Why FinOps Fails Without Action

/ Application Development, FinOps
Why FinOps Fails Without Action
As teams struggle to operationalize FinOps, CloudBolt and StormForge deliver a practical path forward for developers and platform engineers.

FinOps isn’t just a finance problem—it’s increasingly a developer and platform engineering challenge. As infrastructure teams are tasked with managing dynamic, ephemeral workloads across clusters, one thing becomes clear: cost optimization can’t be a postmortem process. It has to be built into the way we deploy, scale, and maintain modern apps.

Yet, according to the FinOps Foundation, only 13% of organizations report having a mature FinOps program. That means most teams are flying blind—operating in siloed environments where finance sees a line item labeled “Kubernetes” and engineers are left wondering why costs keep climbing.

Automation Is No Longer Optional

The traditional model of waiting for end-of-month billing data and chasing down teams to act on reports doesn’t scale—especially in Kubernetes environments with thousands of workloads.

As Yasmin from StormForge (now CloudBolt) put it in our recent AppDevANGLE podcast episode:

“You can look at a chart and try to right-size one workload, but what happens when you’ve got thousands? What’s right on a Monday might be over-provisioned on a Saturday.”

This is exactly where automated right-sizing and intelligent optimization tooling changes the game.

StormForge’s ML-driven engine dynamically analyzes usage patterns and adjusts resources in real time. Paired with CloudBolt’s full-stack optimization and billing visibility, the combined platform not only surfaces inefficiencies—it acts on them.

Developer Control Without Friction

One of the key challenges is developer trust. Developers often believe their workloads are “special,” and they’re hesitant to let external tooling make changes. That’s why StormForge bakes in the ability to codify developer inputs and automate within guardrails.

“We’re not replacing the developer,” Yasmin explained. “We’re giving them a way to scale their intent across hundreds of workloads, without forcing them to spend cycles managing optimization manually.”

Engineers can review, accept, or override recommendations via UI or API—enabling collaboration without command-and-control overhead.

Shifting from Reporting to Resolution

The market is flooded with tools that visualize spend. But very few help you fix it. In fact, our research shows that 75% of organizations use 6 to 15 tools across their SDLC. And 54% are actively trying to consolidate in favor of unified, actionable platforms.

What CloudBolt and StormForge are doing differently is delivering a single workflow that moves teams from “we should fix this” to “we already did.”

Why This Matters for DevOps and Platform Teams

As organizations shift AI and microservices workloads into production, budgets are coming under scrutiny. It’s no longer viable to over-provision as a safety net. And it’s not scalable to expect every team to become FinOps experts.

Instead, the goal is automated efficiency with just enough developer oversight.

That’s the promise behind this acquisition—and it’s why FinOps tooling must evolve from static reports to dynamic, actionable systems built directly into the platforms engineers already use.

Get Hands-On

StormForge offers a sandbox environment to see the tooling in action without setup:
🔗 app.stormforge.io/sandbox
 Or spin up a real install on your cluster at:
🔗 app.stormforge.io/signup

The future of FinOps isn’t just about knowing your costs—it’s about making sure you’re never surprised by them again.

Author

  • Paul Nashawaty, Practice Leader and Lead Principal Analyst, specializes in application modernization across build, release and operations. With a wealth of expertise in digital transformation initiatives spanning front-end and back-end systems, he also possesses comprehensive knowledge of the underlying infrastructure ecosystem crucial for supporting modernization endeavors. With over 25 years of experience, Paul has a proven track record in implementing effective go-to-market strategies, including the identification of new market channels, the growth and cultivation of partner ecosystems, and the successful execution of strategic plans resulting in positive business outcomes for his clients.

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