Triggered by the DevOps trend toward the continuous integration and continuous delivery of modern application architectures, financial operations (FinOps) initiatives are growing massively in importance, according to GlobalData.
The practice of FinOps represents a relatively new operational framework and initiative growing in recognition among enterprises undergoing digital transformations by migrating applications to the cloud and/or creating cloud-native apps. FinOps’ importance has evolved as enterprises recognise a greater need to tackle out of control cloud spending associated with distributed apps and workloads.
“FinOps is becoming the standard practice among global enterprises,” says Charlotte Dunlap, research director, Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData. “DevOps teams are looking to verify that modern applications are being deployed in the most efficient and cost-effective manner – namely, through advanced monitoring and cost optimisation tools.
“Ensuring this level of insight and best practices into how resources are being allocated, consumed, and managed has not been easily achieved making it difficult to effectively economise new digitisation investments.
“In terms of adoption scenarios, it is likely the practice of FinOps will eventually fall under the umbrella of key DevOps initiatives – addressed through application platforms which consolidate intelligent automation, observability, AIOps (a term referred to by enterprise IT ops teams as operationalising the AI model) solutions and, increasingly, FinOps tools as well. These platforms will be supported by low-code and GenAI-enabled tools. This alignment between key monitoring, visibility, and process automation will play out in the coming months.”
Amy Larsen DeCarlo, principal analyst: Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData, comments: “Third-party partners play key roles in helping train enterprise staff to build out their internal FinOps programme.”
She notes that Amazon Web Services (AWS) works with partners such as Accenture and Kyndryl to help clients assess their FinOps maturity and to build out their cloud cost optimisation programmes; and Google Cloud has similar partnerships with companies like DoiT and Ternary that also offer tools to support client FinOps efforts.
“Such professional services are important for addressing long-term problems associated with rising cloud costs and complexities,” Larsen DeCarlo says. “Multi-cloud has long been a reality for many enterprises. With so many implementations originating in project-based departmental deployments, IT teams face sprawling and inefficient cloud implementations. Beyond the technical requirements to accomplish this perspective and gain better control over deployments across multiple clouds, it is essential to have IT teams work in collaboration with business units, finance teams, and executives.”