Do you have one person overseeing your cloud management and costs? Has this arrangement caused arguments between your teams? I recall being in the middle of a standoff between a company’s engineering and IT departments about who had the final say on software control.
The argument went on for weeks and wasted everyone’s time, including mine. Implementing FinOps (Financial Operations) can solve the problem. Teams across the company collaborate to control and optimize cloud computing costs together.
Preventing arguments over resources, who is hogging them, and who’s responsible for cost overruns. The best part is that your company can get more value from your cloud investment. Teams make decisions that drive growth with responsible spending.
Based on a maturity model of starting small and building on functionality, FinOps works well for a small business. As the company grows, so do the FinOps functions. The FinOps Foundation lists six principles recommended for achieving success.
The first principle is that finance, business, technology, and product teams quickly cooperate to innovate efficiently. The second is that business value drives decisions, balancing cost, quality, and speed to market. Teams are responsible for including cloud costs in their budgets, and effectively managing the expenses is the third.
The fourth principle is the need for quick and up-to-date data access, including trends and forecasting for all teams. The fifth principle is designating a primary team for oversight and gaining upper management approval. The last is seeing the variable cost of the cloud as a way to keep your business agile and continually improving.
Author: Kris Keppeler is a writer who finds technology fascinating and loves humor. She writes on Medium.com. She is also an award-winning podcast producer who enjoys telling funny stories. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @KrisNarrates or on LinkedIn.
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