enabled customers to move beyond traditional cloud billing reports and establish a mature FinOps capability that supports cost attribution, budgeting, forecasting, optimisation, and business-aligned decision-making.
Business Challenge
While cloud cost data was readily available, organisations often struggled to convert raw billing information into actionable business insights.
Customers faced several challenges:
- AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR) data was complex and difficult for non-technical stakeholders to consume
- Resource tagging maturity was incomplete, limiting cost attribution capabilities
- Finance, FinOps, and engineering teams lacked a unified view of budgets, forecasts, and actual cloud usage
- Business stakeholders required clearer ownership of cloud consumption across applications, teams, and cost centres
- Optimisation opportunities needed to be identified, prioritised, and aligned with business value
Customers required a platform capable of connecting cloud spend with operational ownership, business context, and financial planning to improve governance and cost management outcomes.
The Solution
Dirawong supported the implementation of Araza’s ArCO and ArCO Horizon platforms to establish an enterprise-ready Cloud Cost Intelligence capability.
The solution combined AWS billing data, LeanIX application information, customer metadata, business volume metrics, and forecasting capabilities into a single platform designed to support FinOps, finance, engineering, and executive stakeholders.
The engagement focused on enabling cost transparency, improving attribution accuracy, strengthening forecasting capabilities, and identifying optimisation opportunities that deliver measurable business value.
Scope of Services
Dirawong delivered specialist expertise across several key areas.
Cloud Cost Intelligence Platform
- Implementation of ArCO cost management capabilities
- AWS Cost and Usage Report ingestion
- AWS Glue, Athena, and QuickSight integration
- Reporting and analytics enablement
ArCO Horizon Deployment
- Containerised frontend and backend deployment
- AWS ECS Fargate implementation
- Aurora database configuration
- SSO integration and production readiness support
Business Context Mapping
- LeanIX application mapping
- Capability attribution
- Synthetic tag generation
- Shared service allocation models
Forecasting and Planning
- Budget versus actual analysis
- AI-enhanced rolling forecasting
- Manual outlook adjustments
- Expected spend modelling
Optimisation Enablement
- Rightsizing recommendations
- Storage optimisation analysis
- Modernisation opportunity identification
- Value-first prioritisation frameworks
Governance and Documentation
- User and administrator guides
- Validation and deployment documentation
- Governance frameworks
- Operational handover support
Dirawong Team Contribution
Dirawong provided specialist expertise across multiple disciplines.
Business Analysis
- Requirements gathering
- Stakeholder engagement
- FinOps process alignment
- Financial reporting design
Solution Design
- Cloud cost architecture support
- Integration planning
- Data modelling
- Forecasting workflow design
Development and Integration
- Data pipeline implementation
- AWS service integration
- Metrics onboarding
- Dashboard enhancements
Testing and Validation
- Attribution validation
- Metrics verification
- Forecast accuracy testing
- End-to-end platform validation
Production Deployment
- Environment preparation
- Deployment activities
- Operational readiness support
- Knowledge transfer and handover
Key Outcomes
The implementation delivered several strategic outcomes for customers.
Improved Cost Transparency
Customers gained enhanced visibility into cloud expenditure across accounts, services, and cost centres through structured reporting and dashboards.
Business-Aligned Attribution
Cloud spend was mapped beyond infrastructure components to applications, capabilities, and business functions, improving accountability and decision-making.
Better Financial Planning
Finance, FinOps, and engineering teams could collaborate using shared views of budgets, forecasts, actual spend, and expected end-of-year positions.
Unit Economics Visibility
Business metrics were integrated with cloud spend to support cost-to-serve analysis and business value measurement.
Optimisation Readiness
The platform identified practical optimisation opportunities and enabled prioritisation based on business impact, implementation effort, and risk considerations.
Operational Sustainability
Governance controls, deployment documentation, and administration guides improved maintainability and reduced reliance on institutional knowledge.
Results
Delivery Model: Embedded FinOps and Cloud Delivery Team
Achievements
- Established a formal Cloud Cost Intelligence capability
- Delivered a production-ready ArCO and Horizon platform
- Implemented validated business metric integrations
- Enabled AI-enhanced rolling forecasting workflows
- Achieved application and capability attribution for 24% of total AWS spend at the documented milestone
- Provided integrated views combining budgets, actual usage, forecasts, and outlook adjustments
Business Benefits
Customers realised several important business benefits through the engagement:
- Improved visibility into cloud costs and consumption patterns
- Enhanced accountability through business-aligned cost attribution
- Stronger budgeting and forecasting capabilities
- Better collaboration between finance, engineering, and FinOps teams
- Accelerated identification of optimisation opportunities
- Established a scalable foundation for long-term FinOps maturity
Conclusion
Dirawong Consulting partnered with Araza to support the implementation of a Cloud Cost Intelligence and FinOps enablement platform built around the ArCO and ArCO Horizon solutions.
By integrating cloud billing data, business context, forecasting capabilities, and optimisation insights into a unified platform, Dirawong helped customers move beyond basic cloud cost reporting toward a mature FinOps operating model.
The engagement demonstrates how organisations can improve cloud cost transparency, strengthen financial planning, increase accountability, and establish a sustainable foundation for cloud cost optimisation and business value realisation.