Matt Cowsert & Shawn Alpay, FinOps Foundation | FinOps X 2026

In this interview from FinOps X 2026, Shawn Alpay, director of data engineering at FinOps Foundation, joins Matt Cowsert, principal product manager at FinOps Foundation, to talk with theCUBE's John Furrier and theCUBE Research's Paul Nashawaty about the launch of FOCUS 1.4 and how the open billing specification is maturing into a unified language for technology value. Alpay and Cowsert explain how FOCUS normalizes billing data across public cloud, SaaS and AI providers — giving engineering, finance and procurement teams a shared vocabulary for expressing cost and usage at scale. With version 1.4, the project introduces new data sets and expands to new organizational personas, reflecting how cost accountability is spreading well beyond the core FinOps practitioner. The conversation also explores the technical frontier ahead for FOCUS 1.5, where token economics is emerging as the defining challenge. Alpay details why capturing AI consumption at granular levels — per user, per session, per request and per operation — creates data cardinality problems significant enough that the cost of gathering that information can itself become a non-trivial line item. Cowsert underscores that FOCUS is not meant to replace native provider exports but to complement them, serving as one language for executives, finance and procurement while engineers dive deeper into provider-specific formats when optimization demands it. From advocating to providers to adopt newer FOCUS versions to contributing through the project's open GitHub repository, the discussion maps a practical path for organizations at any stage of FinOps maturity looking to bring order to an increasingly complex technology spend landscape. Find more SiliconANGLE news and analysis https://siliconangle.com/ Follow theCUBE's wall-to-wall event coverage https://siliconangle.com/events/ Learn about the latest theCUBE events https://www.thecube.net/ 00:00 - Intro 00:06 - Advancements in FOCUS 2026: FinOps Innovations and Technology Expansions 02:41 - FOCUS Evolution: Updates and Future Insights 06:30 - Strategic Insights: Navigating Data Precision and Engagement with FOCUS 08:33 - Multidisciplinary Nature of FOCUS Participants 11:06 - Unified Language in Token Economics 13:59 - How to Contribute to FOCUS and Its Community #theCUBE #FinOpsX #theCUBEresearch #FinOpsFoundation #FOCUS #AI #FinOps