Don’t Overthink It: Learn the Power of FinOps Basics

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

A 2025 Internet2 Technology Exchange Session Sneak Peek

Learn how the basic stages of financial operations can lead to measurable results.

The financial operation landscape (FinOps) is saturated with advanced strategies, automation, and high-level maturity models. The common belief? The more complex the tool, the better the result. But what financial stability doesn’t require a massive tech investment? What if the most powerful strategy is simply getting back to basics —the FinOps “crawl stage”?

Discover at the 2025 Internet2 Technology Exchange (TechEX25) how to make a lasting impact without needing advanced strategies or large teams. Start small, focus on the fundamentals, and unleash insights that can shift the financial trajectory of your entire organization.

In Rebuilding Cost Models: How FinOps Helped APTrust Shape a Sustainable Business Strategy for Long-Term Preservation, Allison C. F. Ruffner, lead engineer for DevSecOps at Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust), will reveal the early steps this consortium took to confront financial risks and proactively build its cost model for long-term sustainability.

This session dives deep into the key capabilities of FinOps, including:

• Architecting for the Cloud – aligning infrastructure decisions with objectives that add value 
• Rate Optimization – leveraging pricing options like reserved instances and savings plans
• Unit Economics – understanding the real cost of preserving a terabyte
• Reporting – giving internal stakeholders visibility into where money was going
• Forecasting – modeling future growth to guide pricing and planning decisions

Join Ruffner as she draws on past experiences to offer tested tips for maximizing value, reducing waste, and aligning technical decisions with core business goals. She’ll also share a light-hearted philosophy that made FinOps work for APTrust.  

Rebuilding Cost Models: How FinOps Helped APTrust Shape a Sustainable Business Strategy for Long-Term Preservation reminds us that you don’t need to be a FinOps expert or have many years of experience to make meaningful change. You just need to start, collaborate across teams, and let the data guide your decisions. 

This session takes place on Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 9 to 9:50 a.m. MT at the Internet2 TechEX25.

Interested in more sessions like this one?

Check out this session and other related presentations in the Cloud Technology Track by checking out our full program. Other topics in the Cloud Technology track include cloud analytics, Kubernetes, artificial intelligence, and sustainable ways for preserving infrastructure.  The Internet2 TechEX25 is also the perfect event to explore both familiar and new topics. Take full advantage of this experience to unlock your fullest learning potential at this year’s event.

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