FinOps in Action
Welcome to FinOps in Action! Join host, Alon Arvatz, Each week, as he sits down with FinOps experts to explore the toughest challenges between FinOps and Engineering. This show is brought to you by PointFive - empowering teams to optimize cloud costs with deep detection and remediation tools that drive action.
Episodes
What does it really take to drive action in FinOps…. without chasing engineers?
In this re-air episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Dann Berg, Cloud FinOps Lead at Squarespace, to revisit one of our most practical and mindset-shifting conversations. Dann shares how the most effective FinOps teams create accountability without micromanagement, shorten feedback loops for engineers, and build trust across engineeri...
What did the world’s top FinOps practitioners learn in 2025? What should you change in your practice heading into 2026?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down to talk through key takeaways from 2025. I look back on dozens of interviews with FinOps leaders across industries to surface the four most repeated and most impactful insights from this year. Whether you’re scaling a new FinOps practice or leveling up a ...
How do leading companies shift FinOps from cost-cutting to strategic business value?
In this special compilation episode of FinOps in Action, we tackle one of the toughest challenges facing FinOps programs: showing business value to gain executive buy-in for the FinOps program.
Featuring:
Emily Cornock - Suncorp Group
Zach Johnson - Splunk
Tammy Burnitt - UiPath
Erik Norman - British Airways
Amy Race - Citizens Bank
These expe...
Is “death by dashboard” holding your FinOps program back more than you realize?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Gilad Katz, FinOps Lead at Riskified, to explore why world-class FinOps isn’t about knowing every technical detail or pushing engineers to make changes; it’s about neutrality, trust, and telling the right story with data.
Gilad describes the moment he realized that trying to “know every...
How do you turn FinOps from a reporting function into part of the company’s operating system?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Zach Johnson, Head of FinOps & Cloud Platforms at Splunk to unpack why world-class FinOps isn’t about dashboards or reports, it’s about business value, executive alignment, and proactive decision-making.
Zach shares how one of his earliest lessons in FinOps was realizi...
Are you treating FinOps like a one-time project instead of an ongoing value engine?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Borja Martínez, EMEA FinOps Lead at NTT DATA Inc, to explore why successful FinOps starts with understanding your company’s business context, not just its cloud bill.
Borja shared how his unconventional path from 12 years as a professional basketball player to FinOps leader shaped t...
Is “cost optimization” the wrong goal for FinOps?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Erik Norman, FinOps Lead at British Airways, to unpack why true FinOps maturity isn’t about cutting costs, it’s about creating value.
Erik shared how a disastrous “do not delete” incident early in his FinOps career shaped his philosophy: that understanding business context and risk matters more than chasing quick sa...
Can empathy, sales skills, and gamification be the secret to driving FinOps success?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Tammy Burnitt, Director of FinOps at UiPath. Tammy discussed her 25 years of experience in IT and capacity management and how she founded the FinOps program during her time at Shell.
Tammy shared how she transformed resistance into engagement, proving that FinOps success is as much...
Can enforcing a simple tagging strategy transform your entire FinOps program?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Amy Race, Head of Infrastructure, Cost Management, and Cloud FinOps at Citizens Bank, to dive into how her company moved 99% to the cloud.
Amy shared how her team went from inconsistent tagging and cloud chaos to a structured, scalable FinOps practice. She explains how clear ownership, ex...
How do you balance cost optimization, business value, and innovation in the age of AI?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Emily Cornock, Executive Manager of Core Data Platforms and Cloud FinOps at Suncorp Group, to explore how her team is embedding FinOps principles into everything they build — from data platforms to AI systems.
Emily shares her journey from early cloud adoption to becoming a FinOps leader...
What does good FinOps look like inside a large engineering organization?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Idaliz Baez, Founder and Director of RealOps, who has one of the most fascinating journeys into FinOps — from contamination engineer at NASA to FinOps instructor and leader.
Idaliz has trained more than 200 FinOps practitioners worldwide and brings a unique perspective on how education and awareness c...
What does good FinOps look like inside a large engineering organization?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Tom Cross, FinOps Lead at Aer Lingus and a member of the FinOps Foundation Technical Advisory Council, to talk about building FinOps culture, engaging engineers, and shaping the global FinOps framework.
Tom shared how he transitioned from software engineering to FinOps leadership, why optimization bec...
Should you build your own FinOps tool or buy one?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Peter Crenshaw, Manager of FinOps and M&A at IEM, to unpack one of the biggest questions I hear from FinOps leaders everywhere: when does it make sense to build, and when should you buy?
Peter shared his journey leading FinOps at UKG and IEM, including what he learned from building an in-house FinOps platform and wh...
Is hosting a podcast really just about questions and prep work or is it more about building a community, elevating leaders, and learning to listen?
In this special bonus live stream for National Podcast Day, I, Alon Arvatz, stepped into the guest seat to be interviewed by Casey Cheshire. After nearly 50 hours of conversations, I shared my journey and my biggest takeaways from interviewing top FinOps leaders this year.
We...
What does FinOps look like in highly regulated industries — and why is speed so critical when managing commitments and anomalies?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Gordon Douglass, VP of Cloud Assets & Risk Management at SAP NS2, to talk about the real-world challenges of running FinOps in government and enterprise-scale environments.
Gordon shares why commitments are one of the scariest parts of FinOp...
Is FinOps only about cloud usage optimization or does it go deeper?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I was joined by Tim Nolan, Senior FinOps Engineer at DataRobot, who saved over $1M in AWS costs in just four months and achieved 99% tagging compliance.
Tim shares his journey from engineering to IT finance to FinOps, and why negotiation skills, procurement partnerships, and tagging discipline are just as critical to FinO...
Is cloud always the right move? And what happens when governance is missing?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Peter Brauer, Senior Enterprise Architect at T-Mobile, who has led FinOps governance frameworks responsible for over $150M in savings.
Peter shares lessons from his transition from TBM (Technology Business Management) to FinOps, and why shadow IT has become one of the most overlooked yet critical ...
How do you build a FinOps practice that actually engages engineers, delivers business value, and grows with the help of the community?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Swapna Samuel, Head of FinOps and Clarity Business Management at BMO and FinOps Foundation Ambassador, to explore how culture, collaboration, and community have been key drivers in her FinOps journey.
Swapna shares how joining the FinOps Fo...
Is FinOps really just about dashboards and tools, or is it more about people, culture, and governance?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Ben de Mora, former FinOps Lead at GitLab, to explore how FinOps needs to evolve beyond tooling into governance, collaboration, and product management thinking.
Ben shares his unique journey from security and engineering into FinOps, and explains why champions programs, f...
Where can a FinOps career take you? And how do the roles differ between small companies, global enterprises, and vendors?
In this special episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Taylor Houck, FinOps Specialist and co-creator of the Cloud Efficiency Hub at PointFive, to trace his career journey across the FinOps landscape: starting as a practitioner at a mid-sized company, scaling cost optimization at NBCUniversal, and ...
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