Using Unit Economics to Optimize Cloud Spend & Improve Margins ft. Kevin Mueller, Presidio
Are you actually measuring the value of your cloud spend or just tracking the cost?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Kevin Mueller, Principal Architect of Cloud FinOps at Presidio, to unpack one of the most talked-about and most misunderstood concepts in FinOps: unit economics.
With over 20 years of experience spanning software engineering, AWS SaaS architecture, and cloud financial management, Kevin shares a grounded, practical perspective on why most organizations struggle to implement unit economics and how to actually get started.
The conversation explores the gap between visibility and action, why traditional cost allocation models fall short, and how engineering, product, finance, and sales all benefit when cloud spend is tied directly to business value. Kevin also dives into real-world examples, from optimizing SQL queries and Kubernetes workloads to navigating the growing complexity of AI-driven infrastructure.
If you’ve ever wondered how to move beyond dashboards and into meaningful optimization, or how to prove that your cloud investment is truly productive, this episode is for you.
Here’s what we talked about:
Why most companies still aren’t doing unit economics (and what separates those who do it well)
The difference between unit metrics and unit economics
How to move from high-level allocation to actionable, engineering-driven insights
How to approach tagging without overcomplicating your system
Why AI is the next major FinOps challenge (and opportunity)
The biggest challenges with shared resources like Kubernetes and what actually drives optimization
Quote of the Show:
“It’s so easy in FinOps to measure all of this stuff, put it in a dashboard and look at it and feel happy that it’s there, but you need to drive towards action.” - Kevin Mueller
Connect with Kevin:
Website: https://www.presidio.com/
In this episode of FinOps in Action, Kevin Mueller draws on over 20 years of engineering leadership to make the case for unit economics as the most powerful and most underutilized tool in FinOps. He breaks down why most companies never get it right, how to start simple and work top down rather than boiling the ocean, and why engineering led optimizations are where meaningful cloud savings actually happen.