Cloud Optimization

Cloud costs in capital markets are uniquely difficult to manage. A single trading desk might run FPGA instances for low-latency execution, GPU clusters for quantitative research, and standard compute for risk calculations — all on the same cloud account. Without granular cost allocation, the CFO sees a single cloud bill with no visibility into which desks, strategies, or research projects are consuming which resources. FinOps is the practice of bringing financial accountability to cloud spending. In capital markets, this means mapping every dollar of cloud cost to a specific business outcome: a trading strategy, a research project, a regulatory requirement. Without this mapping, cloud costs grow unchecked and optimisation efforts are misdirected. ...

Cloud costs are the silent killer of fintech startups. A $10,000 monthly cloud bill becomes $50,000 in six months and $200,000 in twelve months. By the time the CFO notices, the engineering team has built infrastructure that is expensive to run and difficult to optimise. FinOps — the practice of bringing financial accountability to cloud spending — should start on day one, not when the cloud bill becomes a board-level discussion. The habits you build at $10,000 per month determine whether you can scale to $100,000 per month without restructuring your infrastructure. ...