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CL-404 Cloud & Platform

Cloud FinOps & Cost Engineering

Turn cloud spend into an engineered system: allocation and tagging strategy, unit economics, rightsizing and commitment planning, spot strategy, anomaly response, and the FinOps operating cadence — learners hunt four planted cost leaks in a realistic estate and present the savings case.

B4Professional
5modules
34skill atoms
3role journeys
Curriculum

What this course covers.

5 modules, 34 named skill atoms. Expand any module to see them.

1Cost Visibility7 skill atoms
tag strategyallocationshowback/chargebacktag enforcement by policyshared & untagged cost split rulesamortized vs unblended costCUR exports into a warehouse
2Unit Economics6 skill atoms
cost per customer/requestefficiency KPIschoosing the denominator metriccost per tenant on shared infrastructureunit cost trend per releasemargin impact of a feature
3Optimization Levers7 skill atoms
rightsizingcommitmentsstorage lifecyclespotSavings Plans vs RIs vs CUDs coverageorphaned volume & idle resource sweepNAT gateway and egress charges
4AI Workload Costs7 skill atoms
GPU pricingGPU-vs-API crossover modelingtokens per dollar by modelbatching effect on unit costidle GPU parkingsemantic cache hit-rate savingsspot vs reserved GPU capacity
5Leak Hunt & Pitch7 skill atoms
4 planted leaksquantified savings deckanomaly alerts as the entry pointcross-region replication chargesoversized non-prod databasesunattached IPs and idle load balancerssavings ranked by effort and risk
Where it fits

CL-404 in the role journeys.

This course appears in 3 of our 45 role journeys. Here is what a learner takes immediately before and after it in each.

Cloud / Solutions Architect

Professional stage
CL-303CL-404CL-314

FinOps Analyst

Practitioner stage
CL-201CL-404CL-311

Engineering Manager

Professional stage
AI-506CL-404AI-112

Roles this course serves

The capability ladder

This course is authored to band B4.

Every course we run is written to one rung of the CASI ladder, so a plan can be assembled to take a team from where they are to where they need to be.

What do B1–B6 mean?The CASI Capability Ladder — click to expand

Every course targets a band on the CASI Capability Ladder — our six-band proficiency scale, anchored to open standards (O*NET, ESCO, NICE, NIST AI RMF, Bloom's). A band tells you how deep a course goes, and what evidence proves it.

What the learner can doTypical evidence
B1
AwareUnderstands concepts and vocabulary; uses tools with guidance
Knowledge checks
B2
FoundationPerforms standard tasks correctly in familiar contexts
Guided labs, autograded exercises
B3
PractitionerDelivers complete pieces of work independently
Scenario labs, proctored hands-on exams
B4
ProfessionalHandles production-grade complexity, trade-offs and failure modes
Break-fix drills, design defenses
B5
AdvancedEngineers systems end-to-end under constraints; leads others
Rubric-scored capstones, vivas
B6
ExpertSets direction; recognised authority across teams
Portfolio + panel evaluation

A note on B6. Courses in this catalog target B1–B5. B6 is not taught — it is recognised, through a portfolio and a panel, once someone is setting direction for others. Every journey here is built to land a learner at B5.

Next step

Run CL-404 for your team.

This course runs at several lengths depending on how deep you need to go and how much of it your people already have. Tell us who is being trained and we will scope it.

Add it to a training plan Talk to our team Check your team’s level free