FinOps after the low hanging fruits

Frank Contrepois
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What happens when all the low-hanging fruits are already in the basket? You have cleaned up the obvious waste. You have rightsized what could be rightsized. You have bought the discounts. You have built the dashboards. Everyone agrees that cloud cost matters. And then the real work begins. FinOps After the Low-Hanging Fruits is a video podcast about the harder side of FinOps: communication, diplomacy, negotiation, policy design, forecasting, organisational tension, and strategic thinking. The things that appear once the easy savings are gone. The official documentation can make it look simple. In practice, it rarely is. It is a bit like my son watching a few skateboarding videos and deciding he was good at it. The theory was clear. The confidence was high. Then came the concrete. FinOps is similar. Reading about forecasting, governance, capabilities, or collaboration is one thing. Making them work across finance, engineering, product, architecture, procurement, and leadership is something else entirely. This podcast is for FinOps practitioners who are past the basic cost-cutting phase and now need to make FinOps useful, credible, and strategic inside the business. We will talk about what happens after the first wins. When the dashboards are not enough. When the answer is no longer technical. And when FinOps has to become part of how the business makes decisions.

Episodes

  1. Aug 31

    How much does a new instance generation cost compare to the previous one

    The conversation covers the introduction of a new AWS instance type comparison tool and the process of creating the EC2 Family Comparator. It also delves into the details of comparing cost and performance across different instance types, providing valuable insights for cost optimization. Takeaways AWS instance type comparisonCost comparison tool Chapters 00:00 Introduction to AWS Instance Type Comparison00:41 Creating the EC2 Family Comparator01:23 Comparing Cost and Performance

  2. Aug 13

    The Surprising Link Between IT Value and Shareholder Success

    IT value is not a vague “impact” metric - it should tie directly to shareholder value, and Frank makes the case for exactly how to prove it. If you work in IT, FinOps, or tech leadership and you’ve ever struggled to explain why your work matters in business terms, this episode gives you the language and framework to connect the dots. Frank unpacks a blunt but practical idea: different businesses create value in different ways, and IT only matters when it helps drive that specific business strategy. A startup, a public company, and a retail business do not measure success the same way - so why would they measure IT value the same way? You’ll discover: Why shareholder value is the clearest lens for measuring IT’s contributionHow value changes depending on company stage, growth model, and industryWhy startups can prioritize customer growth even when margins are negativeHow public companies shift toward profit, debt ratio, and long-term planningWhy retail businesses need to protect margin and avoid pet projectsHow to translate executive mandates into actions IT teams can actually execute Frank also shares the practical workshop approach he uses to move from high-level strategy to written plans, negotiation with developers, and alignment with management. That means turning abstract business goals into concrete IT decisions that support the company’s real priorities. This conversation matters because IT teams that cannot link their work to business value risk sounding important without actually being useful. The upside is huge for teams that can make that connection clearly: better prioritization, stronger executive trust, and smarter decisions about where time and money should go. Essential listening if you need to justify IT investment, improve FinOps conversations, or sharpen the way your team talks about value. If you want a clearer answer to “What is IT worth?” this episode gives you a more useful one.

  3. Aug 10

    Why IT Should Stop Trying to Be a Value Generator

    What if IT has been chasing the wrong goal all along? Frank flips the usual “IT must create value” conversation on its head and makes the case that being a cost center might actually be the safest, smartest place for technology to sit. After a conversation with Eric Norman, Ben De Mora, and Anderson Oliveira about IT value and FinOps, Frank challenges the idea that IT should fight to prove revenue impact at all. Instead, he argues for a model where IT behaves like the underlying utility layer of the business supporting projects, delivering compute, hardware, and AI, and staying intentionally detached from the bets, wins, and losses above it. You will hear Frank break down: Why the classic data center model may have had more logic than we admitHow projects, not IT, should own the budget and the riskWhy “cost center” can mean safety, stability, and clarity of responsibilityHow cloud pricing changed the conversation without necessarily improving itWhat gets lost when IT tries to become more than the infrastructure layer The real tension here is bigger than budgeting. If IT is constantly trying to justify itself as a value engine, it may be taking on responsibility for outcomes it can’t truly control. Frank’s perspective forces a hard question: are technology teams building better business results, or just chasing a label that sounds more strategic? If you work in IT, FinOps, infrastructure, cloud, or platform strategy, this episode will challenge one of the most common assumptions in modern technology management. It is a sharp, provocative rethink of what IT is for, and whether “value creation” is always the right target.

  4. Jul 17

    The AI Trust Matrix: How to Safely Delegate Tasks in FinOps

    The conversation explores the delegation of tasks to AI in FinOps and introduces the concept of a trust matrix for AI and FinOps. Frank discusses the criteria for delegating tasks to AI based on verifiability and stakes, and introduces a tool available on finops.frankcontrepois.com for further analysis and adaptation. Takeaways Delegating tasks to AI in FinOpsTrust matrix for AI and FinOps Chapters 00:00 Delegating Tasks to AI in FinOps01:10 The Trust Matrix for AI and FinOps

  5. Jul 13 ·  Video

    Interview - The research says that the real job of a FinOps practitioner isn’t FinOps

    From Actor to FinOps Researcher: Insights from 21 Practitioners on the Human Side of FinOps What makes a great FinOps practitioner? In the first episode of FinOps After the Low-Hanging Fruits, Frank Contrepois talks to Olivier, a recent University of Manchester graduate. His research focused on the human side of FinOps, interviewing 21 practitioners from Europe, North America, and Asia. Instead of diving into cloud tech or cost-saving methods, they discuss the people in FinOps. They explore how backgrounds shape decisions, why organisations adopt FinOps differently, and what newcomers can learn from experienced professionals. Key topics include: Why FinOps is a human and behavioural discipline, not just technical.Insights from interviews with practitioners across various industries.How backgrounds in engineering, finance, leadership, and consulting influence approaches to FinOps.The emergence of a second generation of FinOps professionals.The challenge of balancing frameworks with the unique ways organisations implement FinOps.The role of practitioners as translators between engineering, finance, procurement, and leadership.Why building connections between teams is often more important than deep technical expertise.How organisations can shift from centralised FinOps teams to a true FinOps culture.The significance of incentives, behaviours, and communication over tools and dashboards.Mental models that help navigate complexity, including:Context is everythingFlip the coinFinOps as translationFinOps as behaviourWhy top practitioners know when to listen and recognise when someone truly understands.This episode examines what comes after obvious cloud savings. Success depends more on communication, culture, organisational design, and helping people make better choices. If you've ever questioned whether FinOps is just about cloud costs or about changing organisational mindsets, you'll find this conversation enlightening. Guest: Oliver Kennett Host: Frank Contrepois FinOps After the Low-Hanging Fruits is a podcast that delves into the tougher aspects of FinOps: governance, communication, leadership, organisational behaviour, forecasting, negotiation, and the strategic challenges that arise when easy savings are already achieved.

    Interview - The research says that the real job of a FinOps practitioner isn’t FinOps

  6. Jul 6 ·  Video

    Short - FinOps and vibecoding - how to make it work

    Vibe Coding is upon us, and we need to build some governance to avoid creating thousands of duplicates.

  7. Jul 3 ·  Video

    Short - The secret of those who always act right

    A useful trick for #finops practitioners wanting to boost their authority We've all had times when we wished we could act differently. Sometimes, these are habits that keep coming back and can be really annoying. There’s a simple trick to help you stop these bad behaviors for good. The good news? It’s easy to follow.

  8. Jul 1 ·  Video

    Short - The impact of AI on organisations

    Who is happy about AI and who is unhappy about AI. Why?

  9. Jun 16 ·  Video

    The immediate impact of AI on C-suite and board jobs

    AI is already impacting the board and C-suite positions. Click here to view the episode transcript.

  10. Jun 3 ·  Video

    What do boards do? Why do we need them?

    When the easy FinOps savings are gone, the next challenge is not another dashboard. It is understanding how decisions really happen. In this first episode of the series, Frank starts at the very top of the company: the owners, the board, and the auditor. Before we talk about cloud strategy, budgets, engineering, or FinOps policies, we need to understand where power sits and how it flows. This episode gives practitioners a simple map of corporate power: shareholders delegate authority to the board, the board governs management, and auditors provide independent confidence that the company’s story matches reality. For FinOps practitioners trying to move beyond rightsizing, reports, and low-hanging fruit, this is the starting point. Advanced FinOps is not only about finding waste. It is about helping organisations make better decisions about technology, money, risk, and value. Click here to view the episode transcript.

  11. Trailer ·  Video

    Understanding 'the board' - teaser

    Teaser for a new series of episodes.

  12. Jun 1

    How many arguments should you bring to create a convincing case?

    When trying to convince, the number of arguments depends on who you target.

Trailer

About

What happens when all the low-hanging fruits are already in the basket? You have cleaned up the obvious waste. You have rightsized what could be rightsized. You have bought the discounts. You have built the dashboards. Everyone agrees that cloud cost matters. And then the real work begins. FinOps After the Low-Hanging Fruits is a video podcast about the harder side of FinOps: communication, diplomacy, negotiation, policy design, forecasting, organisational tension, and strategic thinking. The things that appear once the easy savings are gone. The official documentation can make it look simple. In practice, it rarely is. It is a bit like my son watching a few skateboarding videos and deciding he was good at it. The theory was clear. The confidence was high. Then came the concrete. FinOps is similar. Reading about forecasting, governance, capabilities, or collaboration is one thing. Making them work across finance, engineering, product, architecture, procurement, and leadership is something else entirely. This podcast is for FinOps practitioners who are past the basic cost-cutting phase and now need to make FinOps useful, credible, and strategic inside the business. We will talk about what happens after the first wins. When the dashboards are not enough. When the answer is no longer technical. And when FinOps has to become part of how the business makes decisions.

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