FinOps Monthly AI Edition #1
Your AI-Curated FinOps Briefing
#1 February 2025
FinOps Monthly AI Edition delivers the essential FinOps news, trends, and best practices - intelligently curated by AI to save you time. Each month, get a concise briefing on key industry developments, emerging technologies, and strategic insights to empower your FinOps practice.
Industry Updates
FinOps Foundation Releases 2025 State of FinOps Report
The FinOps Foundation's 2025 State of FinOps Report reveals a landscape transformed by AI. While workload optimization remains the top current priority, governance and AI/ML spend management have surged in importance, with AI spending now managed by 63% of respondents (up from 31% last year). Organizations are currently focused on understanding and allocating AI costs, indicating early-stage AI FinOps maturity.
The report highlights increasing demand for tooling and automation to manage growing complexity, underscoring the need for investment in FinOps platforms and skills development. Despite ongoing discussion, sustainability reporting remains relatively flat, with optimizations primarily driven by cost considerations.
FinOps practitioners are transitioning from operational cost managers to strategic business partners, necessitating an expanded toolkit that combines financial insight, technology knowledge, and cross-functional leadership skills.
The 2025 report emphasizes that organizations must address the rise of AI, increasing governance importance, and growing automation needs to effectively manage cloud and AI investments.
Source: FinOps Foundation: https://data.finops.org/
FinOps Foundation Welcomes Alibaba Cloud and Oracle as Premier Members
The FinOps Foundation announced the addition of Alibaba Cloud and Oracle as Premier Members, signaling growing industry collaboration and adoption of FinOps practices across diverse cloud platforms. This partnership will likely foster greater standardization and resource sharing within the FinOps community. Organizations can expect increased support and best practices applicable across multi-cloud environments as the Foundation's influence expands with these major cloud providers.
Sources:
Oracle Announcement (February 4, 2025): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/finops-foundation-announces-oracle-as-a-premier-member-302360644.html
Alibaba Cloud Announcement (February 4, 2025): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/finops-foundation-announces-alibaba-cloud-as-a-premier-member-302354959.html
Onyx Launches AI-Powered Microsoft Licensing Platform
Former SoftwareOne executives Neil Lomax and Chris Brown have launched Onyx, introducing an innovative solution that combines AI technology with expert human oversight for Microsoft licensing guidance. The platform addresses a critical market gap by providing guaranteed licensing advice and commercial benchmarking at a time when traditional partner support is diminishing due to Microsoft's reduced partner fees.
Onyx's hybrid approach ensures reliability by complementing AI-generated insights with human expert validation, offering organizations rapid, trustworthy, and independent licensing guidance. This launch is particularly significant as enterprises seek dependable licensing expertise amid increasing complexity in Microsoft's licensing landscape.
Source: Onyx Website: https://www.getonyx.ai/
Finout Secures $40M to Advance Cloud Cost Management Platform
Finout, a FinOps platform provider, announced a $40 million funding round. Finout aims to use the funding to further develop its platform, focusing on cost allocation, unit economics analysis, and real-time forecasting.
This investment signals continued growth and investor confidence in the FinOps market as cloud spending complexity increases. Enterprises are looking for sophisticated tools to manage and optimize their cloud expenditures, driving innovation in the FinOps tooling space.
Source: TechCrunch (January 29, 2025): https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/29/finout-raises-40m-series-c-for-its-cloud-cost-management-service/
DigitalEx Rebrands as Mavvrik, Secures $6.2M Seed Funding
DigitalEx, a FinOps platform provider, announced its rebranding to Mavvrik alongside a $6.2 million seed funding round. The company's platform addresses the growing challenge of managing complex IT spending across cloud, SaaS, and hardware investments. Mavvrik aims to differentiate itself by offering comprehensive IT spend management capabilities that extend beyond traditional cloud FinOps, helping organizations tackle the broader spectrum of technology expenses. The funding will accelerate product development and market expansion efforts.
Source: PR Newswire (February 15, 2025): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/finops-platform-digitalex-rebrands-as-mavvrik-announces-6-2mm-seed-round-to-address-spiraling-it-costs-302379322.html
Vertice Secures $50M for AI-Powered SaaS Spend Platform
Vertice, a SaaS spend management platform harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, has secured $50 million in funding. This significant investment underscores the rapidly growing convergence of AI and FinOps, particularly within the crucial domain of SaaS cost optimization.
For FinOps practitioners, this development signals the emergence of sophisticated, AI-driven solutions that provide enhanced visibility and control over SaaS expenditures. As SaaS spending becomes an increasingly substantial component of overall cloud and IT budgets, these tools offer practitioners the potential to seamlessly integrate AI-powered insights into broader FinOps strategies, enabling more proactive and data-informed decision-making.
Source: PR Newswire (January 22, 2025): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vertice-raises-50-million-series-c-to-simplify-procurement-302357171.html
Flexera Acquires Spot by NetApp's FinOps Portfolio
Flexera has entered a definitive agreement to acquire the Spot by NetApp FinOps business, aiming to enhance its multi-cloud cost management and FinOps offerings. This acquisition will integrate Spot's AI/ML-driven technology with Flexera's hybrid cloud expertise, providing a comprehensive FinOps solution encompassing hybrid cloud, SaaS, and containers. The move will also enrich Flexera's FinOps MSP ecosystem and add Kubernetes cost management capabilities to its portfolio, addressing the increasing complexity and scale of cloud resource consumption.
Source: Flexera Press Release https://www.flexera.com/about-us/press-center/flexera-to-acquire-finops-business-from-netapp-to-strengthen-portfolio
Kubecost Achieves Top Container Product Ranking on AWS Marketplace and Enhances Security with RBAC Upgrades
Kubecost has been recognized as a top 4 most subscribed container product on AWS Marketplace, showcasing the strong market adoption of Kubernetes cost management solutions.
In a parallel move, Kubecost released version 2.6, which includes significant enhancements to Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). These RBAC upgrades provide more granular control over Kubecost features, directly improving security, compliance, and operational efficiency for teams managing Kubernetes costs.
This release underscores the increasing focus on Kubernetes cost management within the FinOps landscape, while simultaneously delivering enhanced security features that are vital for modern cloud environments
Source: Kubecost Blog: https://www.kubecost.com/blog
Kubecost Webinar Emphasizes Tagging for Kubernetes Cost Control
Kubecost's recent webinar emphasized tagging as crucial for Kubernetes cost management. Experts detailed strategies for tag cleanup, cost reduction, and accountability. They highlighted how organized tagging enables accurate cost allocation and chargeback, while identifying savings.
Kubecost's platform aids in enforcing tagging policies and visualizing cost data, improving FinOps practices. Regular tag audits and standardized policies are vital for optimizing cloud spending and maintaining governance.
Source: Kubecost Webinar & Bluesky kubecost.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/kubecost.bsky.social/post/3likfd6mtt22w
Microsoft Cost Management February 2025 Updates
Microsoft has released its February 2025 Cost Management updates, focusing on enhanced cost allocation for EA customers, Copilot nudges for easier query assistance, and the promotion of the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) for standardized billing data. New cost-saving features for Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances, Azure NetApp Files, and Azure DevTest Labs are also introduced, alongside documentation updates.
These updates directly empower FinOps practitioners with more granular cost allocation tools, streamlining the process of assigning cloud spend to specific departments and accounts. The integration of Copilot nudges facilitates quicker access to cost insights through natural language queries, reducing the reliance on complex prompt engineering. Additionally, the promotion of FOCUS offers a standardized billing format, aiding in cross-cloud cost analysis and collaboration.
Source: Microsoft Azure Blog (February 13, 2025): https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-cost-management-updates-february-2025/
Grafana and Vantage Integration: Bridging Observability and FinOps for Actionable Cost Management
Grafana Labs has announced the integration of Grafana Cloud with Vantage, a FinOps platform, highlighting the growing synergy between observability and FinOps. This integration empowers users with enhanced cost visibility directly within their observability dashboards, facilitating data-driven cost optimization decisions based on real-time system performance and resource utilization insights.
This closer alignment of observability and FinOps practices allows organizations to implement more integrated and actionable cloud cost management strategies, enabling them to make informed decisions that optimize both performance and spending..
Source: Grafana Blog (February 6, 2025): https://grafana.com/blog/2025/02/06/why-observability-needs-finops-and-vice-versa-the-vantage-integration-with-grafana-cloud/
FinOps for AI
Forbes Tech Council Highlights the Imperative of FinOps for AI
A Forbes Tech Council article underscores FinOps' critical role in managing AI and machine learning costs. As AI adoption surges, balancing innovation with cost control is paramount. The article stresses that implementing FinOps principles for AI is vital for sustainable and economically viable deployments. Organizations must track, optimize, and forecast AI/ML spending to ensure budget adherence and maximize ROI.
Source: Forbes (January 28, 2025): https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil
Liberty Mutual Leverages FinOps for Rapid GenAI Application Deployment
Runtime.news reported on Liberty Mutual's CIO, Monica Caldas, explaining how a strong data foundation and FinOps discipline enabled the company to quickly deploy an internal Generative AI application. This highlights FinOps' role in not just cost reduction, but in fostering business agility and innovation. Combining FinOps with sound data governance accelerates the adoption of cutting-edge technologies like GenAI, while maintaining financial control and efficiency.
Source: https://bsky.app/profile/tomkrazit.bsky.social
AI-Driven Budget Sinkholes Challenge Tech Executives, FinOps Becomes More Critical
Apptio has raised alarms about escalating concerns among tech executives regarding AI-driven budget overruns. The surge in unpredictable AI service costs, compounded by shadow IT, outdated licensing, and AI “add-ons” becoming ubiquitous across enterprise tools, is placing significant strain on FinOps practices.
GenAI is now everywhere, “like salt on the dinner table,” an industry analyst noted - transforming nearly every product and service. While many organizations are increasing IT budgets to modernize infrastructure and foster innovation, more than half report insufficient data to accurately track spending. Nearly half of respondents are even diverting capital from other areas to fund AI initiatives, with two in five banking on cost savings from AI-driven efficiencies. Yet, only 36% have established a dedicated AI fund.
As global tech spend is projected to surge nearly 10% to over $5.6 trillion in 2025, FinOps practices must evolve.
This highlights the critical need for organizations to implement robust cost optimization strategies to keep pace with the rapid and expensive adoption of AI technologies.
Source:https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/enterprise-it-budgets-shadow-provisioning/738627/
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About Tony Mackelworth
Tony Mackelworth is a recognized leader in Microsoft Advisory Services and FinOps, with a proven track record in service leadership, product management and consulting. He has built and scaled global service portfolios in Microsoft consulting and FinOps, driving innovation, efficiency, and tangible results for global organizations.
With extensive experience delivering consulting services and leading practices, Tony combines strategic vision with hands-on expertise to help organizations maximize value from their Microsoft investments. This website serves as a resource for the licensing community and a platform to share insights, empowering businesses to navigate Microsoft software and licensing with confidence.
Learn more about his work and insights at Softspend.
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