What is Cloud Cost Optimization?

Managing cloud spending remains one of the most significant challenges for businesses migrating to the cloud. According to a recent report by Gartner, companies are currently wasting as much as 60% of their cloud expenditure which adds up to an eye-watering $14.1 billion annually. In such a scenario, cloud cost optimization refers to strategic cloud management in order to correctly identify and allocate resources to applications for the maximum possible efficiency. The strategic allocation of resources is extremely important in order to enable a company to get the most value out of its cloud investments and cloud tools. This can also help organizations streamline workloads across the network without overstraining parts of it. Cloud cost management is an art and a science that Cloud cost optimization specializes in.

Top Tips for Cloud Cost Optimization at Your Business

Better asset management

Companies will be well served by implementing an IT asset management system across the organization that is capable of identifying services currently using cloud capacity and identifying new ones. This is because the lion’s share of cloud spending actually comes from end-user departments. While it is easy for end-user departments to engage cloud resources, enabling them to do so without any form of oversight can see a quick and steep rise in overall Cloud Computing Costs. In order to avoid a significant dent in your IT budget this way, organizations need to improve visibility into cloud usage. While it may not be possible for organizations to completely eradicate shadow IT, better asset management can ensure that companies know exactly where cloud resources are being used, and the costs involved in each service and eliminate unnecessary services from accessing cloud resources.

Eliminate all unnecessary services

The goal of asset management is to optimize the returns from all your IT investments. If you have made an IT investment, such as adopting a cloud service that is not being fully utilized, you should drop it immediately. While companies can always implement new technology and technical tools to work with their cloud infrastructure, they should also eliminate such investments at the earliest when they do not provide the desired outcomes.

Prioritize data for storage

With aggressively rising data volumes and Cloud Storage Costs, it’s a mistake for companies to try and store all incoming data. Many also choose to offload this excess data to cloud centres in order to avoid overloading their own internal data centres. In order to reduce cloud costs, companies should exercise judgment in the kind of data that they choose to store in the cloud. If the data is really not worth saving, there is little point in wasting money storing it in the cloud.


How to Maximize Cloud ROI?

Have a way for your cloud adoption strategy

As simple as it sounds, this is a step that most companies choose to ignore. But it is important for companies to be clear about why they are moving to the cloud and what they hope to achieve from the transition. This will provide them with a path to build a strong cloud adoption strategy. Without having the answers to these basic questions, companies will struggle when it comes to justifying costs and strategic decisions down the road to drive the most value out of cloud adoption. Manage cloud costs better with the right Cloud migration solution.

Invest time and resources to modernize solutions chosen for cloud migration

A very common error in cloud migration comes when companies try to mirror them on-premise environments in the cloud. This prevents them from fully utilizing the benefits of cloud services, while also crippling the way the on-premise environment functions. The lack of vision here also prevents companies from ever fully realizing what cloud is capable of achieving as technology and specifically for their business. The best way to avoid such an eventuality is to modernize the solution and make it suitable for cloud migration. This might involve resetting or redesigning parts of the solution in order to be able to run them natively in the cloud with no or minor adjustments.

Make use of cloud-native services

Companies often underutilize cloud-native services despite the fact that these services ensure the highest levels of quality when it comes to performance, availability, and cloud cost optimization. Make sure that your organization makes use of cloud-native services wherever possible.

Find a reliable cloud managed services provider

If IT is not something your company specializes in, there is no reason for you to invest significant time and effort in trying to manage your IT and Cloud Migration Costs in-house. This is particularly true for companies that are trying to migrate complicated legacy infrastructure into a cloud-first environment. A competent managed cloud service provider is much better placed to provide your company with both the necessary expertise and cutting-edge technical tools when trying to migrate your solutions and workloads to the cloud or use cloud-native services. With optimized cloud delivery and services, your employees will finally have the peace of mind to focus purely on growth, innovation and maximum customer satisfaction. Optimize Cloud Costs with the right Cloud cost management solution.

About Ben Ferguson:
Ben Ferguson is the Vice President and Senior Network Architect at Shamrock Consulting Group, an industry leader in digital transformation solutions. Since his departure from Biochemical research in 2004, Ben has built core competencies around cloud direct connects and cloud migration solutions, SD-WAN providers, enterprise-wide area network architecture, high-density data centre deployments, cybersecurity and VOIP telephony. Ben has designed hundreds of complex networks for some of the largest companies in the world and he's helped Shamrock become a top partner of the 3 largest public cloud platforms for AWS, Azure and GCP consulting. Stay connected at LinkedIn.