Investing in cloud solutions opens plenty of opportunities for businesses in Vancouver and beyond to save money. For instance, instead of buying physical servers and shouldering the associated expenses (e.g. power, cooling, and maintenance), you can take advantage of cloud-based servers, which cost only a small monthly fee. In fact, talk to a cloud service provider (CSP) like Quicktech and you will find cost-effective, cloud-based alternatives to many of the business solutions you currently use.
However, keep in mind that investing in cloud computing is only the first step in saving money. After cloud adoption, you need to minimize and control your cloud spend so you can maximize the technology’s cost-saving benefits. The following tips will help you accomplish these:
Do not get more than you need
Cloud sprawl occurs when you run much more cloud instances and services than your business needs. For instance, your developers may use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host business intelligence web applications, while your marketers use Microsoft Azure to store and crunch analytics data. Either Azure or AWS is perfectly capable of handling these workloads. You can therefore run one and drop the other, and reduce cloud costs in doing so.
After cloud adoption, you need to minimize and control your cloud spend so you can maximize the technology’s cost-saving benefits.
Automate cloud processes
Automating important cloud processes like configuration, installation, security, and data backup can help you control costs, as well as get better outcomes from your tech. For instance, accurate cloud provisioning is critical to ensuring that apps and websites running on your cloud servers are functioning optimally. Underprovisioning will cause performance issues, while overprovisioning means you’ll likely be underutilizing cloud resources during days with low website traffic or app usage. You can automate provisioning to manage fluctuating demands, ensuring that your apps and websites are running properly while minimizing the risk of wasting cloud resources.
Another clear benefit of automation is that it reduces the need for human input. For example, automating data backup means you don’t have to hire someone new or assign your IT staff to do the task.
Reducing human input also minimizes the risk of errors that may cost you valuable time and money in the future. For instance, if you were to entrust cloud security solely to your IT department, there is always the risk that your employees will miss a threat or two. If you belong to a regulated industry, such mistakes would entail hefty fines and penalties. Automated cloud security and compliance solutions can detect cyberthreats more effectively than your staff can, helping you comply with industry data security regulations.
Optimize your usage
The on-demand nature of most cloud subscriptions means you pay only for the resources you use. What makes this problematic is when users become careless about their usage of cloud resources. For example, let’s say your developers test an app by building an entire virtual network, but they forget to delete the instances before they end their shift. The next day, they build a completely new virtual network to resume testing the app. You now have two instances running simultaneously, one of which is costing you money but is mostly unutilized.
This also becomes troublesome for your IT administrators who have to terminate any loose cloud instances, as it keeps them from focusing on more valuable tasks. You must therefore make it a policy for your staff to be conscious about cloud usage and avoid wasting resources at any time.
Schedule your cloud solutions
There is no reason to leave your cloud resources running when no one is using them. To avoid this, you can configure your cloud solutions to follow a schedule based on your workloads. For instance, you can set them to become inactive outside of business hours.
Explore different pricing models and services
CSPs offer various pricing schemes that could provide you with major savings in the long run. Take Function-as-a-Service (FaaS), for example. Normally, you are charged for the server and storage space used to run your apps. With FaaS, you are charged per event, such as user input, in your app. If your app doesn’t get a lot of traffic, then using FaaS could help you lower your cloud spend.
Reserved instances are another scheme you can take advantage of. It gives you a big discount if you can commit to a specified usage level over a given period. The discount and the required usage levels tend to vary from one CSP to another. This scheme is perfect if your business’s cloud demands are stable and do not fluctuate unpredictably.
Managing cloud costs isn’t always easy, especially if you’re new to cloud computing. Quicktech is here to make it easy and effective for you. We can help ensure that your cloud infrastructure is configured to maximize its cost-saving benefits and offer recommendations on how to effectively manage your cloud spend.
Get everything you need to know about cloud technology by downloading this free eBook.