Earlier this month, we hosted a webinar discussion on FinOps, one of the biggest IT and business trends. It was a lively debate around:
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- Where the boundaries lie between ITAM and FinOps
- Who sits within whose domain
- Whether one is an extension or a competitor of the other
- What are some quick ITAM wins to demonstrate why ITAM should have a seat at the table
And, in a situation where both sides appear to be eyeing each other up, who should make the first move?
Rich Gibbons, analyst at the ITAM Review lead the discussion with Rebecca Horton of USU, Johannes Hovda of Snow Software, and Dan Ortman of SoftwareONE.
Our top three take-aways:
1. Should FinOps be part of ITAM, or should ITAM be part of FinOps?
The three panellists all agreed. There should be no hierarchy between ITAM and FinOps. They can exist within the same overall group due to their similar approaches and goals.
As Rebecca stated, “They do have a lot of overlap – common processes, governance and stakeholders for example. If you were to put them within the same group, they should have a distinctive framework around them that distinguishes between the specific goals of both [FinOps and ITAM].”
2. Should ITAM wait to be asked to join FinOps, or should ITAM practitioners proactively get involved?
“If ITAM were on the ball, you wouldn’t even need FinOps.” While acknowledging this was a somewhat tongue-in-cheek response, Johannes acknowledged there is some truth to it. ITAM has a lot of experience managing complex metrics and navigating the business, so it is well suited to teaching FinOps a thing or two.
For Dan, the answer is simple, “ITAM shouldn’t wait. Bring value as soon as you can. If everyone is waiting for someone else, nothing will get done. FinOps is a continuous improvement model. If you can come in and generate quick wins, you start to embed yourself in these conversations and show your value.”
3. What quick wins can ITAM bring to DevOps?
The experts had a few tips for those ITAM pros looking to ingratiate themselves with their FinOps colleagues:
- Bring-your-own-license (BYOL). This is the ideal starting point because it’s often an area FinOps has never looked at before. By demonstrating how to re-purpose on-premise licenses in the cloud environment, ITAM is almost guaranteed to deliver that first quick-win.
- Find out who at your organisation is managing and reconciling cloud invoices, and offer to help. These invoices can run into thousands upon thousands of lines on a spreadsheet – the perfect environment for ITAM to do its thing.
- If you’re responsible for Microsoft spend, you could start by looking at the MACC program (Azure Consumption Commitment enrolment). In this program, your Marketplace purchases count towards your Azure pre-payment commitment. A conversation with FinOps showing what we’re spending, what it would look like on this agreement etc. can lead to positive results quickly.
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