How to get a better return on your FinOps investment

By Jaisson Mailloux

A quick online search for “FinOps” reveals a wealth of tools and resources. The results underscore how rapidly the cloud financial management practice has evolved as an industry-recognized framework since gaining widespread acceptance in 2019.¹

Yet, as more organizations worldwide assemble FinOps teams to rein in cloud-related costs, many haven’t seen the savings they expected from their FinOps investment.² The lackluster returns can largely be traced to issues with data access and visibility and teams’ ability to make decisions using the information they collect and process.

Implementation can also impact performance. Companies that don’t adopt the FinOps Foundation framework³ may find it difficult to optimize value and establish a structured FinOps culture.

With cloud spending increasing by 26% each year,⁴ companies are seeking better outcomes on their FinOps journey. An open integration platform can be part of the solution.

What’s an open integration platform?

Open integration platforms are AI- and machine learning-powered digital business architectures that connect multiple systems and applications, allowing organizations to collect data and streamline workflows across their entire IT estate.  

When teams use the FinOps framework within an open integration platform, they gain a unified view of the insights needed to manage cloud spending and allocation more effectively. The platform can help companies maximize cloud investments by:

• Providing real-time visibility into cloud spending and resource usage, allowing users to predict costs and manage budgets more accurately
• Identifying cloud savings opportunities across compute, storage, database, network and application services
• Aggregating information from cloud providers, cost optimization tools and usage analytics on a single dashboard
• Integrating with existing FinOps tools, enabling companies to glean more value from their current technology

In fact, IDC predicts that by 2028, organizations with established digital business platforms will have 50% higher digital market share and greater ability to track ROI and execute digital revenue initiatives.⁵ These capabilities may translate to a significant competitive advantage, considering the projected revenue growth from digital models.

How an open integration platform can lessen common FinOps challenges

FinOps is driven by people, processes and technology. An open integration platform can factor into this mix and lessen three significant challenges to the practice.

Challenge 1: Data access and visibility

In hybrid cloud environments, applications and data are often distributed across numerous technology platforms, making it difficult to collect and observe data efficiently.

Limited access to timely and accurate information slows feedback loops and prevents FinOps teams from processing and sharing cost data as soon as it becomes available. These inefficiencies can hinder real-time financial forecasting.

How an open integration platform helps
While FinOps focuses on managing cloud spending, an open integration platform can aggregate data from throughout your enterprise in real time and display the information on a single dashboard. FinOps teams can then use this centralized view of resources and usage patterns to identify optimization opportunities you might miss with outdated or fragmented data.

Challenge 2: Cross-functional collaboration

FinOps only works if there’s collaboration between finance, technology and business teams. This approach ensures that technical insights inform financial decisions and aligns all stakeholders with the company’s budgetary goals.

However, traditional ways of working can be hard to change, especially if each group has different tools and processes. When teams struggle to communicate and exchange data, long-term financial planning becomes challenging.

How an open integration platform helps
Open integration platforms can help break down organizational silos and enhance collaboration by integrating the tools that finance, IT and business teams use to communicate and manage their operations.

Merging insights and providing personalized views based on job roles, industry and location ensures all stakeholders can access the same data, enabling teams to work together more effectively toward common FinOps objectives.

Challenge 3: Informed decision-making

The insights you derive from your FinOps practice are only as good as the data you collect and model. Unfortunately, sorting through mountains of cost and usage data, performance metrics, operational analyses and regulatory compliance records to form strong opinions can be overwhelming and, in some cases, fruitless. 

How an open integration platform helps
Although FinOps provides a construct for informed decision-making, an open integration platform with embedded AI capabilities can help teams analyze data from multiple sources more efficiently and generate recommendations for resource allocation and cost savings.

Some FinOps decisions can also be automated within defined parameters for more dynamic technology environments and greater responsiveness to changing business priorities.

Alternatives to an open integration platform

To be fair, you can run a FinOps practice without an open integration platform.

One option is to purchase multiple applications and platforms, each specializing in a specific area like data visibility or AI analysis, to implement the separate functions an open integration platform can perform.

However, a piecemeal approach contributes to tech sprawl, inhibits collaboration and increases license costs, all of which run counter to the principles of FinOps.⁶ Manually aggregating data also increases the chances of human error and keeps IT personnel from focusing on mission-critical activities.  

Another alternative is do-it-yourself FinOps tooling.⁷ Although customization appeals to many large organizations, building and maintaining proprietary technology is too complex, time-consuming and expensive for many companies to undertake. 

The bottom line on open integration platforms

An open integration platform alone won’t eliminate runaway cloud spending or solve all the issues with an underperforming FinOps team.

When used as the cornerstone of a well-executed FinOps strategy, however, an open integration platform can significantly enhance data access, collaboration and decision-making, improving the performance and cost-saving potential of your FinOps practice.

Jaisson Mailloux is a Director and Technical Evangelist on the Microsoft Global Alliance team at Kyndryl.

¹  Key 2024 changes to the definition of cloud FinOps, FinOps Foundation, February 2024
²  FinOps: a never-ending journey, not a destination, FinTech Magazine, March 2023
³  FinOps framework overview, FinOps Foundation, September 2024
⁴  Shared cloud infrastructure spending continues to accelerate, fueled by AI-related spending, IDC, June 2024
⁵  IDC FutureScape: Worldwide digital business strategies 2024 predictions, IDC, October 2023
⁶  FinOps principles, FinOps Foundation, August 2024
⁷  The rise of DIY in FinOps, Forrester, July 2023