As a technology leader of twenty-five years, I have worked on many solutions across a variety of sectors. These solutions delivered clear and tangible value to organizations, as all worthwhile technology investments should. However, when it comes to FinOps, the landscape is starkly different. The aspirations are high, but the actual capabilities remain frustratingly underdeveloped.
Embarrassingly so, even.
In fact, two significant forms of disconnect present existential crises for FinOps: our ability to demarcate and demonstrate value to the business and a widening divide from the audiences needed to do so.
These systemic issues not only cripple FinOps’ ability to become activated within organizations but also render its contributions invisible to the audiences who matter most— the executives who are betting on FinOps and the internal stakeholders we support.
In this article, I’ll explore these existential crises and solutions that will lead us on the path to up-leveling FinOps’ to its full potential.
Existential crisis #1: A disconnection to business outcomes
In all my conversations with organizations, a few recurring themes emerge: very few can draw a direct line between their FinOps activities and the actual business outcomes that matter—like profitability, growth, and strategic impact. While the underlying philosophies and intentions in FinOps are sound and impactful, the reality is that most teams are working with KPIs that don’t resonate with C-suite priorities.
How many FinOps teams do you know that can successfully demonstrate how their cloud initiatives directly contribute to business growth?
I’ll wait.
Instead, the output is dominated by primitive signals: raw usage metrics, detailed breakdowns of cloud spend, and operational data that hold little value for CFOs, CTOs, or CIOs. These leaders are looking for insights tied to high-level strategic outcomes, not granular technical data. This gap fosters skepticism about FinOps’ intrinsic value—and honestly, who can blame them?
Existential crisis #2: A disconnection to engineering activities
In nearly every organization we work with, FinOps teams either overstep or understep when it comes to working with engineering.
Overstepping often involves an increasing demand for engineers to address every granular data point and action at every step to capture even the tiniest savings opportunity. Understepping is a much lazier version of this, where tickets are auto-created with minimal direction or insight—something I often refer to as the creation of “Jira hell.”
The situation worsens when engineers try to act on FinOps recommendations. They’re often forced to step outside their usual workflows, creating unnecessary friction in an otherwise well-defined and automated process. This disrupts their efficiency and makes working with FinOps feel more like a burden than a benefit.
It is no wonder that engineers see FinOps as disconnected from reality (an example of this is well-expressed in the following Reddit post).
Much must be done to ensure the relationship between FinOps and engineering is more practical and leads to meaningful action.
Bridging the gap with third-generation solutions
Third-generation FinOps tools represent the next evolutionary step, breaking down both the horizontal barrier between FinOps and engineering teams and the vertical barrier between FinOps and business outcomes.
These solutions meet engineers where they are. Unlike second-generation models that overwhelm engineers with overly precise data points, third-generation tools deliver actionable insights by focusing on trends and categories—abstracting data in a way that frees engineers from the noise and allows them to take meaningful action. This shift dramatically improves operational efficiency and drives a higher Return on Effort (ROE).
What’s more, third-generation tools integrate seamlessly into engineers’ native workflows. This eliminates friction, enabling engineers to manage FinOps tasks without interrupting their usual processes. With AI and machine learning baked in, these tools further reduce manual effort over time by learning from user behavior, making the entire process smarter and more efficient.
Once FinOps and engineering are aligned, connecting FinOps to business outcomes becomes much easier. Third-generation tools abstract data for engineers and elevate it for C-suite executives, focusing on metrics like total cloud cost savings, unit economics, and cloud spend forecasts versus actuals. This allows leadership to tie FinOps directly to the company’s long-term goals, transforming it into a strategic, revenue-generating function—where it should have been all along.
The way forward for FinOps
Right now, FinOps is at a crossroads. It can’t move farther with rudimentary tooling. The future of FinOps lies in third-generation solutions that solve these critical challenges, allowing FinOps to finally bridge the gap between engineering and business outcomes. This connection is essential for FinOps to succeed, and by extension, for the entire organization to thrive.
I dive deeper into these third-generation solutions in a recent discussion with Tracy Woo, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, during our recent webinar, FinOps Reimagined: AI, Automation, and the Rise of 3rd Generation Tools. Watch the recording here to learn how FinOps can finally deliver on its promise.
As a VMware partner, you may have received notice that Broadcom is terminating your contract. It’s like the tech world’s version of a breakup text, and you’re probably left scratching your head wondering what’s next.
Now is the time to start exploring solid VMWare competitors, and CloudBolt should be the first call you make.
Why CloudBolt as a VMWare Alternative
Stability Amidst Chaos: For more than a decade, CloudBolt has been passionately focused on helping companies extract ever-increasing value from the cloud. And unlike many newcomers, CloudBolt understands the need to be proficient not only in public clouds but private ones as well (data center, sovereign, etc.) so that companies can treat their cloud as a unified fabric to optimize costs without slowing down innovation. With hundreds of customers, and an unwavering commitment to support, CloudBolt is committed to delivering solutions you can feel confident offering to your customers.
Hybrid Cloud/Multi-Cloud Orchestration: From AWS to Microsoft Azure to Google Cloud Platform, CloudBolt offers a comprehensive solution that spans the entire spectrum of cloud providers. Say goodbye to siloed environments and hello to seamless integration across hybrid, on-prem, data center, and sovereign clouds.
Comprehensive Cost Visibility, Recommendations, and Remediation: CloudBolt provides cloud spending with insights and real-time analytics. Armed with detailed cost breakdowns and actionable recommendations, businesses can identify inefficiencies and seize opportunities to drive savings. Whether it’s identifying underutilized resources or fine-tuning instance sizes, CloudBolt empowers companies to optimize spending without compromising performance. With customizable budget controls and real-time alerts, companies can stay one step ahead of budget overruns and keep costs in check.
Automation: CloudBolt gives enterprises the power to innovate on their terms with intelligent, governed, automated orchestration of hybrid IT environments. Enable every user to deploy infrastructure effortlessly, aligning with business logic and governance for a truly democratized cloud experience.
A Roadmap for FinOps: With CloudBolt, partners have a fast track towards FinOps capabilities with a more agile, automated, and efficient offering. Informed by the latest advancements in AI and ML, CloudBolt transforms financial operations into a strategic advantage.
Flexible Partner Program and Pricing: CloudBolt provides a pricing structure that adapts to partners’ requirements and models. Additionally, partners gain access to 24-hour support, acceleration teams, comprehensive enablement resources, an online partner portal/deal registration, joint marketing, and additional benefits that transform financial operations into a strategic advantage.
Low-pain Transition: CloudBolt makes moving to us as simple, fast, and pain-free as possible.
In the aftermath of Broadcom’s bombshell, you might be at a crossroads. However, adopting CloudBolt can significantly enhance the outlook for your cloud practice.