FinOps is About Shortening the Money-Feedback Loop

FinOps is a strategic approach designed to optimize the Money-Feedback Loop in cloud-based businesses by ensuring that cost-related actions and their financial impacts are promptly visible and accounted for. Companies often turn to FinOps to achieve immediate cost savings through practices like purchasing Reserved Instances and right-sizing services; however, these savings can be short-lived if underlying spending habits are not addressed. Traditional loops, such as the Eng-Finance and Eng-Sr. Eng loops, are often inefficient due to delayed visibility of cloud costs and reliance on manual information sharing, leading to dissatisfaction among both finance and engineering teams. In contrast, the optimized Eng-Eng loop advocated by FinOps empowers engineers with cloud cost visibility and alerting systems, enabling them to account for and rectify spending anomalies swiftly. This approach not only improves financial accountability but also fosters a culture of cost mindfulness, which is essential for sustaining long-term savings and preventing unexpected "cost events" that could adversely affect a company's financial health.