As demonstrated by forward-thinking organizations and shared through the FinOps Foundation’s community stories, this case reflects practical strategies enterprises are using to reclaim control over cloud and SaaS spend.
In most organizations, Kubernetes adoption starts with developer productivity and ends with scaling efficiency. But for a financial software giant operating at the scale of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma, Kubernetes wasn’t just a platform. It was a cost surface that needed precision, accountability, and performance.
That’s why the FinOps team at Intuit re-engineered how costs are measured, allocated, and optimized across more than 300 Kubernetes clusters supporting over 25,000 namespaces and 16,000 microservices. At this scale, even a one percent miscalculation can skew millions in cost visibility, leading to budget disputes, wasted infrastructure, or misaligned incentives.
This was not a traditional FinOps problem. Unlike cloud VMs with clean tenant boundaries and predictable billing, Kubernetes introduced cost ambiguity. Clusters hosted mixed workloads. Usage spiked by the minute. Namespaces changed ownership. And legacy tools failed to provide cost fidelity at the speed and granularity needed.
The solution wasn’t just to apply cloud-native FinOps tooling. Intuit’s team built an internal Kubernetes FinOps engine from scratch, down to the per-minute telemetry, container-level cost slicing, and real-time visibility for every dev manager. The impact? Over 40 percent reduction in platform waste and a FinOps program so effective that it's reshaping how platform engineering and financial governance co-exist.
These are precisely the kinds of challenges CloudNuro.ai helps solve, bridging technical complexity with clean, consumable cost accountability across SaaS, cloud, and Kubernetes.
For a financial software company serving millions during tax season and beyond, running Kubernetes at scale isn’t just about container orchestration. It’s about cost governance, workload efficiency, and rapid responsiveness during bursts of customer demand. At Intuit, the Kubernetes footprint included:
Traditional FinOps approaches, based on billing exports and static tagging, were not designed to handle the dynamic, multi-tenant nature of Kubernetes environments. The platform engineering team needed to see cost not per VM or region, but per pod, namespace, and team. They didn’t just need insight; they needed attribution, optimization, and automation.
Out-of-the-box tools couldn’t deliver the fidelity required. So Intuit’s FinOps and platform teams built their own Kubernetes cost engine. The system pulled real-time metrics from Prometheus, linked them with pricing APIs, and enriched them with namespace metadata to derive granular, traceable cost data.
This enabled:
They weren’t approximating cost using node hours. They were modeling actual workload consumption using CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network egress, all mapped to billing rates and normalized across clouds.
CloudNuro provides this kind of high-fidelity cost telemetry across Kubernetes, SaaS, and public cloud platforms, without starting from scratch.
The cornerstone of their FinOps model was namespace-level attribution. Every service, every environment, and every team had a namespace. The platform team linked those namespaces to:
This enabled detailed showback reports that allowed teams to see not only what they spent, but why. Cost dashboards showed:
As a result, infrastructure conversations evolved from “Why is our cloud bill high?” to “Your namespace used 28 percent more CPU than forecast last sprint, can we right-size it?”
To avoid debates over pricing fairness, the FinOps team introduced rate cards for platform services. These published the internal price per vCPU, per GB of memory, per GB of storage, and per GB of network transfer, based on actual cloud spend and platform overhead.
This meant every team knew what they were being charged, how it was calculated, and what they could do to reduce it.
When teams questioned their spend, the answer wasn’t vague. It was verifiable. When teams wanted to simulate growth, they could model cost instantly.
CloudNuro helps implement similar internal rate cards, turning cloud costs into product-aware, team-specific accountability.
Rather than indiscriminately downsizing all containers, the team applied a right-sizing model that respected workload behavior. They classified workloads based on:
Container resource limits were adjusted based on statistical baselines (p90, p99), not arbitrary thresholds. This yielded:
Teams were also given optimization recommendations via dashboards, showing them how much they could save by adjusting container specs, without compromising performance.
CloudNuro supports workload-aware right-sizing by integrating usage data, cost thresholds, and optimization triggers across containers and cloud services.
To keep environments agile, Intuit leaned into horizontal and vertical pod autoscaling, but with visibility layers attached. Autoscaling decisions were no longer blind to cost; they were tied to FinOps alerts.
If autoscaling led to unexpected spend increases, the system flagged it. If workloads remained underutilized despite autoscaling, the system alerted for correction.
Platform teams received:
Product owners were encouraged to treat cost as an operational SLO, not just a finance responsibility.
CloudNuro enables these feedback loops with real-time alerts and optimization modeling that reflect not just usage, but cost impact per scaling event.
By embedding FinOps principles into their Kubernetes platform, this financial software innovator moved from reactive cost observation to proactive optimization. Their transformation was not just about saving money; it was about creating a system of trust, insight, and engineering efficiency at scale.
The results were immediate and far-reaching.
Container right-sizing, guided by telemetry and business intent, helped eliminate massive overprovisioning across development, staging, and even production workloads. Teams reclaimed:
Platform resources were now used purposefully. Engineering teams could see, in real time, how tuning container specs impacted their cost footprint.
Using namespace-level telemetry and internal rate cards, the FinOps team delivered traceable, team-specific cost reports. Each service owner could now see:
This ended long-standing debates about “who used what” and replaced estimation with evidence.
CloudNuro enables this type of cost traceability across Kubernetes, cloud services, and SaaS apps, out of the box.
With better visibility into real usage and platform pricing, teams began forecasting their infrastructure needs more effectively:
Forecasts were no longer just top-down budgets; they were scenario-based models grounded in actual infrastructure behavior.
The platform team became a partner to engineering, not an enforcer. They delivered savings dashboards, optimization tips, and visibility tooling that helped other teams succeed. In return, they earned budget confidence and technical influence.
One team reduced container footprint by 30 percent while increasing throughput. Another migrated a memory-intensive job to a more suitable node class, reducing failure rate and cost by 25 percent.
These wins built trust between platform and product teams, and embedded cost awareness into sprint planning.
Cost awareness wasn’t relegated to a monthly finance review. It became part of the developer loop.
This democratized FinOps. Developers didn’t just consume infrastructure; they managed it responsibly.
CloudNuro brings FinOps to the fingertips of developers and leaders by integrating cost, usage, and accountability into the day-to-day delivery pipeline.
This case study proves that Kubernetes doesn't have to be a cost black box. With the correct data, visibility, and financial modeling, containerized infrastructure can be as accountable and predictable as any cloud service. The blueprint below highlights the core lessons any FinOps or platform engineering team can apply to tame Kubernetes complexity and drive cost efficiency.
Kubernetes workloads are too dynamic for static tagging. Namespace-based attribution combined with live telemetry allows for cost mapping that reflects actual usage, not assumptions. Namespaces should be linked to teams, products, and environments as part of your FinOps baseline.
CloudNuro provides this attribution out of the box, enabling showback and chargeback at the service or team level.
Standard cloud billing tools don’t go deep enough for Kubernetes. You need a system that captures cost at the container level, slices it by namespace, and reflects bursty workload behavior. Whether custom-built or platform-integrated, a Kubernetes-aware engine is essential for real accountability.
Right-sizing containers without understanding workload criticality risks creates more problems than it solves. Use historical data, performance SLAs, and team input to drive right-sizing decisions that respect both technical behavior and business requirements.
Don’t rely on engineers digging through dashboards. Push insights to them. Daily drift reports, Slack alerts on anomalies, and cost-saving suggestions built into CI/CD workflows help embed FinOps into the daily developer experience.
CloudNuro enables cost feedback at the right moment, when teams are building, scaling, or planning, not just after the bill arrives.
Transparent, auditable platform pricing builds trust. When every team knows the cost per vCPU, GB, or pod-hour, they’re better equipped to forecast, optimize, and justify decisions. Rate cards also create a shared language across engineering and finance.
Visibility didn’t create fear. It created ownership. Teams learned to optimize without being asked, and cost became just another part of building a great product.
Book a free demo and discover how CloudNuro helps you embed that same culture of ownership, at scale, across cloud, SaaS, and container platforms.
Original Video
This story was initially shared with the FinOps Foundation as part of their enterprise case study series.
Request a no cost, no obligation free assessment —just 15 minutes to savings!
Get StartedAs demonstrated by forward-thinking organizations and shared through the FinOps Foundation’s community stories, this case reflects practical strategies enterprises are using to reclaim control over cloud and SaaS spend.
In most organizations, Kubernetes adoption starts with developer productivity and ends with scaling efficiency. But for a financial software giant operating at the scale of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma, Kubernetes wasn’t just a platform. It was a cost surface that needed precision, accountability, and performance.
That’s why the FinOps team at Intuit re-engineered how costs are measured, allocated, and optimized across more than 300 Kubernetes clusters supporting over 25,000 namespaces and 16,000 microservices. At this scale, even a one percent miscalculation can skew millions in cost visibility, leading to budget disputes, wasted infrastructure, or misaligned incentives.
This was not a traditional FinOps problem. Unlike cloud VMs with clean tenant boundaries and predictable billing, Kubernetes introduced cost ambiguity. Clusters hosted mixed workloads. Usage spiked by the minute. Namespaces changed ownership. And legacy tools failed to provide cost fidelity at the speed and granularity needed.
The solution wasn’t just to apply cloud-native FinOps tooling. Intuit’s team built an internal Kubernetes FinOps engine from scratch, down to the per-minute telemetry, container-level cost slicing, and real-time visibility for every dev manager. The impact? Over 40 percent reduction in platform waste and a FinOps program so effective that it's reshaping how platform engineering and financial governance co-exist.
These are precisely the kinds of challenges CloudNuro.ai helps solve, bridging technical complexity with clean, consumable cost accountability across SaaS, cloud, and Kubernetes.
For a financial software company serving millions during tax season and beyond, running Kubernetes at scale isn’t just about container orchestration. It’s about cost governance, workload efficiency, and rapid responsiveness during bursts of customer demand. At Intuit, the Kubernetes footprint included:
Traditional FinOps approaches, based on billing exports and static tagging, were not designed to handle the dynamic, multi-tenant nature of Kubernetes environments. The platform engineering team needed to see cost not per VM or region, but per pod, namespace, and team. They didn’t just need insight; they needed attribution, optimization, and automation.
Out-of-the-box tools couldn’t deliver the fidelity required. So Intuit’s FinOps and platform teams built their own Kubernetes cost engine. The system pulled real-time metrics from Prometheus, linked them with pricing APIs, and enriched them with namespace metadata to derive granular, traceable cost data.
This enabled:
They weren’t approximating cost using node hours. They were modeling actual workload consumption using CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network egress, all mapped to billing rates and normalized across clouds.
CloudNuro provides this kind of high-fidelity cost telemetry across Kubernetes, SaaS, and public cloud platforms, without starting from scratch.
The cornerstone of their FinOps model was namespace-level attribution. Every service, every environment, and every team had a namespace. The platform team linked those namespaces to:
This enabled detailed showback reports that allowed teams to see not only what they spent, but why. Cost dashboards showed:
As a result, infrastructure conversations evolved from “Why is our cloud bill high?” to “Your namespace used 28 percent more CPU than forecast last sprint, can we right-size it?”
To avoid debates over pricing fairness, the FinOps team introduced rate cards for platform services. These published the internal price per vCPU, per GB of memory, per GB of storage, and per GB of network transfer, based on actual cloud spend and platform overhead.
This meant every team knew what they were being charged, how it was calculated, and what they could do to reduce it.
When teams questioned their spend, the answer wasn’t vague. It was verifiable. When teams wanted to simulate growth, they could model cost instantly.
CloudNuro helps implement similar internal rate cards, turning cloud costs into product-aware, team-specific accountability.
Rather than indiscriminately downsizing all containers, the team applied a right-sizing model that respected workload behavior. They classified workloads based on:
Container resource limits were adjusted based on statistical baselines (p90, p99), not arbitrary thresholds. This yielded:
Teams were also given optimization recommendations via dashboards, showing them how much they could save by adjusting container specs, without compromising performance.
CloudNuro supports workload-aware right-sizing by integrating usage data, cost thresholds, and optimization triggers across containers and cloud services.
To keep environments agile, Intuit leaned into horizontal and vertical pod autoscaling, but with visibility layers attached. Autoscaling decisions were no longer blind to cost; they were tied to FinOps alerts.
If autoscaling led to unexpected spend increases, the system flagged it. If workloads remained underutilized despite autoscaling, the system alerted for correction.
Platform teams received:
Product owners were encouraged to treat cost as an operational SLO, not just a finance responsibility.
CloudNuro enables these feedback loops with real-time alerts and optimization modeling that reflect not just usage, but cost impact per scaling event.
By embedding FinOps principles into their Kubernetes platform, this financial software innovator moved from reactive cost observation to proactive optimization. Their transformation was not just about saving money; it was about creating a system of trust, insight, and engineering efficiency at scale.
The results were immediate and far-reaching.
Container right-sizing, guided by telemetry and business intent, helped eliminate massive overprovisioning across development, staging, and even production workloads. Teams reclaimed:
Platform resources were now used purposefully. Engineering teams could see, in real time, how tuning container specs impacted their cost footprint.
Using namespace-level telemetry and internal rate cards, the FinOps team delivered traceable, team-specific cost reports. Each service owner could now see:
This ended long-standing debates about “who used what” and replaced estimation with evidence.
CloudNuro enables this type of cost traceability across Kubernetes, cloud services, and SaaS apps, out of the box.
With better visibility into real usage and platform pricing, teams began forecasting their infrastructure needs more effectively:
Forecasts were no longer just top-down budgets; they were scenario-based models grounded in actual infrastructure behavior.
The platform team became a partner to engineering, not an enforcer. They delivered savings dashboards, optimization tips, and visibility tooling that helped other teams succeed. In return, they earned budget confidence and technical influence.
One team reduced container footprint by 30 percent while increasing throughput. Another migrated a memory-intensive job to a more suitable node class, reducing failure rate and cost by 25 percent.
These wins built trust between platform and product teams, and embedded cost awareness into sprint planning.
Cost awareness wasn’t relegated to a monthly finance review. It became part of the developer loop.
This democratized FinOps. Developers didn’t just consume infrastructure; they managed it responsibly.
CloudNuro brings FinOps to the fingertips of developers and leaders by integrating cost, usage, and accountability into the day-to-day delivery pipeline.
This case study proves that Kubernetes doesn't have to be a cost black box. With the correct data, visibility, and financial modeling, containerized infrastructure can be as accountable and predictable as any cloud service. The blueprint below highlights the core lessons any FinOps or platform engineering team can apply to tame Kubernetes complexity and drive cost efficiency.
Kubernetes workloads are too dynamic for static tagging. Namespace-based attribution combined with live telemetry allows for cost mapping that reflects actual usage, not assumptions. Namespaces should be linked to teams, products, and environments as part of your FinOps baseline.
CloudNuro provides this attribution out of the box, enabling showback and chargeback at the service or team level.
Standard cloud billing tools don’t go deep enough for Kubernetes. You need a system that captures cost at the container level, slices it by namespace, and reflects bursty workload behavior. Whether custom-built or platform-integrated, a Kubernetes-aware engine is essential for real accountability.
Right-sizing containers without understanding workload criticality risks creates more problems than it solves. Use historical data, performance SLAs, and team input to drive right-sizing decisions that respect both technical behavior and business requirements.
Don’t rely on engineers digging through dashboards. Push insights to them. Daily drift reports, Slack alerts on anomalies, and cost-saving suggestions built into CI/CD workflows help embed FinOps into the daily developer experience.
CloudNuro enables cost feedback at the right moment, when teams are building, scaling, or planning, not just after the bill arrives.
Transparent, auditable platform pricing builds trust. When every team knows the cost per vCPU, GB, or pod-hour, they’re better equipped to forecast, optimize, and justify decisions. Rate cards also create a shared language across engineering and finance.
Visibility didn’t create fear. It created ownership. Teams learned to optimize without being asked, and cost became just another part of building a great product.
Book a free demo and discover how CloudNuro helps you embed that same culture of ownership, at scale, across cloud, SaaS, and container platforms.
Original Video
This story was initially shared with the FinOps Foundation as part of their enterprise case study series.
Request a no cost, no obligation free assessment —just 15 minutes to savings!
Get Started
CloudNuro Corp
1755 Park St. Suite 207
Naperville, IL 60563
Phone : +1-630-277-9470
Email: info@cloudnuro.com
.svg){kind=small}
.png)
Recognized Leader in SaaS Management Platforms by Info-Tech SoftwareReviews
%20(1).png)