CoreStack NextGen Cloud Governance

My main use case for CoreStack  is for cost optimization and billing operations, and I'm using it a bit for SecOps and CloudOps, but majorly for FinOps and BillOps.

A specific example of how I use CoreStack  for FinOps or billing operations is for many of our customers who are running their workload on the cloud; whether AWS , Microsoft Azure , OCI , or Google, everyone is looking for continuous cost optimizations. That is one of the reasons we have opted for CoreStack. It gives a detailed review of the account running in AWS , providing recommendations on reserved instances, saving plans, and orphan volumes. It gives extensive details on the FinOps and the cost optimization, which helps us to optimize the workload for the customer, thus giving us stickiness.

The major thing about my main use case is that we are using CoreStack for BillOps as well, where we give a detailed invoice to the customer with the blended cost, using unblended raw data from AWS and blending it with our margins before sharing the invoices with the customer. While the major use case is FinOps, we also utilize it for BillOps.

The best features that CoreStack offers and stand out for me are definitely their well-architected review because they let you run the well-architected review on all the hyper-scalers, which otherwise would require separate UIs or portals for AWS, Azure , OCI , and Google. CoreStack being a single tool that can run the well-architected review on all four clouds gives us an edge over native tools or other options. The second standout feature is the single pane of glass for multi-cloud cost optimization.

The single pane of glass for multi-cloud cost optimization helps me day-to-day by bringing a lot of operational excellence; it saves a lot of time because rather than going to each and every account or multi-cloud portal, which takes a lot of time, having everything on a single pane of glass increases efficiency, delivers results in less time, and provides clear reporting that can be shared with the customer in PDF or CSV formats.

CoreStack has positively impacted my organization by saving hours of time for reporting—for example, the governance report which my employees used to take at least four hours for one customer. Since I'm sending out 20 reports every month, that equates to 80 hours, thus saving me two man-weeks every month. In terms of cost, that's approximately $8,000 pure saving if I estimate $100 an hour for my architect. So, $8,000 a month is at least saved only by reporting, and although things such as customer experience and stickiness are more qualitative, we are certainly saving time and improving customer experience, which overall is pretty good.

CoreStack can improve by adding a segregation of reserved instances that are shared across child accounts or managed accounts from the parent account, ensuring a cost allocation for all reserved instances or saving plans purchased in the master account and used by child accounts, as that clear segregation should be readily available within the tool.

I give it an eight because, as I mentioned, a few things from the billing operations need to be added, and we need more security features, particularly since the market is increasingly demanding better security tools for cloud management platforms, including cloud security posture assessments.

I have been using CoreStack for almost four years.

CoreStack is stable.

In terms of scalability, we utilize the SaaS platform of CoreStack, and we onboard as an IDP  from AWS. We haven't encountered any issues regarding scalability; the SaaS platform easily accommodates our growth, and we have seen no problems at all over the past four years.

CoreStack has positively impacted my organization by saving hours of time for reporting—for example, the governance report which my employees used to take at least four hours for one customer. Since I'm sending out 20 reports every month, that equates to 80 hours, thus saving me two man-weeks every month. In terms of cost, that's approximately $8,000 pure saving if I estimate $100 an hour for my architect. So, $8,000 a month is at least saved only by reporting, and although things such as customer experience and stickiness are more qualitative, we are certainly saving time and improving customer experience, which overall is pretty good.

We receive wonderful support from CoreStack. We have plenty of content that helps us improve our MSP strategy and achieve customer stickiness, so the support has been pretty good.

Customer support is wonderful; we have a dedicated account manager, and we can easily reach out to them or to a solution architect. With multiple support avenues aligned to us as a partner, we receive very responsive and helpful support.

We previously used a native solution and opted to switch to CoreStack because we wanted a single pane of glass for multi-cloud management that also encompassed SecOps, CloudOps, and BillOps. The native solution offered fewer features and involved more operational overhead, prompting the switch.

I have definitely seen a return on investment; it is measurable. It has saved hours of time for the reporting, especially the governance report, which my employees needed four hours to prepare for one customer. With 20 reports every month, that's 80 hours saved, equating to two man-weeks per month, or $8,000 in savings based on a $100 hourly rate for my architect. Thus, we save a lot of time on reporting, and while customer experience gains are more qualitative, we are improving stickiness and experiences overall, which is pretty good.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is pretty good because we received private pricing, which I cannot disclose. The setup was included as a one-time expense, and licensing is straightforward, mostly based on consumption, which I believe has been competitively priced across the market.

Before choosing CoreStack, we did evaluate other options such as Aquila Cloud and AnOps back in 2021, and CoreStack emerged as the more feature-rich and mature solution.

My advice for others looking into using CoreStack is to recognize that it is a wonderful product, and if you choose to use it, leverage its full potential. Do not limit yourself to just FinOps; explore all its features, including BillOps, SecOps, CloudOps, and especially security governance. Evaluate everything across all four hyper-scalers, and you are likely to love it.

My company does not have a business relationship with CoreStack beyond being a customer; we are not even a reseller. However, we operate in the MSP model, onboarding the product to use CoreStack for our end customers. So while we are customers, we primarily utilize it in a managed services capacity.

I give this review a rating of eight. We have covered almost everything regarding CoreStack.