Getting on Top of the Cloud

Dennis Snider

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Cloud technology should be an advantage, not a hindrance. Despite this, many firms are suffering from sky-high cloud resource management costs. What’s worse? These costs are unnecessary. With a strong cloud resource management strategy, your firm could save a significant sum.

According to industry experts, the average business spends 35% more than it should on cloud management. Indeed, annual wastage for AWS services is said to total $6.4 billion. Add Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform services into the mix, and this total could easily exceed $10 billion.

Thanks to increasingly granular payment plans, firms are free to rein in their cloud management costs. While companies such as RightScale, Spiceworks, and Cloudyn provide excellent cost management tools, there are also a series of cost-free measures that could help you tame the beast.

To ensure that your cloud activity is profitable, we’ve collected our top 5 tips for cloud cost management:

  1. Choose a cheaper region
    Your cloud provider will have suggested a cloud region that allows you to store your important resources close to home. Reportedly, 13% of all cloud use is conducted in regions that have cheaper alternatives nearby.
  2. Hunt for deals
    AWS and Azure both offer reserved instances. These are significantly cheaper but will tie you into a long-term commitment lasting between one and three years. Importantly, reserved instances remove those dreaded monthly bills.
  3. Remove unnecessary storage
    When firms shut down their VMs, sometimes their associated storage disks remain active. These storage disks and containers incur unnecessary cost. If storage isn’t needed, see that it’s deleted.
  4. Check the size of your instances
    A significant amount of cloud overspending is caused by oversized cloud instances. According to industry reports, 40% of all instances are larger than they need to be.
    It’s ideal if you know what resources your applications need. Experts suggest that a lack of understanding is often to blame for overprovisions and overspends.
  5. Turn off your VMs
    Public cloud virtual machines are ideal for upscaling and downscaling on demand. However, many firms leave their VMs running when they don’t need them. Indeed, businesses could save around 67% of their cloud costs by simply shutting down unrequired development instances when their offices are closed.