The secret to successful FinOps

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In 2023, cloud experts and consumers understand the necessity for FinOps in any cloud undertaking. Now it’s time to go deeper.

The great digital transformation is driving cloud adoption at an exponential rate. At the same time, controlling cloud consumption has never been more complex, making FinOps one of the top priorities for CIOs in 2023. What’s needed at this stage is a look below the surface, at the foundations of strong FinOps practices.

This blog highlights the key priorities for FinOps experts in the coming months. This is the first part of a series of blogs taking an end-to-end look at FinOps that offers a glimpse into the insights that you will find in our new white paper which is about to launch. The white paper shares comprehensive strategies that will maximize the success of your FinOps endeavor.

So, what is the foundation of FinOps? We’re familiar with the FinOps triptych: skills, processes, tools. Going deeper, we need to figure out how to build and maintain this triptych. We come at this question from three angles, starting with governance.

1.           Achieving agile FinOps governance

FinOps governance should be at the heart of any IT organization, fully integrated into the new cloud operational models. It must be an agile practice, connected with DevOps teams and integrated into the DevOps lifecycle of applications. This means all FinOps initiatives should be shared, understood, and deployed from the beginning of application development or cloud modernization projects. The ultimate goal is to align FinOps governance with cloud strategy.

2.           Improving operational efficiency through automation

Despite increased efforts in previous quarters, FinOps teams are still facing operational difficulties in implementation and execution. Improving operational efficiency is one of the key challenges that FinOps governance must address in 2023. The solution is automation – including that of all FinOps events so that they can be reported without the need for human oversight, according to predefined rules. The goal should be a balanced strategy that benefits from the strengths of automation and human decision-making.

3.           Leading a culture shift

FinOps must bring together two different disciplines – technology and finance. The challenge here is joining these two disciplines into one seamless culture that optimizes costs while preserving business value.

The full value of FinOps

Once these foundations are laid, FinOps becomes a tool to achieve a number of benefits beyond financial savings. FinOps can be a powerful tool to help organizations reduce their carbon footprints and move closer to their sustainability goals. The practice, sometimes known as GreenOps, builds on the same foundations, such that FinOps and GreenOps reinforce each other. FinOps also helps streamline processes and strengthen collaboration between groups, both of which support multiple goals across teams. Ultimately, FinOps is a way to bring cloud and operations teams into alignment, helping organizations get the most out of their cloud strategies.

Where do we stand today?

FinOps teams are facing many challenges in 2023, but with the right priorities in place, they can overcome them and control cloud consumption effectively. Cloud providers are also playing a more proactive role in the growing maturity of FinOps by providing recommendations for the use of their services.

In many ways, the technical challenges of FinOps are the easy part. The key lies in building the right organizational structures – and that’s where our next blog will turn.

A leader in cloud and operational optimization, Capgemini is helping organizations around the world optimize their cloud services, saving money and lowering their carbon footprint.

Looking to go deeper into FinOps? Stay tuned for our new white paper!