Cloud technology adoption is rising at a faster pace. Similarly, expenses are also mounting even though it was originally touted as a cost-saving measure. Cloud computing is now being considered as a financial burden for many organizations. Hence, it is questioned like who should manage the costs – engineers or the FinOps teams.
Engineers are intimately familiar with the cloud environment as they design, deploy as well as maintain applications which rely on the cloud resources. They are well-positioned to identify and address inefficiencies. However, adding cost management to can be daunting and unwelcome.
FinOps teams are dedicated to financial oversight. They excel at budgeting and forecasting. They also ensure that expenditures align with business goals. Yet they may struggle to optimize cloud spending effectively as they are without technical expertise.
A survey found that 58% of the respondents believe that their cloud costs are excessively high. The remaining 42% of them said that they can accurately estimate where their cloud spend goes. Hence, the lack of visibility leads to financial strain and hampers productivity.
The study further reveals that two-thirds of engineers experienced disruptions with respect to poor visibility into the cloud costs. Misalignment between engineering efforts and business outcomes creates inefficiencies and simultaneously wastes resources.
However, the survey also found that 81% of organizations report that their expenses are about where they should be when the engineers assume some responsibility for the cloud costs. This means that engineers can indeed play an important role in cost management.
Engineers are closer to the actual deployment and usage of cloud resources. They can identify inefficiencies faster and also can make adjustments. They can ensure cost-effective operations.
