How to Cut SaaS Waste with a FinOps Mindset

Why FinOps for SaaS Is the Biggest Gap in Cloud Cost Management (And How to Tackle It)

Discover why SaaS spend is a black hole in FinOps with no tool to scrape it all into a single pane of glass. In this FinOps X interview, Peter Greenshaw shares actionable tips on building a single source of truth, optimizing licenses, working with procurement, and applying a FinOps mindset to SaaS renewals to cut waste and save money.

00:00 – Intro & Welcome to FinOps X San Diego
00:35 – Peter’s Chalk Talk on FinOps for SaaS
01:06 – Why Chalk Talks Are So Valuable
01:23 – The Massive Gap: No Tool Scrapes SaaS Data
02:03 – FOCUS Adoption & Vendor Challenges
02:42 – Too Many SaaS Providers vs AI Vendors
03:11 – Poll Results: How Many SaaS Vendors Do You Have?
03:35 – Licensing Complexity: Concurrent vs Named Users
04:05 – Hyperscalers Are Solid, SaaS Is the Black Hole
04:38 – A Problem Since the 90s That Won’t Go Away
05:14 – Tip 1: Build a Central Source of Truth
05:46 – Tip 2: Deep Dives on Big Spend & Contracts
06:07 – Make It Iterative, Not a Once-a-Year Task
06:57 – The Role of Finance & Procurement
08:11 – Offboarding: Stop Paying for Unused Vendors
08:53 – SaaS License Waste & Oversizing
09:37 – The Adobe Example: Match Licenses to Real Use
10:50 – Concurrent License Optimization Strategy
13:21 – Tools for Single Source of Truth (Spreadsheets!)
15:21 – Why Vendors Won’t Solve This: An Industry Problem
16:17 – Advice: How to Get the Most Out of FinOps X
17:24 – The Power of Hallway Conversations & Networking
17:45 – Putting Faces (and Legs) to Names

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