Decorative double Helix

What is FinOps?

Introduction to FinOps

FinOps or financial operations, is a management framework that combines the interdisciplinary nature of finance, cloud computation, and operations to help a company monitor their cloud infrastructure while managing costs. It streamlines cloud spending by connecting teams to make informed and collaborative decisions. The end goal for FinOps is to maximize revenue and maintain business efficiency.

FinOps Principles

This practice, also known as Cloud Cost Optimization, has a fundamental list of principles established by the FinOps Foundation to help guide your company toward successful FinOps delivery. The foundation emphasizes team collaboration, accountability over cloud usage, a centralized management team guiding FinOps, clear and accessible FinOps reports, decisions based on cloud business value, and continuous monitoring of cloud computational costs. Following these principles will prioritize efficiency, reduce costs, and inspire innovation in your company.

Evolutionary Model

The Cloud Cost Optimization framework provides a natural model for companies to learn and adapt. As teams progress through this iterative process, they follow through the maturity model of “Crawl, Walk, Run.” The objective is for companies to evolve in scale, scope, and complexity over time. Key aspects include reporting, key performance indicators, and easy and clear capabilities. As teams climb this hierarchical model, there are benchmarks to measure progression from one stage to another.

Lifecycle Phases

While the maturity model provides an integral approach for companies to evolve, this iterative lifecycle is simple, yet effective. Once you understand the FinOps framework capabilities, teams embark on an Inform, Optimize, and Operate cycle. These phases represent a collaborative progression where teams constantly refine their processes and implement new strategies. The first stage focuses on data cost, usage, and efficiency to unveil your company's cloud spending. The Optimize phase prioritizes cloud efficiency by optimizing metrics where performance is lower than expected. The last phase Operate focuses on aligning with original FinOps objectives by tracking and improving key performance indicators. Following this iterative approach, teams will soar to the height of FinOps implementation.

How Arbory Digital Can Help

Arbory Digital is a digital transformation company that uses AEM to achieve your business goals. To ensure your company starts on the right track, Arbory can educate your employees on FinOps best practices and ensure compliance with FinOps policies. The next step is to review your tech stack and workflow processes to streamline operations and reduce cloud waste. Once an assessment is made, adopting a strategy and implementing the FinOps framework is essential for your business. Moreover, Arbory can help you leverage AEM’s abilities to manage your website and reduce costs. Your website can be optimized by continuously monitoring the website and automating tasks. For future planning, implementing budgeting and forecasting software will be the last step in managing costs. Finally, your company's FinOps performance will be evaluated and improvements will be made in each iteration.

How To Get Started?

For your company to embark on its FinOps journey, there is a four-step process for your company to navigate.

Assess your company’s current cloud spending and management practices. Identify where you can make changes to optimize your business’s spending.
Learn everything you can about the FinOps framework and work on implementing them in your company. This includes budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and optimizing.
Invest in your company’s success. This means you should actively communicate with other teams. You should put more funding into tools and software to automate FinOps processes if you need to.
Evaluate your team's current FinOps situation and continuously improve your performance and efficiency. Repeat this process.

Conclusion

FinOps is at the forefront of cloud infrastructure management. This collaborative approach fosters efficiency and decision-making, maximizing your revenue and operations. Utilizing the FinOps methodology, organizations will be able to optimize spending, refine strategies, and improve performance.

For more information, the FinOps Foundation, Arbory Digital, and Microsoft’s evaluation of FinOps can help you start your journey.

FinOps Foundation - What is FinOps?