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From saving to building: the missing link in FinOps
Should you save ... or speed up? Controlling costs in the cloud is important. But you can earn a lot more by increasing the value of your cloud environment.
Because fair is fair, one FinOps is not like another. Above all, a lot of FinOps gives you better insight into your costs. How much are you spending on virtual machines? How much on storage, data warehousing or data lakes? Useful information. Sure. But that's not where you win the race.
Because it's not about saving, it's about building.
Your cloud environment is not a cost but a growth engine - or should be. Smart use of cloud resources makes your organization more agile, faster and more innovative. That's where the real value is. Not in a monthly report that shows you how much you're “burning,” but in insights that help you earn more and deliver faster. And ... to stay ahead of your competitors.
And that's exactly where things often go wrong.
Many FinOps keep you trapped in the cost angle, when that is exactly the angle you need to break free from.
For IT leaders, this is a crucial realization. As CIO, CTO or CFO, don't just monitor expenses - you set the course. Those who only optimize costs miss the truly strategic impact of the cloud. Those who bet on value creation, build ahead.
FinOps must therefore be smarter and broader. Only when cost awareness and value creation come together does FinOps become a strategic weapon.
Cut costs or create value? Why one doesn't work without the other
Every organization knows the tension: you want to control costs, but you also want to move forward. Invest in growth, speed, innovation. In practice, this is often a balancing act, especially at the intersection of IT and business.
Because IT is no longer a support department. It is the foundation of virtually every strategic move. Whether you want to tap new markets, deliver faster or improve your customer experience - IT makes it possible. At the same time, IT is being squeezed hard. Budgets have to be cut, the cloud has to be more efficient, projects have to be “leaner.
This is understandable. But also risky.
By no means all IT costs are visible in the IT budget. A slow application that frustrates your sales team? A data system that adjusts just too late? A customer portal that just doesn't work right? These are also IT costs - only they are not in your IT budget. You do feel them in your turnover, customer satisfaction or missed deals.
Those who only focus on costs miss those hidden losses. And anyone who wants to create value must first ensure that IT can deliver: fast, stable, scalable and aligned with the business.
So the trick is not in saving or building. But in optimizing and strengthening. At the same time! Only then can you turn IT into a strategic value generator instead of a cost item.
Measuring value starts with daring to look
How to make real cloud impact visible? Look, value creation sounds nice, but how do you make it measurable? Because as long as “added value” remains vague, the Excell with cost reduction always wins out. That's why, as an IT leader, you need to make sure that the value you deliver is at least as hard and as visible as the costs you incur.
Start by asking the right questions:
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How much faster do we bring new functionality to market?
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How much shorter is the time-to-resolution for incidents?
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How much revenue comes from systems that depend directly on systems running on cloud capacity?
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How many customer interactions go through your digital platform and how many of those customers are satisfied?
These are concrete metrics that matter. Because they make value visible. For example:
- ime to market of new features
- System availability and performance at critical moments
- Number of support tickets per application (and their decrease)
- Conversion rates in digital channels
- Use of data for decision-making (e.g., number of dashboards, reports, forecasts)
But please note: measuring value also requires setup. You need observability - visibility into performance, usage and bottlenecks. Not only technical, but also functional: what does the business really use? And where is the friction?
So make sure your cloud and applications have the right logging, monitoring and user feedback. Link IT metrics to business KPIs. Show how a faster report or a more stable platform contributes to better sales numbers, more efficient processes or higher customer satisfaction.
Only then can you shift the conversation from “What does it cost?” to “What does it deliver?” And that puts value creation not only on the agenda, but also in the dashboard and reports.
From cost center to growth engine: time for mature FinOps
The cloud is no longer a cost-saving promise - it is the backbone of your business. Those who use FinOps purely to analyze expenses are still utilizing g fraction of its potential. The real value is not in saving, but in building: on faster processes, better customer experience and scalable innovation.
That requires a broader view. Of course you need to control costs. But that's step one. The next step? Making measurable what you deliver, the contribution of your department, people to the business. Not just what you spend, but what you earn back - in revenue, speed, customer loyalty or agility.
IT leaders who dare to take that step turn FinOps into a strategic tool. They connect cost to value. They build dashboards that show not only the cloud bill, but also the impact on sales, customer satisfaction or market speed. They make insight negotiable - and value visible.
It's time for FinOps to mature. From financial control tool to driver of growth. From cost center to value enabler. The growth engine of progress.
Those who skip that battle will be stuck in defensive policies and missed opportunities. But those who get it right build an IT organization that not only costs less, but more importantly delivers more.
And that's where modern leaders make the difference.
Take the step to mature FinOps
At Sciante, we pull FinOps broader than just cost management. Of course, we look at where the money is going - but more importantly, we look at which expenses really deliver value. And which ones don't.
We make visible how your cloud environment contributes to your organization: where you accelerate, where you slow down, where you miss opportunities. This gives you the management information you need to make smart choices. Not just to reduce costs, but to build, to take maximum advantage of what the cloud has to offer.
Want to know what mature FinOps can look like for your organization? Then schedule a no-obligation appointment with me. Then we'll discuss your situation and find out how FinOps lets you grow into a strategic compass (instead of a cost statement).