Cloud computing may be one of the most high-impact, “new, new things” in recent decades, but it poses a business challenge as old as the CFO role itself — how to spark innovation at the lower levels of a company without giving up the central financial controls essential to long-term viability.

Brendan Dolan, CFO at CloudCheckr:
“The further away from center you push the decision-making and give the autonomy, the more at risk you are of losing control of your spend,” said Brendan Dolan, CFO at CloudCheckr, a cloud cost management and governance company. “You open yourself up to uncontrolled spending.” (CloudCheckr tells companies it can cut their cloud costs by 30%.)

By taking a granular approach, a CFO can get a clear, immediate grasp of cloud spending and make quick, well-informed spending decisions, Dolan said.

“It’s all real-time data, so you’re not waiting for the end of the month to get a bill from Amazon or Microsoft or Google” in order to understand your spending, he said. “You’re constantly, constantly optimizing.”

Financial executives with a detailed understanding of how cloud spending generates revenue will sooner recognize a jump in cloud spending as a signal of opportunity from greater customer demand rather than an indication of inefficiency or waste. They can budget with confidence and more accurately calibrate future cloud use.

Continue reading 4 Ways CFOs Can Cut Waste in Spending on the Cloud in CFO Dive