FinOps

In today's digital era, organizations are increasingly relying on digital infrastructures and cloud services to achieve their goals efficiently and successfully. Key success criteria include standardization, stability, security and cost management. These criteria are crucial to mastering the challenges of digital transformation. To avoid escalating costs and increase the business value of cloud usage, transparency, responsible budgeting and collaboration between different roles are essential. Cloud cost management - FinOps - provides the necessary control and transparency to optimize the financial aspects of cloud usage without compromising flexibility.

FinOps stands for "Financial Operations" and is a management practice. It supports organizations in making optimal use of the cloud. The essential core of FinOps is "optimal use" or "optimizing cloud costs". The aim is not to reduce costs at all costs. Rather, the aim is to achieve the optimum for the investment made - the cloud expenditure or "cloud spend" - in order to ultimately increase the result.

In State of FinOps Report of the FinOps Foundation shows impressively how companies not only optimize their cloud spend through FinOps, but also strengthen their governance and transparency. It is particularly noteworthy that 50% of the organizations surveyed named the reduction of "cloud waste" as a top priority. A clear sign of the strategic value of FinOps.

In short: More than you might think!

Practicing FinOps significantly strengthens your digital sovereignty. It helps to manage cloud resources and expenditure efficiently.

The most important aspects are:

1. Transparency and control over spending
   Implementing FinOps gives you detailed insights into how the cloud is used in your organization and how much it costs to use. It lets you understand where, how, and on what money is spent. This makes spending controllable, helps avoid expenses, and optimizes budgets.
    
2. Optimizing cloud usage
   If you have transparency and continuously monitor cloud usage, you can optimize cloud resources. In the end, you only pay for what is actually used. By cleverly using the variable cost model in the cloud, you create real added value. This increases efficiency and reduces waste.
    
3. Compliance & Security
   Control over critical infrastructure and data is particularly important for digital sovereignty. FinOps supports compliance with security and data protection guidelines because they lead to clear guidelines for the use of cloud resources. By creating transparency and monitoring, you can also identify unused resources and, therefore, potential risks.
    
4. Strategic decision-making
   The data obtained from FinOps provides your organization with additional information that helps you make informed decisions. This includes selecting suitable cloud services and cloud providers and supporting the adaptation of the IT strategy to changing business requirements.

As you can see, managing cloud costs is the organization's responsibility and, therefore, its control. This should be done actively in the form of FinOps and woven into your own cloud journey from the outset. By implementing FinOps, your organization can significantly improve control over its resources and expenditures and thus make a meaningful contribution to digital sovereignty.

You can successfully introduce FinOps without breaking your head. The FinOps Framework from the FinOps Foundation provides a tried-and-tested guide, with a clear structure and best practices for adapting FinOps for your organization. We are happy to support you with the successful implementation.

Why the FinOps Framework is a good choice:

1. Proven best practices

   The FinOps framework offers practical know-how based on the experience and knowledge of many FinOps practitioners and industry experts. It is iteratively developed and continuously improved to practice state-of-the-art cloud cost management.

2. Flexible and adaptable

   The framework is not a rigid checklist with inflexible to-dos. It allows you to select the components that best suit your organization and your needs. It supports you in starting with the basics, developing FinOps in your organization, and scaling it over time.

3. Data-driven decision making

   FinOps is data-driven and, therefore, based on objective facts. This enables close monitoring and optimization of cloud spending and helps making informed decisions.

4. Collaboration and transparency

   Collaboration between technical, finance, and business teams is fostered, and shared data and targets increase financial accountability and transparency.

5. Comprehensive coverage

   The FinOps Framework strategists enable organizations to adapt their financial strategies as business requirements change flexibly. This ensures optimal control without sacrificing performance.