Technology is now more than just a facilitator of business; it has become a vital engine for growth, competitive edge, workforce productivity, and enhancing customer experiences. However, many organizations, particularly in India, are in a race against time as digital transformation gains momentum across sectors like BFSI, telecom, manufacturing, retail, and public services. They grapple with a deceptively simple question: Are we allocating the right level of investment in technology, in the most effective areas, to achieve quantifiable business results? This scenario necessitates a shift in FinOps from mere cost oversight to strategic value orchestration, especially pressing for Indian enterprises, where technology spending is outpacing global trends.
Visibility, not the tech spend boom, is the real challenge
Today’s Indian enterprises are navigating a landscape that no longer features isolated cost centers; instead, cloud workloads scale dynamically, SaaS models are prevalent across business divisions, and AI and data projects require specialized computing resources, talent, and security frameworks. This creates fluctuating annual technology expenditures that are distributed and interlinked across various functions.
Although CIOs and CFOs are aware of escalating costs, many lack a cohesive source of truth to track where expenditures are occurring or whether they yield value. This intricacy is magnified by redundant application portfolios formed through successive transformation endeavors, underutilized infrastructure and SaaS subscriptions, idle cloud resources after provisioning, and AI investments necessitating GPU-intensive computations.
The ongoing talent scarcity, especially in cloud FinOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), AI engineering, and data science, further compounds unpredictability in costs. Budget distribution models that diffuse investments across departments hinder the scaling of impactful digital initiatives. Consequently, FinOps evolves from a back-office cost management role to a vital navigator for predictable and scalable tech-driven growth.
FinOps 2.0: Transitioning from cost minimization to performance management
Traditional FinOps strategies in many organizations have focused on optimization, chargebacks, and governance. While these elements are crucial, they fall short in today’s AI and cloud-native transformation landscape. FinOps 2.0 aims to connect every unit of technology spending to business performance in real time. This shift is becoming increasingly vital in India, where public cloud adoption is rapidly growing, with the Indian public cloud services market estimated by IDC to reach US$ 30.4 billion by 2029, expanding at a CAGR of 22.6% from 2024 to 2029. It integrates operational, utilization, and financial data across hybrid environments, converting that information into valuable business KPIs and outcome-driven insights.
To achieve this, organizations must leverage modern tools, automation, and intelligence rather than relying on traditional spreadsheet analyses or periodic reporting. Platforms that merge Technology Business Management, FinOps, and Enterprise Agile operating models create a unified source of truth that both technology and finance teams can manage collaboratively. Once leadership can accurately quantify spending, utilization, business alignment, and outcomes, discussions shift from cost-focused to value-oriented. The conversation then transitions from “Why are we seeing a rise in cloud expenses?” to “Which investments are enhancing customer experience, revenue, innovation, or resilience, and which are not?” In a climate where Indian organizations increasingly compete based on digital experiences rather than cost arbitrage, this shift is crucial.
The FinOps mandate for CIOs and CFOs: Invest for growth, not mere efficiency
Indian businesses are increasing their technology budgets, yet CEOs and boards now demand tangible returns reflected in agility, risk reduction, workforce productivity, monetization, and innovation, an outcome that cost optimization alone cannot provide. Organizations that excel are making three key shifts.
Firstly, they focus on high-growth use cases rather than uniformly distributing budgets. Not every AI or cloud initiative deserves equal resources; transformative success requires aggressive investment in high-value projects while consolidating or eliminating low-value ones, converting technology from a cost factor into a revenue source.
Secondly, talent is recognized as a strategic asset instead of a cost burden. India boasts one of the most dynamic AI and cloud talent pools globally, yet demand exceeds supply. Companies are addressing this by fostering internal talent marketplaces, investing in automation to enhance productivity, and forming partnerships with ecosystem stakeholders like hyperscalers, GSIs, and educational institutions.
Lastly, FinOps is embraced as a cultural framework instead of merely a procedural one. Its effectiveness relies on shared accountability for outcomes among procurement, finance, DevOps, product, and business units. Once technology investments align with overarching enterprise strategies, continuously measured, and collaboratively governed, the discussion in the boardroom transforms from “How can we cut tech expenses?” to “How can we scale intelligently and leverage market advantages?”
The significant shift anticipated for 2026 and beyond
In the coming years, true competitive advantage will not stem from adopting the latest technologies but from the ability to treat technology as an investment with intent, measured judiciously, and redirected when necessary. FinOps is fundamentally about elevating technology from mere support to a strategic growth driver at the executive level. Success will belong to organizations where CIOs, CFOs, and business leaders shift their focus from “How much are we spending?” to “What future are we nurturing with our investments?”
—The author, Samit Shetty, is Country Leader, Automation Platform, IBM India & South Asia. The views are personal.
