Since its inception, the FinOps Framework has served as a north star for organizations navigating the complexities of cloud financial management. Its core principles—inform, optimize, and operate—remain as relevant as ever. They provide a common language across engineering, finance, and operations. But in today’s landscape, simply adhering to the framework is not enough.
Why? Because the cloud—and the way businesses use it—has fundamentally changed. Cloud is no longer just infrastructure. It’s AI services, SaaS platforms, productivity tools, and edge computing. It’s decentralized, on-demand, and deeply embedded in every corner of the organization. The FinOps Framework still holds—but the game it was designed to win is now faster, more complex, and higher stakes.
To stay competitive, organizations must evolve how they interpret and apply the framework. This isn’t about replacing principles—it’s about elevating execution.
Revisiting the Core FinOps Principles
The FinOps Framework is built on six principles:
- Teams need to collaborate.
- Everyone takes ownership of their cloud usage.
- FinOps reports should be accessible and timely.
- Decisions are driven by business value of cloud.
- Take advantage of the variable cost model of the cloud.
- The iterative process of FinOps continues to evolve.
These tenets have withstood the test of time. But let’s take a closer look at how their application must adapt in the current era of AI acceleration, licensing sprawl, and hybrid operations.
Collaboration Must Go Deeper
The framework calls for collaboration—but today, collaboration must be embedded at a structural level. It’s not enough for teams to “talk more.” FinOps needs to be integrated into product sprints, DevOps pipelines, and executive dashboards.
For example, engineering teams should receive cost alerts within their CI/CD workflows. Finance partners should join backlog grooming sessions to forecast usage impacts. Cross-functional tiger teams (as discussed in an earlier article) should take ownership of shared KPIs.
Collaboration today is no longer a principle—it’s a capability that must be operationalized.
Ownership Is No Longer Optional
Cloud usage has decentralized. With Microsoft Azure, teams spin up services with autonomy. Microsoft 365 licenses are assigned dynamically as workforces shift. Without clear accountability, spend grows unchecked.
Modern FinOps requires that every team—not just engineering—takes ownership. This includes data science teams running AI models, marketing teams subscribing to analytics tools, and operations teams using SaaS platforms.
The shift? Moving from broad awareness to embedded accountability.
Timeliness Must Become Real-Time
The framework encourages “timely” reporting. In 2020, that meant weekly or monthly reports. Today, timely means real-time. With AI workloads driving unpredictable consumption and licenses being provisioned instantly, real-time cost monitoring is no longer a luxury—it’s essential.
Modern FinOps teams must integrate cost telemetry directly into cloud tools, using live dashboards and automated alerts to surface anomalies as they happen.
Business Value Must Be Measurable
The principle of “decisions driven by business value” has never been more important. However, organizations often struggle to define and measure this value.
That’s where unit economics, workload-specific ROI, and per-feature cost metrics come into play. For example:
- What is the cost to deliver each Copilot-enabled Microsoft 365 user experience?
- How much does it cost to serve a customer through our AI chatbot?
- What margin do we gain from each Azure-based product feature?
These aren’t theoretical questions. They’re how FinOps translates cloud usage into business strategy.
Variability Requires Forecasting Agility
The framework embraces the variable cost model of the cloud. Today, this means building adaptive forecasts that account for bursts, experiments, and growth scenarios. With services like Azure OpenAI and real-time ML training, workloads can spike unpredictably.
FinOps must support scenario-based budgeting and dynamic forecasting models. Monthly variance reports must evolve into continuous planning processes.
The FinOps Framework Itself Must Be Iterative
The final principle—continuous evolution—may be the most important. It’s a built-in recognition that FinOps is not static. As the ecosystem changes, so must the processes, policies, and practices we use.
This means continuously re-evaluating:
- Are we surfacing the right KPIs?
- Are our dashboards actionable?
- Are we empowering the right personas with insights?
- Are we optimizing for cost, or enabling value?
It also means being open to new tools, new data sources, and new methods of driving accountability—especially as cloud innovation accelerates.
Moving Forward
The FinOps Framework isn’t broken. In fact, it’s more vital than ever. But the cloud has changed—and so too must the way we apply the framework. Execution must become sharper, more automated, more integrated, and more strategic.
FinOps teams that cling to old rhythms and static reporting will fall behind. Those that embrace continuous evolution will turn cloud from a cost center into a business accelerator.
At Surveil, we help organizations modernize their FinOps execution while staying aligned to the principles of the framework. With real-time insights, Microsoft-first visibility, and actionable recommendations, Surveil transforms static FinOps into an adaptive, enterprise-grade capability. To learn more, explore how Surveil helps elevate your FinOps maturity.