CloudBolt Software and Wakefield Research Joint Report: The Growing Divide Between FinOps and DevOps/Engineering Teams

Rockville, Maryland — CloudBolt Software (Cloud ROI Company™, a recognized leader in cloud financial management) released its latest research report, "CloudBolt Industry Insights: FinOps Focus - The Alignment Paradox," on June 18, 2024. The report, commissioned by CloudBolt and conducted by Wakefield Research, surveyed 900 FinOps leaders, practitioners, DevOps/engineering, and IT executives across organizations of various sizes and industries in North America, aiming to explore the progress and remaining gaps in FinOps alignment.

"Our most comprehensive CII report to date shows that the FinOps community has made significant strides in driving cultural change and earning a seat at the decision-making table," said Mark Zembal, CMO of CloudBolt. "However, even as most organizations are moving in the right direction by integrating FinOps practices more deeply into the business, the confusing and widening divide between FinOps and DevOps/engineering indicates that this journey is not yet complete."

Key Findings

Unprecedented Perception of Cross-Functional Alignment

When comparing perceptions among FinOps teams, DevOps/engineering teams, and executives, all groups reported strong alignment in key areas:

• Effectiveness in establishing a culture of collaboration between FinOps and DevOps (70% said "completely" or "very" effective);
• FinOps goals incorporated into cloud engineering teams' metrics and incentives (65% said "mostly" or "completely" incorporated);
• FinOps considerations embedded in product engineering lifecycle and processes (84% said "always" or "often");
• Executive support and sponsorship in aligning FinOps with DevOps/engineering (88% said "excellent" or "very good").

Despite Perceived Strong Alignment, the Gap Between FinOps and DevOps Continues to Widen

The research reveals a surprising and widening chasm between the two groups. 86% of respondents indicated that a gap still exists between FinOps and DevOps/engineering within their organizations, and three-quarters of respondents believe this gap has widened over the past year.

Disagreement on Accountability for Cloud Costs

A fundamental best practice of FinOps is promoting collaboration among all cloud users to share responsibility for managing cloud costs. However, 63% of executives and 53% of engineers believe that responsibility should rest entirely with the IT department.

Most Organizations Struggle with Speed from Insight to Action, but Believe AI Will Help

An emerging "golden metric" for FinOps effectiveness is the time required to take action after detecting a cloud cost-related anomaly or opportunity, i.e., "insight to action." The survey shows that for most organizations, this process remains significantly delayed. 67% of respondents reported experiencing delays of days or more when handling anomalies, and 31% experienced even longer delays of weeks or months. Ideally, the goal is to resolve these issues within seconds or minutes. Nearly everyone (91%) believes that enhancing FinOps teams with advanced tools integrating AI and ML is essential to achieving cloud optimization at scale.

Factors Hindering Broader FinOps Adoption

Other key challenges hindering broader FinOps adoption include: skills gap (37%), differing reporting structures (34%), lack of cross-departmental collaboration (33%), organizational silos (33%), and misaligned objectives (33%). These issues are almost evenly distributed, indicating that no single challenge dominates.

Achieving Business Value at Scale Requires More Effort

Although the research highlights significant progress in uniting FinOps, DevOps/engineering, and executive teams, the persistent gaps indicate that continued effort and vigilance are still required. The answer appears to involve organizational, cultural, and technological dimensions.

"The community needs to demand more from their FinOps tools," said Kyle Campos, CTO and CPO of CloudBolt. "Enterprise customers need not just the awareness and visibility that FinOps initiatives bring, but business impact. Combining intelligent, AI-driven FinOps tools with continuous optimization will streamline cross-departmental collaboration and deliver key business outcomes. It's time for FinOps teams to leverage advanced technologies like AI and automation to bridge the current gap, reduce operational burden, and improve cloud ROI."

For more information, detailed data, or to download the full report, pleaseclick here。

About CloudBolt Software

CloudBolt is the Cloud ROI Company™, focused on solving the most pressing cloud problem today: improving return on investment (ROI). With its enhanced FinOps capabilities, CloudBolt leverages AI/ML-driven insights and applies intelligent automation and orchestration both proactively and reactively to make full cloud lifecycle optimization a reality. By bridging the "insight to action" gap, CloudBolt helps organizations unlock the full potential of any cloud environment. By simplifying, clarifying, and optimizing spend and control, CloudBolt helps organizations place value at the center of every cloud decision. For more information, visitwww.cloudbolt.io。