Why Cloud Governance Fails and How to Fix It

Kion’s very own Senior Product Manager, Tatum Tummins, joins Victor Garcia of FinOps Weekly to talk about one of the most overlooked drivers of FinOps success: incentives.

In the episode, Tatum shares why FinOps programs can get derailed when leadership rewards only “dollars saved,” and how that mindset can create a reactive culture that focuses on cleanup instead of prevention. Drawing from his experience as a long-time FinOps practitioner, he outlines practical ways to reframe success around business value, including unit economics, repeatable processes, automation, and proactive governance.

Tatum also dives into where AI is driving real impact in FinOps today, highlighting the value it can create when it helps teams take action, not just generate more dashboards.

What you’ll learn

• Why optimizing only for “savings” can sabotage FinOps outcomes
• How to introduce unit economics to connect spend to business value
• How to shift from reactive cleanup to proactive, policy-driven governance
• How to create accountability without becoming the “FinOps police”
• Where AI is making a difference: usability, efficiency, and policy automation

If your FinOps program is struggling with adoption, accountability, or culture, or if you’re trying to scale governance without slowing engineers down, this episode is a must-listen.

Listen/watch the full episode below.