The Future of FinOps: Engineering, Applications & Cloud Cost Accountability

Turbo360

Jun 8, 2026

In this episode of the FinOps on Azure Podcast, Michael Stephenson is joined by Ben DeBow, Founder and CEO of Fortified, to discuss the next evolution of FinOps and why cloud cost management needs to move beyond dashboards, reporting, and allocation.

Ben shares insights from years of helping enterprises optimize cloud spend and explains why the biggest savings opportunities are often hidden inside applications, workloads, and engineering decisions—not infrastructure.

The conversation explores how FinOps teams can work more closely with engineering, why application-level budgets are becoming increasingly important, and how organizations can connect cloud spending directly to business value.

Episode Highlights

00:00 – Introduction

03:12 – Why Traditional FinOps Isn't Enough

06:45 – Hidden Cloud Costs Inside Applications

09:20 – The Million-Dollar Dashboard Story

12:18 – Beyond Cost Allocation and Reporting

15:07 – Engineering Ownership of Cloud Costs

18:54 – Application-Level Budgets

22:11 – Cost vs Business Value

25:36 – Cost-Aware Software Development

29:05 – The Future of FinOps

32:14 – Building a Cost-Conscious Culture