Why FinOps Isn’t About Saving Money
Note: This was originally published on Sept. 8, 2025, and has been updated with new information.
Cloud costs can be a tough topic for finance and engineering teams. Finance has a mandate to control spending, while engineering is already doing everything it can to deliver performant software under constrained resources.
But focusing on cost savings, rather than cost optimization, is a mistake, said Patrick Brogan, a FinOps domain specialist at Harness, during Bridging the Gap: FinOps Strategies That Align Engineering and Finance, a September 30 webinar with The New Stack.
“FinOps is not about saving money. It’s about maximizing the business value of cloud through data-driven decisions and creating financial accountability,” Brogan explained.
His colleague Ben Linares echoed this sentiment: “Cost optimization and FinOps isn’t a technology challenge. It’s a leadership challenge. … It’s one thing to say ‘I need robust applications that deliver a great experience.’ Now, part of that needs to be ‘we need to also maximize the value out of the investments we need for the application.’”
Brogan, who established the FinOps practice at JP Morgan Chase and ran it at Wells Fargo, and Linares, who did the same at Starbucks, know what they are talking about. And both have recently joined Harness to bring their cloud cost management expertise to the AI platform engineering company’s customers.
The Crux of the Problem
Failing to address cloud costs creates resentment, anger and no answer to the actual problem of controlling cloud spending — or giving devs the resources they need.
Many organizations have addressed these problems with a FinOps approach. By giving your finance and engineering teams common tools, they have the data necessary to make informed decisions about where cloud usage (and therefore spending) is most valuable.
This way, your organization is better positioned to understand, predict, optimize and manage cloud costs, ensuring that you’re giving devs the necessary resources to achieve business goals without blowing out the budget.
Bridging the Gaps With FinOps
If your engineering and finance teams are misaligned, constantly battling to align cloud spending with business goals, FinOps may be the solution.
Whether you have a FinOps program that isn’t meeting expectations, or if you’re exploring FinOps and looking for advice on getting started, watch Bridging the Gap: FinOps Strategies That Align Engineering and Finance, now available on demand.
Register for This Free Webinar Today!
What You’ll Learn
By watching this webinar, you’ll leave with best practices, real-world examples and actionable tips including:
- Why finance and engineering so often have misaligned priorities, and the #1 thing each should do differently.
- How to get a FinOps program off the ground.
- The best ways to measure your FinOps maturity — and the subtle signs the program is not working.
- How to use automation to support your FinOps program.
Register for this free webinar today!
