10 Cloud Governance

 

This chapter covers

  • The fundamentals of cloud governance and its connection to FinOps principles.
  • The structure, roles, and responsibilities of a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE).
  • Governance maturity models and how to assess and evolve your practices.
  • A guide to bootstrapping governance in a FinOps-enabled environment.

The practical FinOps techniques explored in previous chapters—from cost allocation to resource optimization—are essential for managing cloud spend. At scale, however, their effectiveness diminishes without a formal structure to guide their application. When numerous teams deploy services across multiple accounts and regions, inconsistent tagging, unreviewed budget overruns, and compliance gaps become common operational risks.

These issues typically stem from a lack of systematic oversight, not from the failure of any single team. Cloud governance provides that oversight. It is the operational framework of policies, processes, and tools that ensures all cloud usage aligns with an organization’s financial, security, and operational objectives.

This chapter defines the components of cloud governance, explains its integration with FinOps, and presents an operating model to enforce, measure, and assign ownership for cost optimization across the organization.

10.1 What Is Cloud Governance?

10.1.1 Governance Components and Their FinOps Impact

10.1.2 Cloud Governance in Practice

10.2 Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE)

10.2.1 Structure and Roles

10.2.2 KPIs and Measuring Success

10.2.3 Scaling Governance with Enablement

10.3 Accountability and Ownership in Cloud Governance

10.3.1 Role-Based Ownership

10.3.2 Showback and Chargeback Models

10.3.3 Key Accountability Metrics

10.3.4 Governance Roles and RACI

10.4 Bootstrapping Governance in a FinOps-Enabled Organization

10.5 Summary