5 Ways You Can Save on Your Cloud Computing Costs

In the last few years, cloud adoption has witnessed a steep growth. Many enterprises feel that cloud computing is an attractive alternative to the operating and maintenance problems experienced with on-premise computing.

However, cloud services come with a price tag, and many companies find migration costs to be particularly high.

We know cloud stimulates lower IT spends, more automation, flexibility and efficiency in the workflow— providing significant savings. But the financial risks can be daunting for smaller firms.

We cannot expect companies to blindly approve a ‘one size fits all’ approach for the cloud. Different businesses need to invest differently — depending on their computing needs. Also, one needs to evaluate if cloud computing is right for your company or not.  With cloud migrations, you move from a fixed cost operating model to a variable cost model.

Although cloud computing can help companies save money and time, companies must plan migration and post-migration operations carefully. All you need is smart planning, the right tools and processes in place to keep your costs under control. Read below to find ways to optimize and save on your cloud computing costs:

Plan and Create A Clear Cloud Roadmap

Before migrating to the cloud, you should plan for the current and future states of your cloud architecture. Are you aware of your current processes, and what will be your ideal state post-migration? This can help you identify gaps in your infrastructure and streamline your migration to solve those issues.

Cloud migration requires a clear roadmap and strategies document if you’re eager to reduce the chance of delays and pivots during the migration process.

Update Your Architecture Diagrams

A cloud architecture diagram lays out your current IT infrastructure and processes. The diagram helps you understand the role of each component in the cloud model and how different solutions will work together.

Architecture diagrams provide insights into different parts of your infrastructure and highlight which parts are underutilized or wasting money. Various changes to your network can impact your costs. So, it would help if you relied only on updated diagrams.

This way, you’ll be able to make decisions based on your current network — not how it looked six months back.  

Identify Cloud Processes and Roles

Another way to keep a check on your costs is by mapping out your cloud processes and roles. Outline which teams and roles are involved with different cloud processes, for example, cloud architects, network monitoring team etc. Different roles fit together to maintain and protect your cloud network.

A clear picture of your processes helps you spot the spikes in usage and if there’re any future prospects to improve operations and team productivity.

Purchase What You Need

There’re plenty of options and services available when you move to the cloud. But for successful cloud optimization, make sure that you’re “rightsizing” — identifying, provisioning and reconfiguring resources to the optimal levels.  

In other words, you should only purchase the services that you need and use. Unnecessary apps and services can increase your bills. Track your usage to ensure the proper allocation of resources.

If you find any gaps, make sure to make the necessary adjustments. Also, rightsizing reduces waste and make your operations more streamlined operations while warranting cost savings. 

Automate Scheduling

Automation helps you save money on the cloud. With automated scheduling, you can automatically switch off resources used for non-production workloads after peak hours. Many people do this manually, but automation makes it more efficient. Things like turning off the room lights, switching off unused resources during off-hours, significantly reduce your overall cost burden.

Careful planning, efficient management, and smart use of resources can optimize your cloud usage and keep costs under control throughout the migration process. Do you want a professional team to help you move successfully to the cloud? Get in touch with our team.

We’re also organizing a webinar to help answer all your questions related to cloud migrations. Please register today and join us on Friday, March 6, 2020, at 1 p.m. EST.