Benefits of a FinOps Strategy for Higher Education Institutions

What Is the Definition of FinOps in Higher Education?

The FinOps Foundation is the pioneer in this space, creating resources and conducting studies for this emerging field. It defines FinOps as “an operational framework and cultural practice which maximizes the business value of cloud, enables timely data-driven decision making and creates financial accountability through collaboration between engineering, finance, and business teams.”

While FinOps has existed since the creation of the cloud, it has only recently gained traction, getting an official name and guardrails around what it entails.

“People have been spending way too much money over the past decade,” says Tatum Tummins, senior product manager at Kion.

But between the excitement for a new technology and a general lack of understanding of what cloud costs really entail, companies and institutions haven’t questioned their finances and cloud spending until now.

FinOps has arisen as an opportunity to pause and establish language around the potential risks that exist in the cloud, explains Tummins.

RELATED: Four tips for building a private cloud in higher education.

What’s unique about higher education is that cloud users are diverse, from administration to researchers. With that diversity — and without a solid strategy in place — risks arise, such as out-of-control spending, difficulty managing user permissions and account sprawl. Without FinOps, universities could face sensitive data being exposed.

“FinOps is about maximizing value of your cloud investment, and that’s not just cost management. There are a lot of things that make up value, such as being able to do something faster,” says Tummins.

The Benefits of FinOps in Higher Education

Tummins says there are three major benefits of FinOps: saving money, saving time by increasing efficiency and creating a culture.

Saving money needs no explanation, but Tummins sees the culture of collaboration in an organization or institution as facilitating cost savings and increased efficiency.

“FinOps is not one person’s or one team’s job. Everyone has a role,” he says.

From the engineers and IT leaders who develop the code and manage the technology to the researchers and faculty who use the cloud for studies and student work, universities have a more intricate and complex situation: University departments and individual colleges tend to have separate budgets, and these need to be aligned with larger university goals.

As for increased efficiency and time savings, those are goals of the cloud. With a good strategy and maybe some automation, users are able to access the cloud faster and do certain tasks quicker.

Once FinOps has spread throughout a college or university, everyone understands the goal at a high level. Administrators and other leaders can then worry less about the details and minute processes because users across departments are focused on their impact.

“They become cost stewards too,” says Tummins.

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