Organizations can achieve increased agility, scalability and speed of innovation by leveraging cloud modernization as a key aspect of digital transformation. Organizations are gaining significant capabilities through their cloud modernization efforts; however, as they modernize their cloud environments, they will also face the challenge of unpredictable and increasing cloud costs. In many cases, the transformation that was intended to create value for the business ultimately becomes a financial burden as organizations fail to manage their cloud spending intelligently.
As a result, cloud cost optimization services have evolved from simple cost management techniques into an essential component of enabling smarter, sustainable cloud modernization.
Companies first adopted the Cloud, the focus was on reducing operational costs was reactive by deleting cloud resources that were being unused, reducing instances and/or getting better pricing for services. The actions did yield some immediate successes by reducing monthly operational expenses but did little to address all the other inefficiencies of utilizing advanced cloud architecture.
As companies continue down their path of utilizing more microservices, containers, auto-scaling and managed services the behavior and amount of use of the Cloud also changed from static to dynamic and continued. As a result of this continuous usage costs will also be dynamic and change continuously even sometimes to the point where the users of the services do not have a clear picture of who owns the costs and lack of visibility to the costs making it very difficult for companies to take traditional approaches to cutting costs. As a result companies will waste a significant amount of money on unused cloud resources and also miss other opportunities to optimize.
The lack of this structured methodology means that cloud costs will continue to rise without teams realizing how their spending relates to true business value.
Cost Intelligence can represent a fundamental change in an organization's thinking and approach to cloud costing. Rather than simply asking “How do I manage my cloud cost?’’ organizations now ask themselves instead “How can we ensure that all of our cloud investments provide measurable value?’’
With modern cloud cost optimization tools, organizations can obtain real-time visibility into their cloud usage and spending habits. These tools allow organizations to:
Obtaining this level of insight will be critical for any organization operating in a rapidly evolving cloud environment where workloads are continuously spinning up and down and there is rapid fluctuation in usage patterns.
Cloud modernization represents more than an update to technology, as it involves a complete change of operating processes for businesses today. Engineering teams have the ability to be more creative and deploy products at a much faster rate; however, without having some concept of the costs associated with those changes, they may find their performance and efficiency dropping noticeably. Financial teams also experience difficulty in anticipating costs associated with their businesses operating on a consumption-based model.
The addition of Cloud cost optimization services into Cloud modernization efforts gives organizations an opportunity to create balance between speed, performance, and financial discipline. Cost intelligence will help make sure that modernization efforts also maintain their sustainability while continuing support for innovation/growth initiatives.
Effective reduction of cloud expenses includes more than just reporting and dashboards.
Using the four foregoing attributes permits an organization to position its expense management effort as a strategic advantage vs. a constraint.
To implement cost intelligence means to have a clear view of what your cloud spends are, and how you can directly use them to make definitive decisions regarding investment and future strategy of modernizing the cloud without overspending. By having complete visibility into the value derived from the workloads of the cloud, you’ll be able to confidently make decisions based on what you have as opposed to just reacting to a set of circumstances in your surroundings.
If your organisation is focused on becoming a leader in cloud modernization; knowing how to innovate with the cloud, while holding yourself accountable for those innovations is key. Focusing solely on cost savings can delay the overall capability of your organisation to be innovative, and thus will limit the long-term value of your organisation.
At Ancrew Global Services we have the tools and techniques that allow organizations to implement cost-saving solutions for their cloud, as well as helping them maximize the long-term value of their cloud investments, to ensure continued business success.