As organizations deepen their reliance on cloud technology, many are adopting FinOps – a strategic blend of financial management and technical expertise – to better manage costs and strengthen cybersecurity. Why is this approach increasingly popular? Businesses often overspend on cloud services by as much as 30% due to limited visibility and control. FinOps tackles this inefficiency by optimizing cloud spending, which frees up resources for vital cybersecurity investments. This both reduces IT waste and strengthens data protection and compliance, setting up a business for a secure – and successful – future. In this article, discover three ways FinOps strategies can help boost your organization’s cloud security.
- Cost-Optimization for Security
Security remains a priority for organizations, especially in the face of evolving threat actors and increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks. FinOps helps organizations to identify and eliminate inefficiencies in their cloud spending. This creates opportunities to reallocate resources toward robust security measures such as advanced threat detection systems, robust controls such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and zero-trust network access (ZTNA) and continuous monitoring tools and services.
By providing visibility into cloud costs, FinOps uncovers underutilized or redundant resources and subscriptions, or over-provisioned budgets that can be redirected to strengthen cybersecurity. Through continuous real-time monitoring, organizations can proactively identify trends, anomalies, or emerging inefficiencies, ensuring they align their resources with strategic goals. For example, regular audits may uncover unnecessary overlapping subscriptions or unused security features, while ongoing monitoring ensures these inefficiencies do not reoccur. This newfound efficiency can fund measures like advanced threat detection systems, new protection measures, or security training programs. FinOps ensures every dollar spent on cloud services delivers value – transforming waste into a secure, streamlined cloud environment.
- Risk Reduction
By improving visibility and transparency, FinOps enables teams to identify weaknesses – and risks – across licenses, identities, devices, and access points. This insight is particularly valuable in strengthening identity and access management (IAM), ensuring that access controls are properly configured, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) is consistently used to protect critical systems and sensitive data.
A FinOps approach also involved continuous monitoring, which not only identifies potential security gaps before they escalate but also matches security measures with organizational goals. Furthermore, FinOps helps with financial risk management by assessing the costs of potential breaches and allocating resources effectively. Through ongoing risk assessments and strategic budget adjustments, organizations can make better use of their security investments, which will help to maintain a robust defense against threats while still achieving their business aims.
- Enhanced Compliance and Governance
Meeting standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS can be both complex and costly – but complying with these regulations is vital for keeping cyber defenses strong. A FinOps approach simplifies the challenge of meeting the most up-to-date regulations by automating compliance reporting. This enables organizations to then make use of cost-effective tools from cloud providers to meet regulatory requirements.
Moreover, governance frameworks are built into FinOps principles, which leads to consistent application of security policies and procedures. This includes setting up governance frameworks that define roles, responsibilities, and accountability for security and financial management. By integrating governance into FinOps practices, organizations can ensure that security measures are aligned with financial goals and that there is a clear understanding of how security investments impact overall cloud spending.
In summary, adopting a FinOps strategy offers organizations a powerful way to optimize cloud spending while enhancing cybersecurity. By focusing on cost optimization, risk reduction, and improved compliance, businesses can effectively direct resources toward strengthening their defenses against evolving threats. FinOps not only helps reduce inefficiencies from holistic visibility of cloud usage but also ensures that security measures are continuously monitored and aligned with strategic objectives. At a time when both cloud costs and cyber risks are on the rise, integrating FinOps with cybersecurity is an essential strategy for any organization aiming to secure its future in the cloud.
About the Author
Laurence Dale is the CISO at Surveil – an analytics and insights engine – which can help optimize IT spending to reduce waste and unlock funds for investment in crucial cyber defenses. Throughout his 25-year technology career, Laurence has gained invaluable global experience through several senior IT leadership roles. Laurence has been responsible for driving the digital, security, and commercial capabilities of multi-national organizations across the FMCG, technology, and manufacturing industries, as well as the UK public sector. In 2017, Laurence took the position of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Essentra PLC., where he led the cyber-risk and privacy management transformation programs. This was followed by a promotion to Group IT Director (interim CIO), leading the global IT team through two major divisional divestments.
Laurence’s LinkedIn can be found here https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurencedale/. Our company website is https://surveil.co/
