How to Reduce Cloud Costs Without Sacrificing Performance ft. Jason Ward, C.H. Robinson | Ep #64

Why are your cloud costs so high and what actually fixes them?

In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Jason Ward, Lead FinOps Practitioner at C.H. Robinson, to break down how to take control of cloud spend without slowing down engineering.

Jason shares how he went from mechanic to FinOps leader, built a FinOps function from scratch, and uncovered massive savings, including a 90% cost reduction from a single optimization.

We also cover how to work with engineers (not against them), why most cost recommendations fail, and what it really takes to build a sustainable FinOps practice.

Here’s what we talked about:

• How to cut cloud costs without impacting performance
• Why data, not recommendations should drive decisions
• How to get engineers to actually buy into FinOps
• The importance of tagging and cost visibility early on
• When NOT to optimize and why some “waste” is intentional
• How AI is changing cloud spend and what to watch out for

Chapters:

00:00 - Why Engineers Ignore Small Savings

01:45 - From Mechanic to Cloud Engineer

03:48 - Discovering Cloud Cost Impact

04:48 - Starting FinOps at CH Robinson

06:17 - Early Wins VM Right Sizing

07:19 - Handling Engineer Pushback

09:51 - Tooling Shift to Datadog

11:12 - AKS Tuning 90 Percent Savings

13:15 - Building a Real FinOps Program

14:29 - Executive Buy In and Chargeback

17:38 - Kubernetes Scaling and Hybrid Costs

24:31 - AI Spend and Career Wrap Up

🎧 Subscribe for more FinOps leadership conversations → https://www.finopsinaction.com/

Quote of the Show:

• “Without that executive buy-in… most engineers… don’t care so much about the bottom line.” – Jason Ward

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jward2/
• Website: https://www.chrobinson.com/en-us/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f25a9d18-c12f-4ee4-93f5-2aa96e509b55
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finops-in-action/id1790497808
• iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/268443483/
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/finops-in-action-5958339
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3IpjMc3qxDXZAjic5Zq21t
• Substack: https://finopsinaction.substack.com/
• Transistor: finopsinaction.com
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PointFiveCloudCostEfficiency