What if the biggest cloud savings opportunity isn't hidden in your infrastructure, but in the decisions made before the first line of code is written?

In this episode of FinOps in Action, Taylor sits down with Ruby Agarwal, VP of Engineering at Avaya, whose responsibilities span engineering, DevOps, DevSecOps, CloudOps, and FinOps. Ruby shares how her team reduced cloud spend by 75% in just two months, why visibility matters more than perfect data, and how cost awareness becomes part of engineering culture rather than a one-time optimization project.

They also explore how AI is changing operational decision-making and why the future of FinOps will depend on balancing innovation with discipline.

Takeaways:

• Start with visibility, not spreadsheets of despair. Ruby's team didn't need perfect data to cut 75% of spend, they needed a one-slider view everyone could understand. Skip the 20 page report and focus your team's attention on the handful of buckets driving most of the cost.
• Cost isn't the enemy, inefficiency is. Turning everything off would bring spending to zero, but that's not the goal. The goal is getting the same performance, reliability, and security for less, not gutting the services delivering value.
• Build your COGS model before you write code. On Avaya Infinity, Ruby's team defined their cost model before a single line was written, and they publish and measure it every month. Bake cost discipline into the architecture from day one instead of cleaning up after launch.
• Separate your AI innovation zone from your production zone. Let engineers experiment freely with the most powerful models while building, but production agents don't need the flashiest reasoning model, they need the cheapest one that gets the job done reliably.
• The skills that carry your career aren't technical. Ruby calls systems thinking, structured decision-making, communication, and connection-building the real differentiators, not soft skills but critical skills. Investing in those early pays off longer than any single technology wave.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:25 The 75 Percent Story Setup

01:45 Project Context Multi Cloud

02:37 Cataloging Costs and Buckets

03:21 Quick Wins Labs Scheduling

04:15 Storage Cleanup and Tiering

04:30 Dashboards Make It Visible

05:44 Working With Developers

06:50 Culture Tools and Training

08:58 Cross Functional Momentum

10:29 FinOps From Day One

11:21 Avaya Infinity COGS Model

13:37 Who Owns Cost Decisions

15:28 Need Dedicated FinOps

18:00 80 20 Cost Focus

21:08 Cost Fear vs Cloud Value

23:04 Regulated Industry Constraints

26:38 AI Agents and Model Costs

32:53 Future of Operational Intelligence

35:30 Career Advice Beyond Tech

37:36 Giving Back and Mentoring

39:23 Closing Thanks and Wrap

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Quote of the Show:

• “ Your first cloud cost bill will be dependent on what architectural decisions you have made for your projects.” - Ruby Agarwal 

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubyagarwal/
• Website: https://www.avaya.com/en/

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