Can enforcing a simple tagging strategy transform your entire FinOps program?

In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Amy Race, Head of Infrastructure, Cost Management, and Cloud FinOps at Citizens Bank, to dive into how her company moved 99% to the cloud.

Amy shared how her team went from inconsistent tagging and cloud chaos to a structured, scalable FinOps practice. She explains how clear ownership, executive buy-in, and automation helped enforce a 100% tagging policy.

We also covered how making FinOps fun by introducing leaderboards, badges, and recognition turns FinOps into a company-wide movement.

Here’s what we talked about:

• The one mistake most FinOps teams make when launching a tagging strategy
• How Citizens Bank went from “advisory” tagging to 100% enforcement
• Why executive buy-in is the make-or-break factor in FinOps success
• The creative ways Amy’s team made FinOps fun, with leaderboards, badges, and friendly competition
• How top-down accountability turned optimization into a company-wide habit 

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Quote of the Show:

• “Going back and doing something is much harder than doing it right from the beginning.” - Amy Race

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-jacobs-race-1882054/ 
• Website: https://www.citizensbank.com/homepage.aspx 

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