Cloud FinOps Training for the UK Public Sector
Four free components, from first principles to advanced rate and workload optimisation. Two expert forums and two self-paced courses, open to all UK civil and public servants.
Get Tech Certified is a UK public sector initiative offering free digital and technology learning pathways and certifications, designed to build skills from beginner to advanced levels.
Delivered by Government Digital and Data in partnership with leading technology providers, the campaign supports everyone from those new to technology through to experienced digital professionals.
ProsperOps is an official Get Tech Certified 2026 training provider.
THE PROGRAMME
Two Expert Forums Bookend Two Self-Paced Courses
ProsperOps is a learning partner for Get Tech Certified 2026, the free training programme run by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on the Government Digital & Data Hub. Every component is free with unlimited places.
The programme opens with a recorded session in which ProsperOps FinOps specialists introduce each course, with our team on hand to answer questions as it runs. It closes with a live expert panel. Both are available on demand afterwards. Take the components in order or pick the ones you need; nothing is a prerequisite for anything else.
01. Fundamentals Forum
Cloud FinOps Fundamentals: Guided Forum with Q&A
The opening session of the programme. ProsperOps FinOps specialists introduce each of the three course modules: what the topic covers, why it matters to public sector teams, and how to get the most out of it. The session is pre-recorded, and our team is on hand while it runs to answer questions.
- What cloud FinOps is, and the roles that share responsibility for cloud spend
- How AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud structure pricing and billing
- Where cloud spend actually comes from in a public sector estate
- An introduction to each of the three self-paced modules
- Available on demand afterwards if you cannot join
02. Fundamentals + Cost Optimisation
Cloud FinOps Fundamentals + Cloud Cost Optimisation
Two self-paced modules in one course. The first sets out the discipline, the framework and the vocabulary. The second moves to the measures practitioners use to judge whether cost optimisation is working, and the commitment instruments each cloud provider offers.
- The cloud provider landscape: AWS, Azure and Google Cloud pricing models
- FinOps as a discipline, and who owns cloud spend
- The FinOps Framework: Inform, Optimize, Operate, and the Crawl-Walk-Run maturity model
- Rate optimisation compared with usage optimisation, and essential domain terms
- Effective Savings Rate (ESR) and Commitment Lock-In Risk (CLR)
- Compute Shrink Allowance Target (CSAT), and why flexibility has a price
- Coverage and the optimal coverage point
- Commitment instruments by provider: Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Committed Use Discounts, Azure Reservations
- Smart savings compared with inherited savings
- Vertical (financial) and horizontal (technical) flexibility
03. Advanced Techniques
Advanced Rate and Workload Optimisation Techniques
For practitioners who already manage commitments and want to move past static, manual purchasing. Covers how continuous automated management works on each of the three major clouds, the guardrails it requires, and the usage-side techniques that save money independently of any discount.
- Automating and optimising AWS Reserved Instances and Savings Plans
- Automating and optimising Azure Reservations and Savings Plans
- Automating and optimising Google Cloud Committed Use Discounts
- The value of automation, and the guardrails responsible automation requires
- Workload optimisation: rightsizing, scheduling, autoscaling, removing idle resources
- Unifying rate and workload optimisation into one strategy
04. Expert Panel
Bringing it all Together: FinOps Expert Panel Discussion
The closing session. The panel takes the questions that came up across the programme and works through how rate and workload optimisation fit together in a real estate: what to do first, what to automate, and what changes when the environment is public sector. Bring a problem from your own estate.
- Where to start when both rate and workload are unoptimised
- Sequencing decisions: what to fix, what to automate, what to leave
- Public sector constraints: procurement, budget cycles and reporting
- Open Q&A with the panel
- Register now and we will email you the joining link ahead of the session
Register once for any or all four components
Free, with unlimited places. Tick the components you want and we will send joining details for the expert forums and access links for the self-paced courses.
WHO IT IS FOR
Built for the People Who Hold the Cloud Bill
No prior FinOps experience is needed for components 01 and 02. Component 03 assumes you already work with cloud commitments.
Engineering and software development
Engineers and platform teams whose architecture and scaling decisions set what the estate costs.
IT operations and FinOps
Teams running cloud estates day to day, responsible for utilisation, coverage and capacity.
Finance and commercial
Analysts and budget holders who forecast, report and challenge cloud spend across departments.
KEY DATES
What Happens When
Campaign launch
Get Tech Certified opens across the UK public sector. Both self-paced courses are available from launch day — start and stop whenever you like.
Component 01: opening session
ProsperOps FinOps specialists introduce the programme and each of the three course modules. Republished on demand afterwards.
Component 04: expert panel
The closing forum brings rate and workload optimisation together and answers what came up during the campaign.
Programme closes
Last day to access the self-paced courses.