GigaOm Radar for Cloud FinOpsv3.0

1. Executive Summary

In modern IT environments, hybrid and multicloud infrastructures are now the norm, but runaway costs due to unmonitored growth and unanticipated spending have emerged as a major challenge. Enterprise finance departments are currently unable to do accurate cost breakdowns of cloud spends to the correct cost centers, and there’s no transparency in monthly billing or accurate forecasts of future spend. As a result, many organizations pay for services, resources, and licenses that they don’t use or need.

Thankfully, Cloud FinOps has emerged to help businesses realize the value of their cloud investment by fostering both financial accountability and data-driven decision-making.

Cloud FinOps encompasses cloud financial management, an approach centered on bringing finance, business, engineering, and IT teams into closer alignment on cloud spend—the term FinOps in this case is viewed as a blend of finance and DevOps rather than traditional financial operations. FinOps enables finance, development, and operations teams to work together to achieve faster product delivery while predicting and managing cloud costs. The goal is to ensure that cloud spending aligns with business objectives and strategic initiatives, and the focus is on efficiency, optimization, and continuous improvement.

Cloud FinOps differs from the traditional IT procurement CapEx model. Instead of finance allocating budgets to product teams, a cross-functional FinOps team (or cloud center of excellence) coordinates technology, business, and finance to optimize cloud vendor management, service rates, and discounting. This helps organizations better understand the tradeoffs among cost, speed, and quality, which ultimately allows them to gain financial control, drive predictability, and enable faster product delivery while reducing issues of transparency and accountability.

Cloud FinOps encompasses more than just processes and procedures; it also embodies culture, mindset, and best practices adopted at all levels of the organization. It’s all about establishing financial accountability and ensuring value in cloud spending.

This is our third year evaluating the cloud FinOps space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This report builds on our previous analysis and considers how the market has evolved over the last year.

This GigaOm Radar report examines 16 of the top cloud FinOps solutions and compares offerings against the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and nonfunctional requirements (business criteria) outlined in the companion Key Criteria report. Together, these reports provide an overview of the market, identify leading cloud FinOps offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.