FinOps — Cloud Financial Operations

Definition: The discipline of managing cloud spend as a shared engineering and finance responsibility. FinOps exists because the era of "the bill is whatever AWS sends" ended badly for a lot of companies.

Example

In engineering planning, you'll often hear something like: "Let's pull the latest FinOps numbers before we make a call" — shorthand for cloud financial operations.

When you'll hear it

FinOps shows up most often in engineering planning, architecture reviews, and sprint retrospectives. When someone uses it, they're usually referring to cloud financial operations — and they expect the room to already know what that means.

FAQs

What does FinOps stand for?

FinOps stands for Cloud Financial Operations.

What does FinOps mean in technology and engineering?

The discipline of managing cloud spend as a shared engineering and finance responsibility. FinOps exists because the era of "the bill is whatever AWS sends" ended badly for a lot of companies.

Where will I hear FinOps used at work?

FinOps comes up most often in engineering planning, architecture reviews, and sprint retrospectives. It's used as shorthand for cloud financial operations, so people assume you already know the term.