Episode 43 FinOpsPod Year End 2024

In this episode, hosts, Joe & Stacy, with special guest Sam Benson, highlight significant events like the successful FinOps X and FinOps X Europe conferences, community growth, and the evolution of FinOps practices. The episode wraps up with reflections on the past year's achievements and aspirations for 2025, encouraging practitioners to stay engaged and keep learning.

00:00 Welcome to FinOpsPod!

00:28 Meet the Hosts and Special Guest

01:11 Year-End Reflections

02:45 Sam's Role and Contributions

05:49 Community Events and Highlights

08:44 FinOps X and Memorable Moments

10:18 The 'No Runners' Theme

11:56 Adapting and Evolving in FinOps

14:08 Is Rob a Master Gardener?

15:58 Highlights from FinOpsX Europe

18:05 FinOps Scopes and Expanding Roles

20:05 Focus and Community Engagement

22:47 Emerging Topics and AI

25:38 Looking Forward to 2025

30:49 Closing Remarks and Holiday Wishes

• FinOps X 2025 - The Home of FinOps
• The Scope of FinOps Extends Beyond Public Cloud

Episode 42 James Barney - The AI Episode

James Barney discusses the complexities and nuances of applying FinOps principles to AI usage in the cloud, explores various models of AI consumption, such as SaaS and self-hosted solutions, and delves into the challenges of accurately tracking and managing AI costs. Insights are shared from James Barney's recently contributed paper on AI cost management, emphasizing the importance of understanding AI's impact on cloud expenditures and business value. The conversation also touches on the necessity of open dialogue within organizations and the potential for AI to enhance non-customer-facing processes. Practical advice is given on how to approach AI cost management conversations and the value of learning by doing.

Note - views expressed by James are his alone and not those of his employer.

03:59 Understanding AI Cost Structures

05:38 FinOps Strategies for AI Workloads

12:10 Balancing Innovation and Cost Control

18:08 Tracking and Reporting AI Costs

19:34 Understanding AI Workloads

21:39 Guardrails for AI Usage

22:45 The Role of Context in AI

25:16 Politeness in AI Interactions

28:03 Exploring AI Tokens

31:35 Challenges in AI Cost Management

35:41 Community Involvement in AI

• James Barney | LinkedIn
• Cost Estimation of AI Workloads
• How to Forecast AI Services Costs in Cloud
• How to Build a Generative AI Cost and Usage Tracker

Episode 41 Anderson Oliveira - Facing Career Challenges

Anderson Oliveira shares his experience of losing his job as a FinOps Manager, how he stayed positive, and took his time to find his next opportunity. Lessons in this episode on community engagement and keeping the FinOps Principles in the forefront.

• FinOps Jobs - All the cloud financial management jobs in one place
• Anderson Oliveira | LinkedIn
• FinOps X Europe - Barcelona, Nov 11-14

Episode 40 Anthony Johnson & Brent Eubanks - Measuring for Success with Key Momentum Indicators

TJ & Brent Eubanks join Rob Martin to discuss their experience and lessons learned with how to use Key Performance Indicators. While KPIs are good for a moment in time, they learned the importance of making sure to measure progress - or momentum - towards organization success.

• Brent Eubanks ☁️ | LinkedIn
• Anthony "TJ" Johnson | LinkedIn
• FinOps KPIs

Episode 39 FinOpsPod Live - Day 2 of FinOps X 2024 - Community Lovefest!

If you aren't interested in feeling FinOps Community love, then this isn't the episode for you. Recorded at the end of Day 2, Stacy Joe and audience members go over their impressions from the conference. Highlights include discussion of the USS Midway party and keynotes, a wedding proposal, community appreciation, and a secret about Joe's career background that prepared him for FinOps.

• FinOps X Europe - Barcelona, Nov 11-14
• FinOps X ‘24 Day 2 KEYNOTE: American Express, FinOps Releases by Google Cloud, Microsoft, and AWS

Episode 38 FinOpsPod Live - Day 1 of FinOps X 2024

Catch the vibes of FinOps X! Joe & Stacy review the experiences from Day 1 of the conference. Voices include: Tim O'Brien, Rob Martin, John from a Small Consultancy, Dann Berg, Karin Milkins, Anjali Oleksy and many more from the FinOps community!

• FinOps X 2024

Episode 37 Tammy Burnitt - Adopting FinOps At A Global Enterprise

Tammy Burnitt shares her experience in establishing a FinOps practice in a large global enterprise. Tips on spreading the message on FinOps and gaining collaborators, not competitors.

• Tammy Burnitt FOCP | LinkedIn
• FinOps X 2024

Episode 36 John Grubb - Building an Open Source FinOps Stack

John Grubb shares how he is building his own open source FinOps stack. A great listen for anyone who has ever wondered how to even approach building their own tool.

Episode 35 Adrian Tatsch - The Business Persona Connecting to FinOps

Adrian Tatsch, most recently from McKesson, shares lessons from her career journey on the business side, and how they benefited her when she discovered FinOps. This is a must listen for anyone navigating a their career.

• Adrian Tatsch | LinkedIn
• FinOps X - June 27-30, 2023 San Diego, California

Episode 34 FinOpsPod Year End 2023

Joe and Stacy review the stats on FinOpsPod in 2023 and Ambassadors share about their year and what their plans are for 2024. Happy New Year!

• FinOps X 2024
• FinOps Certification and Training