Why FinOps Isn’t Just for Cloud Anymore ft. Alex Landis & Simar Arora, Snowflake | Ep 24

How is FinOps evolving to meet the rising challenge of data spend management?

In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Alex Landis, Senior Finance Manager, and Simar Aurora, Value Engineer at Snowflake, to explore how FinOps is being applied to the fast-growing world of data usage and cost optimization. Together, they share how Snowflake’s internal FinOps practices—like “Snowflake on Snowflake”—help improve visibility, efficiency, and scalability for both their teams and customers.

Together, we dive into key topics, including:

• How FinOps at Snowflake is structured across distinct verticals

• Why visibility is essential before optimization when managing data spend

• The role of cross-functional collaboration between finance, data science, and engineering

• Snowflake’s journey with the FinOps Foundation and what it means to be a premier member

• The importance of “eating your own cloud” to better support customers

Alex and Simar also share personal stories about their careers, life in California, and the practices that keep them grounded—from hiking and family time to yoga and mentoring.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more expert conversations on FinOps best practices, cloud and data spend management, and the future of financial operations at scale!

Quotes of the Show:
“Our finance team are some of the most technical folks in finance that I've ever met. I think that needs to be more and more the norm as we continue moving forward in this overall cycle.” - Alex Landis

“The practitioner's role is expanding to be more cloud plus. So a lot more FinOps practitioners are also reaching out saying, ‘I'm starting to manage data spend now.’ So it's a two way thing that is happening here. ” - Simar Arora

Links:
Alex’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alandis/ 
Simar’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simarpreet-arora/ 
Website: https://www.snowflake.com/en/ 

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