Ep#8 Faces In FinOps with Mike Julian from The Duckbill Group

#finops #cloudfinops #costoptimization

ProsperOps Blog:

In this episode of the Faces In FinOps Podcast, we dive deep into the world of FinOps with a special guest, Mike Julian, the CEO and Co-founder of The Duckbill Group. Mike shares his journey and expertise in the realm of cloud cost management, shedding light on their unique approach to optimizing AWS costs.

As the leader of The Duckbill Group, Mike emphasizes the importance of architectural choices over traditional cost-saving methods like Reserved Instances and Savings Plans. Their focus on understanding and influencing costs at the architectural level has led to impressive results, with over $4 billion in contracts negotiated for their clients.

Mike and Jon discuss the evolution of FinOps maturity within organizations, emphasizing that it's not always a linear path. Instead, it depends on the organization's growth and changing priorities. They also touch on the common mistakes mature FinOps teams make, such as adopting a gatekeeping posture and the challenge of educating engineering teams about cost-saving options.

In the spirit of recognizing the unsung heroes of FinOps, Mike gives a shout-out to the countless practitioners working behind the scenes, making incredible strides in optimizing cloud costs within their organizations, even if they can't always be in the public eye. Join us for this insightful conversation with Mike Julian, where we explore the dynamic landscape of FinOps and cloud cost management.