Navigating the 3 FinOps Phases

As organizations increasingly adopt cloud computing technologies, they grapple with the complexities of managing cloud finances effectively. The FinOps discipline offers a strategic framework to guide them through this journey. Comprised of three iterative phases—Inform, Optimize, and Operate— the FinOps lifecycle provides a roadmap for teams to better manage and control their cloud costs while maximizing business value.

Phase 1: Inform

The initial phase of the FinOps journey focuses on fostering visibility into the cloud’s financial and operational aspects. The unpredictable, on-demand nature of the cloud, coupled with personalized pricing and discounts, demands accurate, timely visibility for data-driven decision-making. Teams can precisely allocate cloud spend based on tags, accounts, or business mappings, enabling chargeback and showback operations that ensure return on investment (ROI) and adherence to budgets. Forecasting spend becomes critical to avoid unforeseen expenses while benchmarking against peers and within the organization equips teams with metrics to build a high-performing team culture.

Phase 2: Optimize

Upon establishing visibility and understanding of cloud expenses, organizations, and teams can optimize their cloud footprint in the second phase. Cloud providers offer numerous opportunities for optimization. On-demand capacity is typically the most expensive, so cloud providers incentivize users with discounts for advanced reservation planning and increased commitment. These typically involve complex calculations for reservations, such as Reserved Instances (RI) or Committed Use Discounts (CUD) offered by Google Cloud. Besides, organizations can further optimize by right-sizing their environment and automating the shutdown of wasteful resource usage, thereby maximizing the efficiency of cloud expenditures.

Phase 3: Operate

In the Operate phase, organizations continuously evaluate and align their business objectives with the tracked metrics and their trends. Success hinges on how well the cloud operations align with the organization’s speed, quality, and cost. Establishing a culture of FinOps is integral to this stage. A Cloud Cost Center of Excellence, involving business, financial, and operational stakeholders, is formed to define suitable governance policies and models. This team works to ensure cloud utilization and performance match the evolving business needs while regularly communicating the cloud’s operational and financial impacts on the business to relevant stakeholders.

The FinOps lifecycle is not a linear process and it’s essential to recognize its iterative nature. Depending on the workload or the department involved, organizations might focus on several or all phases simultaneously. By continually refining FinOps practices and maintaining a strong feedback loop, organizations can achieve an optimal balance of speed, cost, and quality in their cloud investments. The Inform, Optimize, and Operate phases of FinOps form the backbone of a robust and efficient cloud financial management strategy, enabling organizations to fully leverage their cloud investments.

FinOps Phases by FinOps Foundation