In the latest episode of Tech at the Table, a thought-provoking conversation unfolded between Roy Ritthaler, EVP of Customer Value at Flexera, and Steve Evans, Engineering Executive and Leader, as they explored the complexities and future of Financial Operations (FinOps) within technology organizations. From personal reflections to technical concepts and business strategies, the session offered valuable insights into aligning technology investments with business goals, especially amidst the challenges brought about by rapid AI adoption and shifting organizational priorities.
Here’s everything you need to know to make the best out of this engaging and practical session.
Setting the stage: Meet Steve Evans
The session began by setting the tone for balanced banter with deep reflections on technology and business operations. Steve Evans introduced himself as an Engineering Leader, having most recently held the title of Senior Vice President of Engineering at Chegg Inc., where he experienced high growth years as well as massive disruption from the introduction of generative AI.
The Intersection of business and FinOps
What is FinOps really about?
Steve Evans emphasized that FinOps should go beyond cost-cutting and cloud spend optimization to focus on driving broader business outcomes:
“FinOps is selling itself short when it stops at, ‘what can I do to reduce the bottom line?’ If you truly want to uplevel your FinOps practice, stack on top of that next level of intelligence—that’s where you go from good to great.”
Evans warned against losing sight of real business needs in favor of FinOps metrics, asserting:
“We lose ourselves in the academics of FinOps… Are we moving the needles that matter to the actual business or just the metrics that matter to the FinOps movement?”
Holistic and situational approaches
Steve demonstrated the importance of tackling FinOps challenges holistically, balancing engineering efficiency, cloud infrastructure, and revenue outcomes:
“For every million dollars you spend on your AWS bill, you’re spending $4 to $8 million on engineers. What if I could increase AWS spend by 10% and decrease engineering cost or increase productivity by 10%? It’s the holistic view that really drives business outcomes.”
Roy supplemented this by outlining three key variables leaders must juggle:
“There’s infrastructure cost, tech cost, people cost—and then revenue on the side. These three different variables all need to come into play.”
Navigating hypergrowth vs. declining businesses
The discussion explored how FinOps priorities vary by business phase. Steve reflected on decisions during Chegg’s hypergrowth years—when the company’s flagship products faced disruption by generative AI:
“In 2020, we grew 57%, and despite cloud waste, it wasn’t worth distracting engineering teams from capturing demand. Instead, we hired a single contractor to optimize in less disruptive ways, saving $120 in cloud costs for every contractor dollar.”
On the flip side, there are challenges faced by flat or declining businesses, where cost-cutting becomes essential:
“In declining businesses, you’ve got staff knocking bagels out of each other’s hands…it’s a totally different environment from hypergrowth.”
Evans stressed tailoring FinOps strategies to meet the immediate needs of each growth stage, offering examples where nuanced trade-offs—such as optimizing without disrupting critical business operations—proved essential.
FinOps must avoid silos: lessons from DevOps
Steve voiced his concerns about the field of FinOps becoming too narrow or siloed, likening it to the early days of DevOps:
“FinOps reminds me of DevOps. At its best, it’s a collaboration between finance and operations, not just finance handling a bit of ops on the side.”
They endorsed this cross-functional collaboration as fundamental for driving outcomes:
“It never happens unless you reach across organizational lines.”
The role of AI in FinOps: accelerated disruption
One of the most eye-opening segments in the discussion spotlighted the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on FinOps and cloud cost unpredictability. Evans noted the industry’s lack of preparation for the pace of AI adoption:
“AI is moving so fast; we’ve adopted AI at scale in three years and six weeks. We’re behind the eight ball in terms of infrastructure, visible costs, and guardrails.”
Both reflected on the leadership challenges posed by unpredictable costs in AI-heavy environments. Steve described the pressure of answering CFOs about fluctuating bills:
“The scariest answer to a CFO is, ‘I don’t know.'”
Moving towards the next wave of FinOps
Roy and Steve concluded the session by envisioning a more mature, sophisticated FinOps model—a future defined by flexibility, business alignment, and broader applications across organizational goals:
“FinOps needs to integrate with RevOps because it’s not just about the infrastructure cost—it’s tied deeply to business objectives, revenue, and engineering implementation outcomes,” they explained.
Evans summarized:
“Focus not on the technology of FinOps. Focus on the business, the bigger picture, and the incentive structures.” That’s FinOps++.
Key takeaways for leaders
- Align FinOps with business goals: Avoid focusing solely on cost-cutting; prioritize metrics aligned with revenue, profitability, and operational efficiency.
- Holistic trade-off management: Balance cloud costs, engineering productivity, and innovation growth for sustainable outcomes.
- Tailor FinOps strategies by business phase: Hypergrowth requires demand-focused solutions; flat/declining environments call for aggressive cost optimization.
- Avoid siloed models: Foster collaboration between finance, operations, engineering, and business teams to maximize impact.
- Prepare for AI challenges: Adopt agile, scalable practices to tackle the cost unpredictability and disruption of AI technologies.
Final thoughts: FinOps++ and the psychology of tech
This episode of Tech at the Table made one thing clear: FinOps cannot be treated as just another cost-cutting tool. Instead, it is a dynamic practice that requires holistic and situational thinking, anchored in real business outcomes. And, as Steve points out, there is a clear benefit to knowing the psychology behind how humans leverage technology:
Are you ready to embrace the next wave of FinOps?
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