www.managedITmag.co.uk 19 CLOUD 5 Organise Hackathons Hackathons, where people, come together, sometimes in their hundreds and thousands, for 24 or 48 hours to work on real-world software or hardware challenges, are the perfect vehicle for exploring new strategies to cut costs or drive efficiency. Participants, often in teams, collaborate to create new apps, websites and other tech solutions. For engineering teams that can find themselves swamped with day-to-day tasks and vulnerable to tech debt, a FinOps hackathon offers huge potential for crosspollination of ideas, particularly within global organisations where regional teams can dial into one massive hackathon meetup. A team committed to reducing costs during a hackathon can achieve remarkable, long-lasting results in a short timeframe – especially if there’s a prize to be won. 6 Provide Incentives It takes more than just pitching the idea to start an organisation’s FinOps journey. To keep momentum going, it pays to cultivate a mindset of continuous improvement. Give team members incentives to regularly check and tweak how they use cloud resources and manage costs. When everyone can see what they’re spending on cloud resources, they become more accountable, helping to save money and make cloud operations run more smoothly. Include perks such as shoutouts, rewards or opportunities for career growth and appoint someone to oversee FinOps efforts and make sure everyone, from top-level executives to junior employees, is on board. 7 Encourage Collaboration Breaking down barriers between IT, finance and operations teams, promoting teamwork and communicating openly are key drivers of FinOps success. Crossdepartmental meetings/training, collaborative platforms, shared KPIs, collaborative budgeting and project management all help foster an environment in which everyone is tuned into saving costs and always striving to do better. Overcoming challenges like vague expectations and unclear ownership can transform FinOps into a powerhouse that maximises business value and optimises cloud investments. Ultimately, empowering employees – and especially engineers – is key to cultivating a culture of cost consciousness and optimisation. 8 Measure and Celebrate Success Once goals and metrics have been set, measuring and celebrating the success of FinOps helps keep everyone motivated and on track. When you reach milestones or make significant improvements, take the time to recognise and reward people or teams that have made major contributions to FinOps initiatives. Inspire others by sharing success stories with the wider organisation. Use insights gained from measuring success to drive continuous improvement and refine your FinOps strategies over time. 9 Embrace Continuous Improvement For FinOps to have long-term impact, continuous improvement is critical. Your aim should be to create an environment where feedback is welcomed, experimentation is encouraged and innovation is celebrated. FinOps is an ongoing journey, not a one-time project. Take the time to envision your ideal team structure and processes and where you see your FinOps function a year from now or five years from now. Get your thoughts down on paper and share them with colleagues across the board, from engineering to finance. Once you have alignment on long-term goals, consider how automation can help. Let technology do the heavy lifting on things like over-budget notifications, cloud report usage or tagging hygiene, freeing you to focus on strategic initiatives instead. Choosing the right tools is crucial. Consider scalability, integration and cost – and don’t forget to regularly reassess your tooling strategy. The cloud landscape moves quickly and your tools need to keep pace. 10 Lead by Example Leadership sets the speed and direction for the whole organisation, and leads the charge when it comes to FinOps too. It’s not just about giving orders – it’s about showing the way by rolling up one’s sleeves and getting involved. Different FinOps roles come with different responsibilities and priorities. By understanding what makes each decision-maker tick – whether they’re the CEO, CFO, ITAM or ITFM – a FinOps team can achieve alignment quickly. For FinOps to really take off, the leadership team must believe in and project the notion that FinOps isn’t just a buzzword but a way of doing business that everyone buys into, from the top down. For an organisation to see the benefits of FinOps, a checklist of tasks is just the beginning. Successful FinOps demands a strategic mindset, a commitment to ongoing improvement, and the active involvement of every team member. It requires leadership to bridge the gap between insights and implementation, bringing benefits to the bottom line and igniting a culture of innovation and efficiency within your organisation. Ultimately, winning the hearts and minds of all stakeholders, from IT to finance and beyond, is essential for the sustained success of your FinOps journey. So, embrace the challenge, rally your team, and unlock the full potential of FinOps in your cloud. Surveil, an ITEXACT company, provides a highperformance cloud analytics and insights engine fuelled by AI, scalability and speed and secured to full ISO 27001 and SOC 2 standards. Since 2009, it has enabled millions of users to harness the power of the cloud through its mix of passionate experts, best-in-class Azure and Microsoft365 solutions and a tried-and-true collaborative managed approach. A Microsoft Gold Partner, Surveil is headquartered in the UK with offices in the US, Canada, South Africa, Japan, India and Lithuania. https://surveil.co
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