FinOps Principles

FinOps isn't about "spending less." It's about getting maximum value for every dollar spent.

If spending $100 more on AWS makes us$1,000 in revenue, that's good spending. If it just generates heat in a data center, it's waste.

The Iron Triangle

• Speed (Time to Market)
• Quality (Reliability)
• Cost

Engineers naturally optimize for Speed and Quality. FinOps forces Cost into the equation as a non-functional requirement, just like security.

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The Lifecycle

1. Inform (Visibility)

You cannot fix what you cannot see.

• Goal: Show every team their daily spend.
• Action: Enable AWS Cost Explorer. Set up a Slack bot that posts: "Team Checkout spent $450 yesterday (↑ 15%)."

2. Optimize (Reduction)

Finding the waste.

• Rate Reduction: Pay less for what you use (Savings Plans, Spot).
• Usage Reduction: Turn off what you don't use (Resize EC2s, Delete unattached EBS volumes).

3. Operate (Process)

Make it stick.

• Action: Add "Cost Impact" to RFC templates. "This architecture will cost approx $200/mo."