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FinOps Practitioner

Framework / Personas / FinOps Practitioner

Primary Goal: Drive best practices into the organization through education, standardization, and cultural growth and support.

FinOps practitioners bridge business, engineering and finance teams, enabling evidence-based decisions in near-real time to help optimize cloud use and increase business value. They focus on establishing a FinOps culture and enabling stakeholder teams by demonstrating a working knowledge of the Principles and Capabilities of the FinOps Framework, a prescriptive model of actions and best practices. FinOps practitioners also perform common central FinOps functions for the organization. Roles within this Persona include the FinOps Team Lead, FinOps Analyst, FinOps Practitioner, Cloud Business Office, or CCOE in some organizations.

Objectives

  • Cultural change flag bearer
  • Create cloud cost management best practices
  • Create benchmarks for teams to use
  • Create visibility and transparency to cloud cost
  • Create or inform cloud budgets and forecasts

Challenges

  • Lack of access to needed data
  • Distributed accountability
  • Building adoption at enterprise scale
  • Tool reliance that does not deliver capabilities needed

Key Metrics

  • Accurate budgets
  • Accurate forecasts
  • Unit Cost Economics
  • Discount/Reservation coverage
  • Percentage untagged resources
  • Efficiency opportunity

FinOps Benefits

  • Centralized cloud cost management in single cloud or multi-cloud environment
  • Align accountability to cloud users
  • Build confidence around budgets and forecasts
  • Advance communication throughout the organization

FinOps Practitioner Persona includes:

  • FinOps Practitioner/Professional
    Responsible for implementing and managing FinOps practices within an organization. They work to optimize cloud spending, improve cost transparency, and foster a culture of cloud financial accountability by collaborating with engineering, finance, and other teams.
  • Systems Administrator/Engineer
    Sysadmins often have deep knowledge of cloud infrastructure and cost drivers, which is valuable in FinOps.
  • Finance Analyst/Business Analyst
    These roles bring analytical skills and financial acumen, essential for FinOps. They understand budgeting, forecasting, and reporting.
  • IT Financial Management (ITFM) Analyst/Manager
    ITFM professionals are already concerned with IT costs, making FinOps a close adjacent field.
  • Technology Business Management (TBM) Analyst/Administrator
    TBMA professionals are already concerned with IT costs, making FinOps a close adjacent field.
  • Software Engineer/DevOps Engineer
    Engineers often have insights into application architecture and resource consumption, which is crucial for FinOps optimization. DevOps engineers, in particular, are often close to the cloud infrastructure.
  • Project Manager/Program Manager
    These roles have experience managing complex projects and budgets, which is transferable to FinOps initiatives.
  • Data Analyst/Data Scientist
    FinOps relies heavily on data analysis, making data-focused professionals well-suited for the role.
  • Cloud Architect/Solutions Architect
    Architects have a strong understanding of cloud services and their costs, making them valuable in FinOps.
  • Procurement Analyst
    Supports the procurement team by analyzing spend data, market trends, and supplier performance. They often provide insights for strategic decision-making.
  • IT Manager/Director
    IT leaders are often concerned with the overall IT budget, making FinOps a strategic area of interest for them. They may transition into FinOps leadership roles.