FinOps Sketchnotes 2 - Meet the FinOps team

Just as the Internet revolutionized our working practices, and social media rewrote the rules of marketing, Cloud FinOps is now reshaping the business landscape. As we shared in our introduction, with Cloud FinOps, your business can take full advantage of your digital transformation and the scalable, flexible infrastructure that the cloud provides while being efficient.

Whether your organization is just dipping its toes into the FinOps waters or you’re already navigating its depths, one thing is certain: the right team can make all the difference. In our experience, the most successful FinOps teams are a diverse mix of unique talents and skills sets, each contributing the bigger picture. It’s hardly a one-person or one-team job working in a silo. So, who are the key personas? Let’s break it down:

• Cloud FinOps Manager | Oversees governance and defines mission, strategy, and key metrics.
• Cloud Financial Analyst | Manages forecasts and budgets.
• Cost Optimization Lead | Identifies cost-aware blueprints and savings opportunities.
• Data Analytics Engineer | Builds data models to provide cost insights and real-time reporting.
• Platform Engineer - Develops and integrates cost-automation tooling into CI/CD pipelines.

Oftentimes we get asked, “well, how large should our FinOps team be? Is it correlated with my cloud spend?” We believe that the more important question is to consider the FinOps capabilities that are aligned with your roadmap and goals. This does not imply that you require five full-time employees in your cloud FinOps team; it is merely a matter of the personas. In our experience, we have discovered that one person may wear many hats (which may be amusing if you do not know how to pull it off) or that one hat may be worn by many colleagues (that's one popular hat!). According to the FinOps Foundation's most recent State of FinOps study, customers have an average of five dedicated employees, with a large percentage of customers feeling that they are a "one-person" show..

With strategic players on your Cloud FinOps team, you can:

• Boost visibility, reporting, and forecasting: With the right people on board, you can shine a light on even the murkiest areas of your cloud spend. They’ll help you create detailed reports that make sense of your expenditure and build accurate forecasts to keep you one step ahead.
• Establish governance frameworks: A well-rounded FinOps team isn’t just about financial management; it’s also about governance. They’ll provide robust frameworks that ensure every decision aligns with your organization’s goals and values.
• Maximize business value from your Google Cloud investments: Last but not least, your FinOps team can help you squeeze every drop of value from your Google Cloud investments.

Want more? For a deeper dive into the cloud FinOps operating model, check out Unlocking the value of cloud FinOps with a new operating mode.

Stay tuned for our next Cloud FinOps Sketch Notes, where we’ll explore cost and value optimization.